The folder view shows you all the mail folders that you have created, in a tree-like structure. If you want to see the headers of the messages in a specific folder, just click the name of the folder once, and in the summary view you can see the messages in the selected mail folder.
When you see a + sign in front of a folder name, that means the folder branch of that part of the tree is 'collapsed'. You can expand that part by clicking the + sign. In that same manner you can also collapse the - sign in front of an expanded branch of the folder tree.
Special folders:
Draft: here you store messages that you want to send out more often, or you want to work on some more. Using the 'reedit' option from the message menu, you can edit the message further.
Trash: in here all your deleted messages go. Depending on the common preferences setting, this box is or is not emptied when you end Sylpheed.
The summary pane can show you many things. You can select what you want to see from the Summary menu, selecting the option "Set display item". A list of all options is:
If you think the size of a column is not right, you can adjust that by placing the mouse cursor next to the button of the column you want to adjust, press mouebutton1 (left button) and drag the column to the width you want it to have.
Select a message by clicking on it with the mouse. Once the summary pane has the focus of the program, you can also move up and down in the list through the cursor keys, or pressing "p"(revious) and "n"(ext) as in Pine.
In the message view you can read the message that you selected in the summary pane. If you entered the summary pane without selecting a message, the message view will be empty. At the top of the message view some info is presented about the message you are reading, as well as some statistics on the selected folder.
You can scroll up and down in the message by using the arrow keys (after clicking inside the message), or by using the scrollbar.
The Common Preferences, found in the Configuration menu, shows you the following tabs:
In here you can set up how to receive messages.
In order to set up an account in Sylpheed, in the configuration menu you select "Create new account". If you want to change the settings of an existing account, you select the "Edit accounts..." option from the configuration menu, and there you select the account you want to change. After that you press "edit". Then a dialog appears in which you can enter or update the following areas:
In the "Basic" tab you name the account. This is to make identifying the account easier.
Choose a name that tells something about the account, like the name of the ISP, mailbox or news-server you are setting up. You can select this account to be the default account ("Usually used").
Enter your name and e-mail address, and if you have one, the organization that you use Sylpheed for. In the Protocol box you select the type of service that this account will be using. The flavors you can choose are: POP3 normal, POP3 APOP auth, IMAP4, NNTP news or None (local). In the "inbox" field you can enter the mail folder where the mail for this account will be stored in. This option is disabled when you set up an NNTP News account.
For POP3 and IMAP services you can then specify the server where your mail is stored. Details about this name, and also the name that goes into the field for "SMPT server (send)" should be given to you by your ISP.
For a local unix mailbox, the "Server for receiving" is disabled, since the mail will be received for you.
The fields for User ID and Password will also be disabled for accounts that do no deal with POP3 or IMAP services. Otherwise you can enter the login name and password for the e-mail server with your ISP here. Usually these are the same as your login name and password to access the dial-in service, but this is not standard. If in doubt, contact the helpdesk of your ISP.
The "Receive" tab is only used for POP3 accounts. Here you specify if the mails that were successfully retrieved should be removed from the server. You can also tell Sylpheed to get all the messages there, not only the ones you already received (in case you leave your messages on the server). The third option enables this account to be included when mail is checked for "all accounts" (see the message menu for this), and if the incoming messages should immediately be filtered when received.
In the "Send" tab you can set up some more settings.
In the "Compose" tab you can define your signature file.
In the "Advanced" tab you can edit the portnumbers for the servers you will be using. This normally will need no change.