Balsa User's Guide
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# The Preferences Window

Balsa has many more options than the initial druid reveals. To access the configuration window, select Settings->Preferences. You will see a notebook. The tabs and options are explained below.

## Identity

This page lets you specify how you present yourself to the rest of the world.

Your Name

  This doesn't have to be your name, I guess. But it's the word prefixing your email address in mail you send.

E-Mail address

  As you wish it to appear in your "From" header.

Reply-To address

  The address that you wish people to reply to your email with (if you have a home and a work address, for instance).

## Signature

Use this page to set up signature files and how Balsa will use them in your messages

Use Signature File When

  Sending Mail

    Include the signature file when sending email.

  Replying to Mail

    Include the signature file when replying to mail

  Forwarding Mail

    Include the signature file when forwarding mail

Signature file

  The file to append to all your messages. You also get to control when the signature is appended.

Reply Prefix

  The character sequence to prefix quoted lines in a reply with

Enable Signature Separator

  When checked, this has Balsa insert the standard signature separator before your signature.

## Mail Servers

This page lets you specify how you get remove POP3 mail, send mail, etc.

Remote Mailbox Servers

  These are POP3 servers that you receive email from. The three buttons let you create, modify, and remove records. POP3 mailboxes will not show up in the mailbox list.

Local Mail Directory

  This is the directory that Balsa will scan looking for mail folders.

Remote SMTP Server

  If your computer is not equipped with sendmail or you do not wish to use it, select this radio button and enter a host name to contact via SMTP.

Local Mail User Agent

  Balsa will attempt to use sendmail to send mail. Unfortunately, you cannot specify the command to execute right now.

## Mail Options

Use this page to set the Balsa's behaviour regarding incoming and outgoing messages.

### Incoming

Check Mail Automatically

  If selected, Balsa will connect to your POP3 servers at the given interval and check for mail.

  > Note: Using "0" as an interval is a really bad idea.

### Outgoing

Wrap Outgoing Text

  Have Balsa wrap all outgoing mail at the specified column.

Default Bcc

  An address to Blind Carbon Copy to on all emails.

## Display

This page controls how Balsa appears to you.

Use Preview Pane

  Set whether to use the preview pane to display messages, or rely on the separate mail viewing window.

Show Mailbox Info

  If Balsa was compiled with --enable-info, this will allow the number of total and unread messages for each mailbox to be shown in the left pane of the Balsa main window.

Toolbars

  Use this to determine whether Balsa's toolbars display only text, only icons, or both text and icons.

Display Progress

  This sets the behaviour of the dialog that is shown when Balsa retrieves messages from it's specified POP3 servers. The dialog can be shown only while the messages are being retrieved, automatically closing after Balsa is finished. Or it can be set to stay active until manually closed. Finally, the dialog can not be displayed at all.

Date Encoding

  Set the format used to display dates in Balsa. This uses the same format string as `strftime`, a summary which is provided below:

  - `%a` — The abbreviated weekday name.

  - `%A` — The full weekday name.

  - `%b` — The abbreviated month name.

  - `%B` — The full month name.

  - `%d` — The day of the month.

  - `%R` — The time using a 24-hour clock. (HH:MM)

  - `%r` — The time using a 12-hour clock (HH:MM AM/PM).

  - `%T` — The time using a 24-hour clock, with seconds (HH:MM:SS).

  > Tip: See the `strftime` manual page for a full listing of conversion specifiers.

Displayed Headers

  A space-separated list of the headers to display in the message window.

## Printing

Print Command

  The command executed when the print button is pressed. The message text in the command is signified by "%s".

Break Line

  Whether to break the output line at a specified column, or to let the printing program do the wrapping to the page.

## Encoding

Set Balsa's character set encoding.

Charset

  A string representing the character set for Balsa to use to use by default.

Encoding

  Set the character encoding method to either 7 bit, 8 bit, or what the quoted message is using.

## Misc

Debug

  Set the display of debugging output to the console.

Empty Trash on Exit

  Set Balsa to delete all messages in the Trash mailbox when Balsa exits.

Preview Pane Font

  The font used to display the text of the message in the preview pane.

Unread Mailbox Colour

  Set the colour of mailboxes that contain unread messages.

## Startup

Check Mail at Startup

  If set, Balsa will automatically attempt to download mail from the POP3 mail server upon startup.

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The Message Composer |  | Common Tasks with Balsa