aboutsummaryrefslogtreecommitdiffstats
path: root/doc/aerc-tutorial.7.scd
blob: af49c8a1e6be46e574732db770f2ee5c1ca52acb (plain) (blame)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
AERC-TUTORIAL(7)

# NAME

aerc-tutorial - tutorial for *aerc*(1)

# INTRODUCTION

Welcome to aerc! This tutorial will guide you through your first steps in using
the client. This tutorial is a man page - you can read it again later with
*:help tutorial* from aerc, or *man aerc-tutorial* from your terminal.

First, let's introduce some basic keybindings. For convention, we'll use *<C-p>*
to represent _Ctrl+p_, which matches the convention used for writing keybindings
for aerc.

*<C-p>*, *<C-n>*
	Cycles to the previous or next tab

Try using these now to switch between your message list and the tutorial. In
your message list, we use vim-style keys to get around.

*k*, *j*
	Scrolls up and down between messages

*<C-u>*, *<C-d>*
	Scrolls half a page up or down

*g*, *G*
	Selects the first or last message, respectively

*K*, *J*
	Switches between folders in the sidebar

*<Enter>*
	Opens the selected message

You can also search the selected folder with */*, or filter with *\\ *. When
searching you can use *n* and *p* to jump to the next and previous result.
Filtering hides any non-matching message.

# THE MESSAGE VIEWER

Press *<Enter>* to open a message. By default, the message viewer will display
your message using *less*(1). This should also have familiar, vim-like
keybindings for scrolling around in your message.

Multipart messages (messages with attachments, or messages with several
alternative formats) show a part selector on the bottom of the message viewer.

*<C-k>*, *<C-j>*
	Cycle between parts of a multipart message

*q*
	Close the message viewer

To show HTML messages, uncomment the _text/html_ filter in your _aerc.conf_
file (which is probably in _~/.config/aerc/_) and install its dependencies:
*w3m* and *dante-utils*.

You can also do many tasks you could do in the message list from here, like
replying to emails, deleting the email, or view the next and previous message
(*J* and *K*).

# COMPOSING MESSAGES

Return to the message list by pressing *q* to dismiss the message viewer. Once
there, let's compose a message.

*C*
	Compose a new message

*rr*
	Reply-all to a message

*rq*
	Reply-all to a message, and pre-fill the editor with a quoted version of the
	message being replied to

*Rr*
	Reply to a message

*Rq*
	Reply to a message, and pre-fill the editor with a quoted version of the
	message being replied to

For now, let's use *C* to compose a new message. The message composer will
appear. You should see To, From, and Subject lines, as well as your *$EDITOR*.
You can use *<Tab>* or *<C-j>* and *<C-k>* to cycle between these fields (tab
won't cycle between fields once you enter the editor, but *<C-j>* and *<C-k>*
will).

Let's send an email to yourself. Note that the To and From headers expect RFC
5322 addresses, e.g. *John Doe <john@example.org>*, or simply
*<john@example.org>*. Separate multiple recipients with commas. Go ahead and
fill out an email, then close the editor.

The message review screen is shown next. You have a chance now to revise the
email before it's sent. Press *y* to send the email if it looks good.

*Note*: when using the terminal in the message view, you can summon aerc's ex
command line by using *<C-x>*. *:* is sent to the editor.

# USING THE TERMINAL

aerc comes with an embedded terminal, which you've already used to view and edit
emails. We can also use this for other purposes, such as referencing a git
repository while reviewing a patch. From the message list, we can use the
following keybindings to open a terminal:

*<C-t>*
	Opens a new terminal tab, running your shell

*$*, *!*
	Prompts for a command to run, then opens a new terminal tab running that
	command

*|*
	Prompts for a command to run, then pipes the selected email into that
	command and displays the result on a new terminal tab

Try pressing *$* and entering _top_. You can also use the *:cd* command to
change aerc's working directory, and the directory in which new terminals run.
Use *:pwd* to see it again if you're not sure where you are.

# ADDITIONAL NOTES

## COMMANDS

Every keybinding is ultimately bound to an aerc command. You can also summon the
command line by pressing *:*, then entering one of these commands. See *aerc*(1)
or *:help* for a full list of commands.

## MESSAGE FILTERS

When displaying messages in the message viewer, aerc will pipe them through a
message filter first. This allows you to decode messages in non-plaintext
formats, add syntax highlighting, etc. aerc ships with a few default filters:

- _text/plain_ parts are piped through the _colorized_ built-in filter which
  handles URL, quotes and diff coloring.
- _text/calendar_ is processed to be human readable text
- _text/html_ (disabled by default) can be uncommented to pipe through the
  built-in _html_ filter.

## CUSTOMIZING AERC

Aerc is highly customizable. Review *aerc-config*(5) (or use *:help config*) to
learn more about how to add custom keybindings, install new message filters,
change its appearance and behavior, and so on.

# AUTHORS

Originally created by Drew DeVault <sir@cmpwn.com> and maintained by Robin
Jarry <robin@jarry.cc> who is assisted by other open source contributors. For
more information about aerc development, see https://sr.ht/~rjarry/aerc/.