Reading a Message¶

This page documents the reader pane — the region that shows the message you are currently reading. It is the bottom (or right-hand) part of the main window, and the same view fills a message tab or window when you open a message that way.

Select a message in the message list and it appears here. View ▸ Reader Pane decides whether the pane is shown and whether it sits beside or below the list; F8 toggles it. See Look and layout.

Anatomy of the pane¶

The pane is laid out top to bottom:

1. The subject, as a heading, with the signature seal before it. The small text size buttons sit above it, in the pane's top right corner.
2. A header with the sender, the recipients, the date, and a Details toggle.
3. A line with the spam verdict and the attachment list, when the message has either.
4. The message body.
5. A notification box that slides in when there is something to download or confirm.

Header fields¶

Fields that do not apply to the current message are hidden.

The spam line reads Probably spam or Definitely spam with the score as a percentage, or carries the verdict you or the server gave: Marked as junk, Sender blacklisted, Marked as not junk, Sender whitelisted, or Not junk — you replied. A message that scores low shows no spam line at all.

For a message in a department, rows under the header name the members who have seen, replied to and forwarded it.

Signature¶

The seal before the subject tells whether the message is signed, and whether its signature holds:

Hover the seal for the details. A signature that verifies names who signed — signed by alice@example.com; a message a member signed for a department or an alias names both — bob@example.com for sales@example.com. A red or grey seal names the address its certificate gives.

Click a red or grey seal for Verify again, which checks the signature once more and redraws the seal.

The body and the attachments of a signed message are the ones its signature covers. Signing Messages has the whole picture, from the sender's choice to the seal.

Sender and recipient actions¶

The sender and every recipient are interactive. Click a recipient to start a new message to that address. Right-click the sender or a recipient to open its menu:

Delivery status (Follow Delivery)¶

When delivery tracking is on for a message (see Follow Delivery), each recipient can carry a small status marker next to its address:

Marker	Meaning
green ✔	The event succeeded (e.g. delivered / read).
orange ●	In progress / pending.
red ✘	The event failed.

Click a marker to see the full list of delivery events recorded for that recipient.

Attachments¶

When a message has attachments, they are listed under the header, with their count. Each file shows a badge with its type, its name and its size, and carries a Save button of its own.

By default, attachments download as soon as the message arrives. If you have switched to downloading on demand, large attachments and message bodies may not be downloaded yet; see Downloading on demand below.

Fetching just one piece¶

When downloading on demand, you do not have to pull a whole message down to read part of it. Inside the reader:

• A body that has not been downloaded shows a placeholder with its own Download button, which fetches only the body and leaves the attachments alone.
• An attachment that has not been downloaded is listed greyed out; clicking it fetches only that file.

Use these when a message carries one small document among several large ones — or when you only want to read what was written.

The message body¶

The body is rendered as HTML (or plain text). Remote content and links are handled carefully:

• Click a link to open it in your browser. A link to an e-mail address opens a new message in the compose window instead, with the recipients, subject and text the link carries already filled in.
• Right-click a link to Copy link target; right-click an image to Copy source url.
• The body's right-click menu also offers Copy for selected text, Print, Reload, View Source for the rendered page, and View MIME Source for the raw message.
• Find in message — press Ctrl+F to open the find bar at the top of the message. It counts the matches and steps through them with its arrows.

Text size¶

The small A− (Decrease text size) and A+ (Increase text size) buttons in the top right corner of the pane, above the subject, make everything in the pane smaller or larger, one step per click: the subject, the header and the message body alike.

Holding Ctrl while turning the mouse wheel over the pane does the same, one step per notch: away from you is larger, towards you is smaller.

Ctrl+- and Ctrl++ do the same from anywhere in the window, on the main keys or on the numeric keypad, and Ctrl+0 restores the normal size.

Apps in a message¶

A message can be an app that someone sent you. The reader pane shows it like any other message: its headers on top and, as its body, a short description of the app. Once the app is ready, the body area of the same page runs the app itself, below the message's headers. Double-click the message to open it in a tab of its own, as you would any message.

While you work in the app, the keys you press go to the app — Ctrl+F, Ctrl+R, Ctrl+L and Ctrl+P included. Ctrl+1 through Ctrl+7 still jump to the prime folders.

The app runs once both the message and the app have reached your computer. Until then the notification box says what it is waiting for:

Running an app someone sent you¶

An app sent by someone your mailbox already trusts to sign apps runs without asking: the notification box reads This app is not instantiated (yet). until the app arrives, and the app then starts in the message's body area.

An app from anyone else asks before it runs. The notification box reads sent you an email-scoped app — do you want to run it? with two buttons:

• Accept runs the app. The box then reads You accepted to run this app. It opens once it has been instantiated., and the message's body area runs the app as soon as it is ready.
• Reject closes the box. The message stays where it is, nothing is sent, and the box asks again the next time you open the message.

While the box reads sent you an email-scoped app. Waiting on blobs…, both buttons are disabled: the app's files are still on their way, and the box asks as soon as they have arrived.

An app you sent¶

Your own copy of a message in which you sent an app shows, in a notification box of its own, where each recipient stands:

With several recipients the box names those who accepted, then each one whose mailbox rejected the app with its reason, then those it is still waiting for.

Downloading on demand¶

By default, the app downloads attachments as soon as a message arrives. To save bandwidth and space, turn off Automatically download attachments from everyone under Options ▸ General ▸ Connection: the body and attachments of a message are then fetched on demand. When the open message still has content to come, the notification box appears at the bottom of the pane with an explanation and an action button. What it says depends on where that content stands:

The Download button also offers a small menu:

Dismiss the box with its ✕ button.

Two more notices can appear in the same place:

• Caution: This is a draft message that has not yet been sent! — you are reading something out of Drafts.
• Caution: Missing blob data for message! — the local copy of the body or an attachment has gone missing from disk.

Read receipts¶

If a message requests a read receipt (disposition notification), the notification box reports The following has asked for a read receipt: … with a Send Receipt button. The button opens a menu:

Your always choices are remembered and can be reviewed under Options ▸ Connection via List Recipients.

Printing¶

Print (Ctrl+P) opens the print dialog. The printed page carries a header block — Type, From, Subject, Date, To, Cc, and Bcc, omitting whatever the message does not have — followed by the body as rendered.

Viewing the raw message¶

For the raw, on-the-wire form of a message, use Show MIME Source (Ctrl+U) from the message list's context menu.

Acting on the open message¶

The actions in the main toolbar operate on whatever is shown in the pane. They can also be moved off the main strip onto a small toolbar attached to the reader itself — right-click the toolbar area and pick Show message actions beside the message (Customising the toolbars).

Action	Icon	Shortcut
Reply		Ctrl+R
Reply all		Ctrl+Shift+R
Forward		Ctrl+L
Delete		Del
Print		Ctrl+P
New using same content / recipients		Ctrl+E
Export to file		Ctrl+S

For a message in a department, Delete is available to the department's admins only; in a tab or window opened on such a message it is greyed out for anyone else, and Del does nothing. See Acting on a selection.

Keyboard shortcuts¶

Icon reference¶

Function	Icon
Save / Save All
Reply / Reply all / Forward
Delete
Print
New using existing