Interface

How do I make Claws Mail display my language?

You have to set some environment variables such as LANG, LANGUAGE, LC_CTYPE, LC_MESSAGES to your local language. Usually LANG (or LC_ALL) is sufficient.

I don't like the default font. Can I change that?

Yes. In '/Configuration/Preferences/Display/Fonts'.

There are too many columns in the message list!!

In '/Configuration/Preferences/Display/Summaries/Message List" press the 'Displayed columns' button. That pops up a screen with all the options you can show or leave out of the message list.

Can I use a different editor to write my mails?

Yes you can. In '/Configuration/Preferences/Compose/Writing' select the option 'Automatically launch the external editor'. The editor of your choice can be set in /Configuration/Preferences/Message View/External Programs'. Remember, if you want to use a command line editor like vi or emacs, to write the name of the shell (%term%, %term%, %rxvt%) with the -e parameter in front of the editor. E.g.: rxvt -e vi %s

How to change the font size in the Claws Mail interface?

You can set the GTK+ font by $HOME/.gtkrc-2.0, or $HOME/.gtkrc-2.0.mine, (which is included by $HOME/.gtkrc-2.0). For example

 style "default" {
        font = "-adobe-helvetica-medium-r-normal--12-'''-'''-'''-'''-*-iso8859-1 "
 }
 widget_class "*" style "default"
 

How to automatically show the selected message in the message window?

In the dropbox '/Configuration/Preferences/Display/Summaries/Message list/Open message when selected'. Check 'Always' and it's done.

Claws Mail saves my outgoing mail (in Outbox). Can I make it stop doing that?

In '/Configuration/Preferences/Mail Handling/Send' there's a checkbox "Save sent messages to Sent folder". Uncheck it, and it's solved.

How can I change the key-bindings (hot-keys) in Claws Mail?

That is very simple. First, ensure that the option "Enable customizable menu shortcuts" is enabled on the "Other" preferences page, then, suppose you want to assign a shortcut key to a function, e.g. sending all mail out should start when you press Ctrl-Y. Click the "Message" menu and move the mouse over "Send all messages" (or press Alt+M to unroll the "Message" menu then use the down cursor key to activate this "Send all messages" menu entry). Now you press Ctrl-Y. Immediately the menu text is updated and the function is in place. Please note that a previous function that Ctrl-Y was assigned to, will no longer have a shortcut key. If you want to remove the key binding, do the same thing, but press the "delete" key on the menu-item. Then the key binding is removed.

Also see '/Configuration/Preferences/Other/Miscellanous/Keyboard Shortcuts' where you are able to reset the Default keybindings, or use other predefined keybindings.

Can I close windows without the mouse?

Of course!! Not all windows, but by pressing ESCape, you can close the addressbook, the window of viewing a mail-source (message->view source), the window of viewing the headers, and several others. Just give it a try and you will find all of them.

Can I change the way the date is displayed in the message summary?

Yes. The options are:

%y = year in numbers

%m = month in number

%d = day in numbers

%c = date/time for locale

%A = full weekday name

%a = short weekday name

%B = full month name

%b = short month name

%H = hours in 24-clock

%I = hours in 12-clock.

For more information go '/Configuration/Preferences/Display/Summaries/Message List' and click the 'Information' button to the right of the Date Format entry.

For more options, see man 3 strftime

Why can't I see the compface (X-Face) pictures?

You need to have support for Compface built in. See how to enable compface support in Installation and Configuration.

Why does the URL Launcher not launch my webbrowser?

Check that you have configured your web browser correctly in '/Configuration/Preferences/Message View/External Programs'.

Attachments with spaces in the name won't open!

When you try to launch a helper application, like an image viewer, with an attachment that has spaces in the name, put quotes around the %s parameter. Example: gedit '%s'

How do I change the toolbar?

Go to '/Configuration/Preferences/Toolbars' and which Window's toolbar you want to change (eg. "Main Window"), then select the toolbar item that you wish to change. You can add your own Actions by selecting "Claws Mail Actions Feature" from the event selection box. The width of the toolbar buttons is derived from the longest entry from the "Icon Text" column. If (some of) the buttons are not translated to your native language, try the "Default" button.

Why isn't the next message displayed when I delete a message?

Go to '/Configuration/Preferences/Display/Summaries', and select "Always" in the dropbox "Open message when selected".

What does the "Ignore thread" flag do?

Every message that has the IGNORE THREAD flag will automatically unset the NEW and UNREAD flag. Also every child message of the message will get the flag too. So you won't see any message of this thread as a NEW message anymore after a new mail check. If you are not interested in the subject of a thread you won't be bothered with the mails anymore.

IGNORE THREAD flag can be also checked in Condition of filtering or processing with 'ignore_thread' keyword.

Why doesn't colour labelling work under KDE?

It seems that KDE likes to apply its own color schemes to GTK applications. Try changing/editing/replacing its configuration file ~/.kde/share/config/gtkrc to get better coloring.

KDE likes to map its gui style stettings from QT (on which KDE is built) to GTK (on which GNOME is built). Creating an empty file called ~/.no-qtrc-to-gtkrc-mapping in your home directory stops this. You will need to restart the KDE session for this to take effect.

I had the same problem (running kubuntu 5.10-preview), and to get claws-mail (version 1.9.14) to display the new blue color in the folder view again, the steps described above didn't do it for me. I had to also change one option in the KDE Settings in KDE -> Settings -> Appearances -> GTK Styles and Fonts. Here i had to switch to "use another style: Raleigh". With that it is working. I think this is really a KDE bug, because in the settings tab colors I unchecked the "Apply colors to non-kde-applications" checkbox and it is still doing it for claws-mail. (Markus.Kalb@gmail.com)

How can I remove mailing list information from Subject headers?

Very often, when you are subscribed to a mailing list, you will store each message from that list in a folder dedicated to that list, (this is actually recommended since Claws provides great mailing list handling). Very often too, mailing lists include some words in the Subject header to identify the messages, for instance "[cairo]". These additions do not provide useful info if you have organized your folders as described, but Claws allows you to simplify the displayed Subject by setting the folder property "Simplify Subject Regexp". It is a regular expression that matches the part of the Subjects that you want to remove. In our example you would set it to

   \[cairo\]

This property also affects the way messages are threaded when you have also set the preference "Thread using subject in addition to standard headers".

How do I copy my mail archive to another machine?

You need to copy the .claws-mail directory and your entire local mail archive. Make sure that the timestamps of all the files are preserved or else metadata (read/unread messages, color coding, etc.) might get lost. To preserve the timestamps, use tar, rsync, or unison (with the -times) option.