You can take three basic actions with a mail message:
leave it alone, delete it, or refile it to another folder.
exmh automatically advances to the next message after you delete or
refile the current message.
This makes it easy to go through your mail messages, deleting
and refiling as you go.
Several settings under the Scan Listing preferences
section control the behavior of exmh when reading mail.
("Scan listing" is another name for the table of contents window.)
Some of these settings are mentioned below.
Like xmh, exmh handles delete and refile operations in two steps.
In the first step you mark a message as needing some action.
Later, you commit these changes by pressing the
Commit button or by pressing <Control-Return>.
Unlike xmh, however, exmh requires that you commit
changes before you view a different folder.
Marked messages are highlighted in the table of contents,
as described above.
If you reselect a message marked for refiling, the destination
folder for that message is shown in the Status line.
To delete a message, use the Delete button or press d.
Delete results in a call to rmm.
If you want deleted messages to be refiled into a special folder (e.g.,
+wastebasket or +deleted), you'll have to define a shell script
and register that as your
rmmproc
in your MH profile.
Tip: If you press D to delete a message,
exmh advances to the next message
without displaying it.
This is a quick way to clean up a folder.
To refile a message, click the third button on the destination folder.
This marks the current message(s) for refile to that folder
and leaves the folder selected as the current target folder.
If the right target is already selected, then you can use the
Move button or type m to refile the message
and advance to the next message.
Tip:
If you press M to refile, exmh advances but doesn't display the next
message.
If you make a mistake, you can unmark a message
with the Unmark (Undo) entry on the message More... menu.
This operation applies to the currently selected message(s), not
necessarily to the last message you marked for deletion or
refiling.
If you want to change the disposition of a message -- for example, to refile
instead of delete it -- you don't need to unmark the message first.
Just select it and take the new action.
Tip: Use - (minus) to back up to a message you just marked
and u to unmark the message.
To link the current message(s) into a folder, hold the Shift key
down as you click the third button on the desination folder label.
If the correct folder is already selected as the target,
you can also use the Link button.
If you use Link frequently, you should adjust the Scan Listing
preferences item for Advance after Link.
If you turn this off, the current message remains selected after a
Link; that makes it easier to link a message into multiple folders.
The Auto Commit preferences item
causes exmh to automatically commit your changes
when you change folders, sort or pack a folder,
or quit the program.
Without auto commit, you will be prompted to commit when
you try to take one of these actions
and have messages still marked to be deleted or refiled.
Auto Commit also commits changes when you close
the main window.
The message viewed after a Delete or Move is usually
the next message.
However, if you set the Implied Direction preference item,
exmh will remember your last Next or Prev action -- and
move that direction after a Delete or Move.
This means it's just as convenient to go backward through a folder
as to go forward -- although it might catch you by surprise.
The skip marked msgs preference item controls whether Next
and Prev take you to a message marked for deletion or refiling, or
whether those messages are skipped.
Remember the handy - (minus) key binding, which takes you to the
previous message even if it is marked.
When you're at the end of a folder, exmh can take
you to the next folder that has unseen messages in it.
(More than one folder will have unseen messages if
you
filter mail into different folders as it arrives.
Just press the Next button; exmh will change folders
for you.
If you have marked messages, however, exmh will remind you.
At this point you can press the Commit button -- or, if you have
auto-commit enabled, then you can press the Next button again to
trigger the commit and folder change.
If you always want to be warned before an automatic folder
change, enable the Next Guard preference item.
With this enabled, you have to click Next twice (or type n
twice) to get the automatic folder change.
After you click Next the first time, exmh tells you what folder
you'll go to when you click Next again.
The final twist on automatic folder changing is that,
by default, exmh automatically
changes back to your "first" folder if no more folders have
unseen messages.
You can disable this feature with the
Cycle back to first preference item.
The default Folder-Order: profile entry (see
the Section MH Profile)
defines inbox to be the first folder.
So, ordinarily, you'll change back there.