Getting Started
This is a short introduction to and its usage so you can start working with it right away. For more in-depth information see the Using section. Note that 's installation is described in the appendix.
Invoking for the first time creates a directory called Mail containing the initial files (inbox, outbox, sent-mail, trash and drafts) in your home directory. Use Settings Configure ... to enter some initial information so will be able to properly retrieve and send your messages.
The Configure window consists of six sections: Identity, Network, Appearance, Composer, Security, and Miscellaneous.
To begin sending and receiving messages you will only have to change the settings in the Identity and Network pages.

Setting your Identity
The settings in the Identity page are fairly straightforward. Fill in the Name field with your full name (⪚ John Doe) and the Organization field (optional) with the appropriate information. Next, fill in the Email Address field with your email address (⪚ john@somewhere.org). If you are using PGP or GnuPG you need to set your key in the OpenPGP Key field in the Advanced tab. Optionally, go to the Signature tab and enter your signature.

Setting up your Account
The Network page contains the settings that tell how to send and receive your email messages. Many of these settings can vary greatly depending on the setup of your system and on the kind of network that your mail server is located. If you do not know what setting to choose or what to put in a field, consult your Internet Service Provider (ISP) or system administrator.

Sending Messages
The Sending tab provides a list of ways to send messages. The first item in the list is the default way to send messages. Using the Add... button you can choose between two different ways of sending messages: sendmail and SMTP. here means a local software installation - this has a reputation of being difficult to set up, so if you do not already have a working configuration, choose SMTP and fill in the Name field with a descriptive name (⪚ My Mail Account) and the Host field with the name and domain of your mail server (⪚ smtp.provider.com). You will probably not need to change the Port setting (the default is 25).
If you do want to use and you are using a dial-up connection, follow the instructions for setting up sendmail for a dial-up connection in the Frequently Asked Questions () section.
The way of sending messages configured here will be used for your default identity and for all other identities that have no own way of sending messages. You can use different ways of sending messages for different identities by selecting the Special transport checkbox in the Advanced tab of the Identity section.
A description of the other options can be found in the Configuration chapter.

Receiving Messages
To set up an account so you can receive mail, press the Add... button in the Receiving tab. You will then be prompted for the type of account. Most users should select Pop3 or IMAP. If you want to use a local mailbox file, please see the FAQ about file locking.
You will then be presented with the Add Account window. First, fill in the Name field to name your account. You can choose any name you like. Login, Password, and Host should be filled in with the appropriate information from your ISP or system administrator. You should not need to change the Port setting (the default for POP3 is 110, the default for IMAP is 143).

Options only relevant to IMAP
If you are using IMAP, you can optionally specify a path in the Prefix to folders field. This tells where it can find your folders on the server. If you also have a shell account on the server and the messages are stored in your home directory it might be useful to store the messages in a subdirectory /Mail/. Use this as a value in the Prefix to folders field so that does not mix up mailbox files and other files. If you are not interested in this feature, simple leave the field blank.
If you check Automatically compact folders removes the messages you deleted from the server as soon as you leave a folder. Otherwise the messages are only marked as deleted and it is up to you to compact the folders manually by using the menu item Compact All Folders.
If you check Show hidden folders, folders whose name starts with a dot are also displayed.

Options only relevant to POP3
Select Delete mail from server if you don't want to leave your messages on the server after you downloaded it.
Select Exclude from "Check Mail" if you don't want to check this account whenever you use Check Mail. You can still check for new messages on this account with File Check Mail In.
Select Enable interval mail checking if you want to check for new messages automatically. The interval can be specified below under Check interval (minutes).
inbox is the default folder for incoming mail. If you want to change that for some reason, you can do so with Destination folder. But what you probably want is a filter, which has nothing to do with this option.
With Precommand you can specify any program that will execute just before fetching mail. Please specify the full path (don't use ~) and note that will not continue until the program returns.
On the Extras tab you can select Use pipelining for faster mail download if this is supported by your server. You should carefully test this to make sure it works safely.

Options for both IMAP and POP3
If you select Store POP password in configuration file resp. Store IMAP password in configuration file will remember your password so you won't have to type it every time you start and fetch new mail.
Be warned that cannot really encrypt your password, so people who can access your configuration files (⪚ system administrators) can easily get your password if you select this option.
supports encryption via SSL and TLS (TLS should be preferred if it is available).
For POP3 supports:
Clear text,
PLAIN,
LOGIN,
CRAM-MD5 (recommended if DIGEST-MD5 is not available),
DIGEST-MD5 (recommended) and
APOP authentication.
DIGEST-MD5, CRAM-MD5 and APOP are secure on their own, the other options are only secure when used together with SSL or TLS. You should only use Clear text if your server doesn't support any of the other authentication methods. Additionally, for IMAP Anonymous is supported, but APOP is not. Use the Check what the server supports button on the Extras resp. Security tab to automatically select the most secure settings supported by your server.
You are now ready to send and receive mail. For IMAP, click on the + sign in the folder tree in 's main window. then connects to your server and displays the folders it finds. For POP3 use File Check Mail.

Testing your Setup
First, you should send yourself a message to test your configuration. To send a message, hit N, select the New Message icon (the empty sheet of paper) or select the Message New Message... menu item. The composer window will appear. Fill in the To: field with your email address and type something in the Subject field. Send the message by selecting Message Send .
To check your email, select File Check Mail. In the lower right corner of the main window, a progress bar will indicate how many messages are being downloaded. If you receive the message you just sent, then congratulations! If, however, you receive any error messages while testing your setup, make sure that your network connection is working and recheck your settings by selecting Settings Configure ....