commands/communication/mail  Nanvaent Player Help

NAME
     mail - Send mail to someone

USAGE
     mail <person>

DESCRIPTION
     Nanvaent has a built in mailer which you can use in any post office.
     It does not communicate with the Internet; only people within Nanvaent
     can receive and send mail using this system.

     Reading Mail:

     To read mail you need to find a post office. Once there use the
     command 'mail' or 'read' to start the mailer. You will be shown a list
     of your mail folders and how many messages in each, then a list of
     your last few messages in your inbox.

     The prompt gives you a list of commands available, the ? command will
     give you a quick reference as to what each command does. For simple
     reading you can just press return at the prompt and the current mail
     will be shown, which is usually the first unread mail in the current
     folder. The current message will be moved on, so pressing return will
     show the next message, and so on.

     To exit the mailer you can use either 'q' or 'x'. The difference being
     'x' will ignore any messages marked for deletion, so if you made
     mistakes deleting mail you can exit using 'x' and they will not get
     deleted.


     Sending Mail:

     Sending mail can either be done from the mailer prompt or straight
     from the normal Nanvaent prompt by typing 'mail burty', for example. At
     the mailer prompt simply 'm burty' is acceptable. More than one person
     can be specified, for example 'm burty, aragorn'.

     You will then be prompted for the Cc field. This is a list of people
     you also want to send the mail to. The next prompt will be for the
     Subject of the mail.

     Then comes the fun part, writing your message using the infamous
     editor 'ed'. You should be able to type in your message right away,
     remembering to press enter before the end of the line. When you have
     finished, enter a '.' on a line by itself, then at the ed prompt
     type 'x'.

     You will then be prompted for what to do next. You can either send the
     mail, re-edit it, or quit which leaves the message in a draft folder
     for editing later. Pressing return will send it.


     Replying to/Forwarding Mail:

     The commands 'r' and 'R' will reply to either the current mail, or the
     mail you specify, for example 'r 16' will reply to message number
     16. The difference between 'r' and 'R' is that 'R' will only reply to
     the sender of the mail and not other people in the To or Cc
     fields. The new message will automatically include a copy of the mail
     you are replying to, indented with >'s.

     Forwarding a mail message can be done with the 'f' command, for
     example 'f burty, aragorn' will forward the current message to Burty
     and Aragorn. Note that you can only forward the current message, so
     change to that message first by typing the number.


     Other useful stuff:

     Using folders can be useful to organise your mail. The 'c' command
     will change the current folder, or create a new one if you type one
     that doesn't already exist. For example 'c burty' will create a folder
     called 'burty' to put all your important mail in :-)

     Moving messages can be done with the 's' command. For example,
     's 10 burty' will move message 10 into the folder called 'burty' and
     's -from burty burty' will move all messages from Burty into a folder
     called 'burty'. See the section on Ranges for more info on this.

     To delete a message use the 'd' command. For example, 'd 10-15' will
     mark messages 10-15 for deletion, however, they will only get deleted
     when you exit the mailer with the 'q' command. Folders may be deleted
     with the same command, e.g. 'd drafts' will delete your drafts folder,
     and all the messages in it.

     Messages can be unmarked as deleted with the 'u' command.

     To list your folders and how many messages are in them, use the 'l'
     command. This will show how many unread messages are in each folder
     too.

     To re-edit a message you can use the 'e' command. So if you have a
     message you left in your drafts folder you could 'c drafts' then 'e 2'
     and edit the message and send it.

     The headers command 'h' can be used to view the headers of messages,
     like when you start the mailer. 'h' on its own will list the last few
     messages in the current folder, but you may give it a range argument,
     such as 'h 1-6'.


     Ranges:

     Most of the commands available can be given a range of messages. There
     are various ways you can specify a range. Here are some examples.

         1             - A single message
         3-7           - A simple range
         2 4-8 9 13    - A more complex range
         10-           - From message 10 to the end including all messages
         *             - All messages in the current folder
         -from burty   - All messages with the word 'burty' somewhere in
                         the from field
         -subject gm   - All messages with the word 'gm' in the subject
                         field

     Note that the words passed to -from or -subject are not case
     sensitive.


     Mailing Lists:

     You can list the possible mailing lists with the command 'M'. To list
     a particular list use 'M name'. When mailing to a list use #name in
     the to field. For example, 'm #lords' will send a mail to all Lords.


     Options:

     There are a few options available to edit too. Use the 'O' command and
     follow the prompts. The following things can be configured:

         * The name of your inbox folder.
         * The name of the draft messages folder.
         * The name of your saved messages folder.
         * A flag to say whether all the mail you send should be kept in
           your saved messages folder.
         * The number of messages to show when you start the mailer.
           This is so you can get them to fit on your screen well.

SEE ALSO
     communicating