E-Mail with Evolution

E-Mail with Evolution

Using Evolution as an e-mail client and not using any of its other features is probably silly. It’s amazing. It does everything. It probably has a hidden “bring about world peace” menu item. It does calendar stuff; it does everything. But if you can’t read your e-mail in it, who cares? After you have your e-mail running, you can explore the other stuff at your leisure.

Follow these steps to set up e-mail in Evolution.

1. 
   

   
   Select Tools�Settings.
   

   
   

   The Settings window opens.

   
   


2. 
   

   
   Click the Mail Accounts button on the left side.
   

   
   


3. 
   

   
   Click the Add button on the right side of the window.
   

   
   

   A wizard starts that is somewhat similar to the one Mozilla uses to ask you all the questions it needs answers to.

   
   


4. 
   

   
   Click Next.
   

   
   


5. 
   

   
   Enter your name and e-mail address, and then click Next.
   

   
   

   The Reply-To and Organization fields are optional. Organization is generally the organization you’re associated with — your employer, for work e-mail. Reply-To is a special e-mail header used to tell people where to send replies to your mail. You only set it if you want replies to go to an address other than the e-mail address you entered, and you probably don’t have any reason to do that.

   
   


6. 
   

   
   Select the POP option from the pop-up list of server types.
   

   
   

   New fields appear.
   

   
   


7. 
   

   
   Enter your host name and account name, and then click Next.
   

   
   

   As always, the host name is the one your ISP gave you and is your inbound mail server. If your ISP requires or supports SSL connections, you can change the Use Secure Connection option, but most ISPs won’t. As always, we don’t recommend that you have the program remember your password. Get used to typing it. Evolution supports a number of authentication types. You probably don’t need to know anything about these; password works at most ISPs. If it seems to be a problem, try clicking the Check for Supported Types button. (This button is only available after you enter the host name.)

   
   


8. 
   

   
   Change settings if you want, and then click Next.
   

   
   

   The settings are probably best left alone. Checking automatically for mail can be very annoying. Leaving mail on the server is only useful if you use multiple e-mail clients, and you want to read the same mail several times.

   
   


9. 
   

   
   Enter the name of your outgoing mail server, and then click Next.
   

   
   

   This is the same drill as before. Again, Evolution has tons of options. If your ISP requires POP before SMTP, this is the panel to enter it on; select the Server Requires Authentication option, and select the POP before SMTP option from the pop-up list.

   
   


10. 
    

    
    Name this account, make it your default, and click Next.
    

    
    

    This is like the account names in Mozilla — anything you want is fine. A lot of people like creative names such as “work” or “home”. If it’s your only account, you may as well select the Make This My Default Account check box.

    
    


11. 
    

    
    Click Finish.
    

    
    

    That’s it! You’re done.

    
    

You can close the Settings window and start checking and reading your mail. Evolution has a single button for sending outgoing mail and grabbing incoming mail. This feature allows you to compose responses and get new mail as soon as you try to send them all off. If you’re trading mail with enough people, you may never have to work again!