35.4.2 Mail Header Editing

Mail mode provides special commands to move to particular header fields and to complete addresses in headers.

C-c C-f C-t

Move to the ‘To’ header field, creating one if there is none (mail-to).

C-c C-f C-s

Move to the ‘Subject’ header field, creating one if there is none (mail-subject).

C-c C-f C-c

Move to the ‘CC’ header field, creating one if there is none (mail-cc).

C-c C-f C-b

Move to the ‘BCC’ header field, creating one if there is none (mail-bcc).

C-c C-f C-r

Move to the ‘Reply-To’ header field, creating one if there is none (mail-reply-to).

C-c C-f C-a

Move to the ‘Mail-Reply-To’ header field, creating one if there is none (mail-mail-reply-to).

C-c C-f C-l

Move to the ‘Mail-Followup-To’ header field, creating one if there is none (mail-mail-followup-to).

C-c C-f C-f

Add a new ‘FCC’ header field, with file-name completion (mail-fcc).

M-<TAB>

Complete a mailing address (mail-complete).

There are several commands to move point to particular header fields, all based on the prefix C-c C-f (‘C-f’ is for “field”). They are listed in the table above. If the field in question does not exist, these commands create one (the exception is mail-fcc, which creates a new field each time). We provide special motion commands for these particular fields because they are the fields users most often want to edit.

While editing a header field that contains mailing addresses, such as ‘To:’, ‘CC:’ and ‘BCC:’, you can complete a mailing address by typing M-<TAB> (mail-complete). It inserts the full name corresponding to the address, if it can determine the full name. The variable mail-complete-style controls whether to insert the full name, and what style to use, as in mail-from-style (see Mail Headers). (If your window manager defines M-<TAB> to switch windows, you can type <ESC> <TAB> or C-M-i.)

For completion purposes, the valid mailing addresses are taken to be the local users' names plus your personal mail aliases (see Mail Aliases). You can specify additional sources of valid addresses; browse the customization group ‘mailalias’ to see the variables for customizing this feature (see Customization Groups).

If you type M-<TAB> in the body of the message, or on a unrecognized header, mail-complete invokes the function specified by mail-complete-function. By default, this is ispell-complete-word, as in Text mode.