Editing Drafts (The MH-E Manual)

Next: Aliases, Previous: Sending Mail, Up: The MH-E Manual [Contents][Index]

9 Editing a Draft

When you edit a message that you want to send (called a draft in this case), the mode used is MH-Letter. This mode provides several commands in addition to the normal Emacs editing commands to help you edit your draft. These can also be found in the ‘Letter’ menu.

SPC: Perform completion or insert space (mh-letter-complete-or-space).
M-TAB: Perform completion on header field or word preceding point (mh-letter-complete).
, (comma): Flash alias expansion (mh-letter-confirm-address).
TAB: Cycle to next field (mh-letter-next-header-field-or-indent).
S-TAB: Cycle to the previous header field (mh-letter-previous-header-field).
C-c ?: Display cheat sheet for the MH-E commands (mh-help).
C-c C-c: Save draft and send message (mh-send-letter).
C-c C-d: Insert fields specified by the given identity (mh-insert-identity). See Identities.
C-c C-e: Compose MIME message from MH-style directives (mh-mh-to-mime).
C-c C-f C-a
C-c C-f a: Move to ‘Mail-Reply-To:’ header field (mh-to-field).
C-c C-f C-b
C-c C-f b: Move to ‘Bcc:’ header field (mh-to-field).
C-c C-f C-c
C-c C-f c: Move to ‘Cc:’ header field (mh-to-field).
C-c C-f C-d
C-c C-f d: Move to ‘Dcc:’ header field (mh-to-field).
C-c C-f C-f
C-c C-f f: Move to ‘Fcc:’ header field (mh-to-fcc).
C-c C-f C-l
C-c C-f l: Move to ‘Mail-Followup-To:’ header field (mh-to-field).
C-c C-f C-m
C-c C-f m: Move to ‘From:’ header field (mh-to-field).
C-c C-f C-r
C-c C-f r: Move to ‘Reply-To:’ header field (mh-to-field).
C-c C-f C-s
C-c C-f s: Move to ‘Subject:’ header field (mh-to-field).
C-c C-f C-t
C-c C-f t: Move to ‘To:’ header field (mh-to-field).
C-c C-i: Insert a message (mh-insert-letter).
C-c C-m C-e: Add tag to encrypt the message (mh-mml-secure-message-encrypt).
C-c C-m C-f
C-c C-m f: Add tag to forward a message (mh-compose-forward).
C-c C-m C-g
C-c C-m g: Add tag to include anonymous ftp reference to a file (mh-mh-compose-anon-ftp).
C-c C-m C-i
C-c C-m i: Add tag to include a file such as an image or sound (mh-compose-insertion).
C-c C-m C-m
C-c C-m m: Compose MIME message from MML tags (mh-mml-to-mime).
C-c C-m C-n
C-c C-m n: Remove any secure message tags (mh-mml-unsecure-message).
C-c C-m C-s: Add tag to sign the message (mh-mml-secure-message-sign).
C-c C-m C-t
C-c C-m t: Add tag to include anonymous ftp reference to a compressed tar file (mh-mh-compose-external-compressed-tar).
C-c C-m C-u
C-c C-m u: Undo effects of C-c C-e (mh-mh-to-mime-undo).
C-c C-m C-x
C-c C-m x: Add tag to refer to a remote file (mh-mh-compose-external-type).
C-c C-m e e: Add tag to encrypt the message (mh-mml-secure-message-encrypt).
C-c C-m e s: Add tag to encrypt and sign the message
(mh-mml-secure-message-signencrypt).
C-c C-m s e: Add tag to encrypt and sign the message
(mh-mml-secure-message-signencrypt).
C-c C-m s s: Add tag to sign the message (mh-mml-secure-message-sign).
C-c C-o: Insert a newline and leave point before it (mh-open-line).
C-c C-q: Quit editing and delete draft message (mh-fully-kill-draft).
C-c C-s: Insert signature in message (mh-insert-signature).
C-c C-t: Toggle display of header field at point (mh-letter-toggle-header-field-display).
C-c C-w: Verify recipients, showing expansion of any aliases (mh-check-whom).
C-c C-y: Insert the current message into the draft buffer (mh-yank-cur-msg).
C-c M-d: Insert custom fields if recipient is found in mh-auto-fields-list (mh-insert-auto-fields). See Identities.

Several options from the ‘mh-letter’ customization group are used while editing a draft.

mh-compose-insertion ¶: Type of MIME message tags in messages (default: ‘MML’ if available; otherwise ‘MH’).
mh-compose-skipped-header-fields ¶: List of header fields to skip over when navigating in draft (default: '("From" "Organization" "References" "In-Reply-To" "X-Face" "Face" "X-Image-URL" "X-Mailer").
mh-compose-space-does-completion-flag ¶: On means SPC does completion in message header (default: ‘off’).
mh-delete-yanked-msg-window-flag ¶: On means delete any window displaying the message (default: ‘off’).
mh-extract-from-attribution-verb ¶: Verb to use for attribution when a message is yanked by C-c C-y (default: "wrote:").
mh-ins-buf-prefix ¶: String to put before each line of a yanked or inserted message (default: "> ").
mh-letter-complete-function ¶: Function to call when completing outside of address or folder fields (default: ispell-complete-word).
mh-letter-fill-column ¶: Fill column to use in MH-Letter mode (default: 72).
mh-mml-method-default ¶: Default method to use in security tags (default: ‘PGP (MIME)’ if support for it is available; otherwise ‘None’).
mh-signature-file-name ¶: Source of user’s signature (default: "~/.signature").
mh-signature-separator-flag ¶: On means a signature separator should be inserted (default: ‘on’).
mh-x-face-file ¶: File containing X-Face or Face header field to insert in outgoing mail. (default: "~/.face").
mh-yank-behavior ¶: Controls which part of a message is yanked by C-c C-y (default: ‘Body With Attribution’).

The following hooks are available.

mail-citation-hook ¶: Hook for modifying a citation just inserted in the mail buffer (default: nil).
mh-before-send-letter-hook ¶: Hook run at the beginning of the C-c C-c command (default: ‘nil’).
mh-mh-to-mime-hook ¶: Hook run on the formatted letter by C-c C-e (default: ‘nil’).
mh-insert-signature-hook ¶: Hook run by C-c C-s after signature has been inserted (default: nil).

The following face is available.

mh-letter-header-field ¶: Editable header field value face in draft buffers.

The commands and options introduced here are explained in more detail in the following sections.