mh-e: Editing Message
9.1 Editing the Message
=======================
Because the header is part of the message, you can edit the header
fields as you wish. However, several convenience commands exist to help
you create and edit them. For example, the command ‘C-c C-f C-t’
(‘mh-to-field’; alternatively, ‘C-c C-f t’) moves the cursor to the
‘To:’ header field, creating it if necessary. The commands for moving
to the ‘Cc:’, ‘Subject:’, ‘From:’, ‘Reply-To:’, ‘Mail-Reply-To:’,
‘Mail-Followup-To’, ‘Bcc:’, and ‘Dcc:’ header fields are similar.
One command behaves differently from the others, namely, ‘C-c C-f
C-f’ (‘mh-to-fcc’; alternatively, ‘C-c C-f f’). This command will
prompt you for the folder name in which to file a copy of the draft.
Folder Selection.
Within the header of the message, the command
<TAB> (‘mh-letter-next-header-field-or-indent’) moves between fields
that are highlighted with the face ‘mh-letter-header-field’, skipping
those fields listed in ‘mh-compose-skipped-header-fields’. After the
last field, this command then moves point to the message body before
cycling back to the first field. If point is already past the first
line of the message body, then this command indents by calling
‘indent-relative’ with the given prefix argument. The command ‘S-<TAB>’
(‘mh-letter-previous-header-field’) moves backwards between the fields
and cycles to the body of the message after the first field. Unlike the
command <TAB>, it will always take point to the last field from anywhere
in the body.
If the field contains addresses (for example, ‘To:’ or ‘Cc:’) or
folders (for example, ‘Fcc:’) then the command ‘M-<TAB>’
(‘mh-letter-complete’) will provide alias completion (Aliases).
In the body of the message, ‘M-<TAB>’ runs ‘mh-letter-complete-function’
instead, which is set to ‘'ispell-complete-word’ by default. The
command ‘M-<TAB>’ (‘mh-letter-complete’) takes a prefix argument that is
passed to the ‘mh-letter-complete-function’. In addition, turn on the
option ‘mh-compose-space-does-completion-flag’ to use the command <SPC>
(‘mh-letter-complete-or-space’) to perform completion in the header as
well; use a prefix argument to specify more than one space. Addresses
are separated by a comma; when you press the comma, the command
‘mh-letter-confirm-address’ flashes the alias expansion in the
minibuffer if ‘mh-alias-flash-on-comma’ is turned on.
Use the command ‘C-c C-t’ ‘mh-letter-toggle-header-field-display’ to
display truncated header fields. This command is a toggle so entering
it again will hide the field. This command takes a prefix argument: if
negative then the field is hidden, if positive then the field is
displayed (for example, ‘C-u C-c C-t’).
Be sure to leave a row of dashes or a blank line between the header
and the body of the message.
The body of the message is edited as you would edit any Emacs buffer
although there are a few commands and options to assist you. You can
change the fill column in MH-Letter mode with the option
‘mh-letter-fill-column’. By default, this option is 72 to allow others
to quote your message without line wrapping.
You’ll often include messages that were sent from user agents that
haven’t yet realized that paragraphs consist of more than a single line.
This makes for long lines that wrap in an ugly fashion. You’ll find
that ‘M-q’ (‘fill-paragraph’) works well even on these quoted messages,
even if they are nested, just as long as all of the quotes match the
value of ‘mh-ins-buf-prefix’ (Inserting Letter). For example,
let’s assume you have the following in your draft:
> Hopefully this gives you an idea of what I'm currently doing. I'm \
not sure yet whether I'm completely satisfied with my setup, but \
it's worked okay for me so far.
Running ‘M-q’ on this paragraph produces:
> Hopefully this gives you an idea of what I'm currently doing. I'm not
> sure yet whether I'm completely satisfied with my setup, but it's
> worked okay for me so far.
The command ‘C-c C-o’ (‘mh-open-line’) is similar to the command
‘C-o’ (‘open-line’) in that it inserts a newline after point. It
differs in that it also inserts the right number of quoting characters
and spaces so that the next line begins in the same column as it was.
This is useful when breaking up paragraphs in replies. For example, if
this command was used when point was after the first period in the
paragraph above, the result would be this:
> Hopefully this gives you an idea of what I'm currently doing.
> I'm not
> sure yet whether I'm completely satisfied with my setup, but it's
> worked okay for me so far.
Info Catalog
mh-e: Editing Drafts
mh-e: Editing Drafts
mh-e: Inserting Letter