Chapter 1. Getting Started with Evolution

Table of Contents
The First Time you Start Evolution
What's What in Evolution

The First Time you Start Evolution

Start Evolution by selecting Evolution from your Programs menu, or by typing evolution at the command line. The first time you run the program, it will create a directory called evolution in your home directory, where it will keep all your Evolution-related files. Then, it will offer to help you set up mail accounts and import data from other applications.

The first screen welcomes you to the assistant. It is estimated that configuring your mail will take 2 to 5 minutes and importing mail will take 1 to 2 minutes.

Defining Your Identity

The Identity window is the first of four steps in the assistant. The identity step will ask you to enter your basic personal information. You can define multiple identities later on with the Tools->Mail Settings tool.

  • Full Name — Your full name (Example: John Doe).

  • Email Address — Your email address (Example: john@doe.com)

  • Organization — The company where you work (optional).

  • Signature file — If you'd like to use an email signature, select your signature file here. Normally, the signature will be the contents of the .signature file in your home directory.

Recieving Email

The Recieving Email step lets you configure receving email people have sent you.

  • Server Type — There are numerous types of servers which Evolution can download your email from:

    • POP — Downloads your email to your hard disk for permanent storage.

    • IMAPv4 — Keeps the email on your server so you can access your email from any computer that supports IMAPv4 and have everything be the same.

    • Unix mbox spool-format file — Bad description, we're getting a better definition shortly.

    • Standard Unix mailbox file — Bad description, we're getting a better definition shortly.

    • Qmail maildir format files — If you download your mail using qmail, you'll want to use this.

    • None — How do you have None? figure out!

  • Email Server — This is the address of the server you're downloading from.

  • Username — The username that you login to your email. That is often the part before the @ in your email.

    Authentication Type — Chances are you are using Password. Ask your administrator for more details. You can have Evolution check by clicking Check for supported types.

    Remember Password — If you prefer to not enter your password every time you check email, press this button.

Sending Email

The Sending Email step lets you configure sending email.

  • Server Type — There are numerous server types that Evolution supports for sending your mail.

    • SMTP — Downloads mail into your mailbox file.

    • Sendmail — Uses another program to download your mail to your mailbox files.

  • Host — If you chose SMTP, enter the server's name or IP address here.

  • Server requires authentication — If your server requires you to enter a password to send mail, check this box.

  • Authentication Type — Chances are you are using Password. If you're not sure, ask your system administrator or ISP, or have Evolution check for you by clicking Check for supported types.

  • Username — The account name you use when you login to check your email. Normally, this is the part of your email address before the '@' character.

  • Remember Password — If you prefer to not enter your password every time you check email, press this button.

Importing Mail (Optional)

If Evolution finds mail or address files from another application, it will offer to import them.

Evolution can import the following types of files:

VCard (.vcf, gcrd)

The most common addressbook format.

Outlook Express 4 (.mbx)

Email file format used by Outlook Express 4.

MBox (mbox)

The email box format used by Netscape, Evolution, Eudora, and many other email clients.

Outlook 2000: Outlook 2000 uses a proprietary format that Evolution cannot import directly. To import files from Outlook 2000, you will need to boot to Windows, import the files into Mozilla mail, then reboot and import from Mozilla. Please see the FAQ at the Ximian website for more information.

Ask your system administrator if you aren't sure which you use.

Exporting Files From Evolution: Evolution uses standard file types for all its information, so you should have no trouble taking your information elsewhere if you want.

For mail, that's mbox, for calendar, iCal, and for the address book, vCards in a .db3 database.