Starting pine

At the command line, type "pine"
Sometimes the first screen you see will ask you questions - look at the bottom. Especially at the start of the month - do you want to save all of your sent emails? Answer the questions however you wish.

The commands at the bottom

The commands you can give pine change based on what you're doing - reading or composing, attaching files or retrieving them, etc. The commands are listed at the bottom. Type the highlighted letter to perform that action.

If you see ^T, this means, for instance, type Ctrl-T. If you see "O OTHER CMDS", this means there are more possible commands, type O to see them.

The '<' and '>' keys are really the comma and period keys, you do not need to use shift. You can use these a lot to move from folder to message (>) to attachment (>) to message (<) to folder (<).

Reading your email

Unless you set up filters, your email goes immediately to your INBOX.

Type 'L' or just Enter to go to the list of folders. If you're new, you have only one choice, 'INBOX'. Type Enter to open your inbox. Use the arrow keys to choose another folder if you have any.

Use the up and down arrows to select a message.

Type 'd' on any spam messages before you open anything. When all the spam is marked 'd', type 'x' to expunge them. This will make it easier to go through all of your real email.

Type Enter or '>' to open a message.

Use the up and down arrows to read your message. Or, use the space bar and dash key to move up and down faster, one screen at a time (scroll bar does not work in pine, sorry).

Press 'd' to delete the message. Pine will automatically go to the next message (if there is one).

Press 's' to save a message to a different folder. You will be prompted for the name of the folder. If a folder with that name doesn't exist yet, pine will ask if you want to create it.

Press 'i' to go back to the list of messages in your inbox.

You can type 's' here too, to save any messages to other folders. Or, type 'u' to remove the delete mark from a message.

When you really want to get rid of the messages you've marked to delete, type 'X'. Pine will ask if you want to expunge them. You do. They will go away then.

Composing an email

From any screen (except while composing), type 'C'. Or, to reply or forward an email, type 'R' or 'F' while reading it. Answer pine's questions at the bottom of the screen.

Type the email address, or if your recipient is in our department, type their username (first part of email address).

Press tab or down key or enter.

Enter a carbon copy if you want, and a subject if you like. (Attachments later).

Type your message in the message area.

How to type in pine

Sorry, no mouse work here.
Use Ctrl-A to go to the beginning of a line. (Think a=beginning)
Use Ctrl-E to go to the end of a line. (E for End)
Use Ctrl-Y and Ctrl-V to scroll up and down if you write a long email Scroll bar still doesn't work, sorry. These two commands are at the bottom of the screen if you need help remembering.
Use Ctrl-J to make the paragraph line up properly. You need to have an empty line between paragraphs for this to work properly. (J for Justify)
Use Ctrl-K to delete a whole line, from anywhere in the line (K for kut)
. To delete the second half of a line, go to the break point, type Enter, then type Ctrl-K to delete.
Use Ctrl-U to paste something you just cut wih Ctrl-K. (U for uncut)
Linux copy and paste (select, then middle button to paste) do work for pine. Ctrl-Ins to copy and Shift-Ins to paste also work, if you're used to those.
Use Ctrl-X to send the email. Pine will jump the screen to the top so you can recheck who you're sending to. It will also ask you if you meant to type Ctrl-X. Type y if you want to send, n if you want to correct something in your email first.

Saving a draft

If you want to save the draft for a minute or forever without sending it, use Ctrl-O.

You can retrieve the draft by going to the postponed-msgs folder, or by just typing 'C', and pine will ask you if you want to go back to the draft, or start a new email. Just type 'y' or 'n' to answer the question as you wish.

Attaching a file

Type 'C' to compose a letter.

Use the arrow keys to go to the Attchmt line. Type Ctrl-T, which takes you to a screen that shows your home directory and the files in it. Use the arrow keys (or space bar and dash)to navigate through your directories until you find the file the want.

Type Enter to choose the file.

To attach another file, type ^T in the attachment line again. pine will put a semi-colon between the files.

If you know the name and location of your file, you can type Ctrl-J instead, and just type it at the prompt.

Reading an attachment

If there is an attachment to an email you receive, you will see it at the top of the email under Parts/Attachments.

Sometimes it's just text, some email clients send messages in ways that pine sees as attachments, but the message will show up on the main screen anyway. Look at the attachment and see if it ends in '.pdf' or '.doc' or '.jpg' or something sensible.

Type '>' (the period key, no shift necessary) to see the list of attachments.

Use the arrow keys, or P and N, to scroll through the attachments.

Choose the one you want, and type 's'.

Pine will ask you if you want to save the file in your home directory, with the name it was given by the sender. Your choice. If you just press enter, that's what will happen. Or, you can edit the file name first, and include directory name if you want to place the file somewhere specific.

To see the attachment, use the appropriate program to open it outside of pine (ie, open it in acrobat, or a browser, or whatever).

To go back to the message, type '<'.

About links

On some computers, you can click on a link with a mouse, and a browser will open up the webpage.

On other computers, you will have to copy and paste the link into the browser.

If you like lynx, there might be a way to configure lynx to open up when you follow a link.

Sometimes people send html-based email with links built into buttons. For instance, when your friend shares photos on snapfish or sends you an e-vite. The email says 'click here' but there's no link for you to see, so it's no good. There is a way:

Type '>' and you will have the choice of Text/PLAIN and Text/HTML. Type Enter or '>' on Text/PLAIN and all of the html garbage will show up. Find the link you need, then cut and paste.

Use '<' to go back to the message as normal.

Using the address book

You can save email addresses of folks outside the department in your address book.

Go to the main menu (type M, or use '<' to back up to it), and select Address Book, or 'A'. Type '@' to add a new entry. Follow the instructions on the screen and at the bottom of the screen. You will type Ctrl-X when you're finished.

Also, if you're reading an email from someone whose address you'd like to save, type 'T' while reading. Select the address you want to save, answer Pine's questions, and you're set.

When you compose, just type the nickname in the To: field, and the name & address will pop up. Or, type Ctrl-A in the To: or CC: field to see the people in your address book.