I’ve written about Claws Mail quite a bit (see “Claws Mail: The unsung powerhouse email client“, “Claws Mail must have plugins“, “Create Message Filters in Claws Mail“,  “Encrypting email in Claws Mail“, and “Make Claws Mail aware when you need top or bottom posting“.) In the business world most people use Exchange. Unfortunately Claws Mail does not communicate with Exchange. Fortunately there is an alternative that a lot of people use – Google Mail. And good news for Claws Mail users, it can communicate with Google Mail!

Of course it’s not terribly cut and dry, how you set up Claws Mail to work with Google Mail, but it’s not so difficult that a newbie can’t configure it. So let’s see just how this is done.

Setting up Google Mail

The first thing you have to do is set up Google Mail to allow IMAP connections. To do this go to your Google Mail account and click on the Settings link near the top. Once in the settings window click on the Forwarding and POP/IMAP tab. In this section you will want to check “Enable IMAP” in the IMAP section. Once you have done that click the Save Changes button and you’re ready to move on over to Claws Mail for the real work.

Tag you’re it!

Gmail does not handle mail with folders. Instead it uses tags. So in order to be able to use Gmail you have to have, at least, the bare minimum of tags created in order for your Gmail mail to have a place to live. In order to create tags you need to click on the Configuration menu and then click on the Tags entry to open up the Tags Window.

Figure 1

When the Tags Window opens (see Figure 1) you simply have to type the new tag in the text area and then click the Add button. The tags you need to add are the following:

[Gmail]/Archived
[Gmail]/Drafts
[Gmail]/Queue
[Gmail]/Trash

You can add as many tags as you want depending upon how many folders you need (or have) on your Gmail account.

Configure your Gmail on Claws Mail

Now you need to go to the Configuration menu and select Create New Account. In this window you need to configure the following options.

Basic section

Personal information: Fill this out as you need it.

Server section

• Server for receiving: imap.gmail.com
• SMTP Server: smtp.gmail.com
• User ID: Your gmail address
• Password: Your gmail password

Receive section

Authentication method: LOGIN

Send section

• SMTP Authentication: Enable this
• User ID: Your gmail address
• Password: Your gmail password

SSL section

• Use SSL for IMAP4 connection: Enable this
• Don’t use SSL (under SMTP section): Enable this

Advanced section

• SMTP Port: 465
• IMAP Port: 993

The final step

Go back to the main Claws Mail window. If you right click on the Gmail main folder you will see an entry for Subscriptions. Under that entry there are three sub entries. You want to click the Subscribe entry to subscribe to your Gmail mail. Once you have done that you can click Get Mail to download all of your Gmail mail. You are ready to go.

Final thoughts

Gmail is becoming a standard email service for many people, and with good reason. And now, if you use Gmail you can connect everyone’s favorite Claws Mail client.

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The Claws Mail template feature allows you to create specific templates that format your email in precisely the way you want them. Your compositions, your replies, and your forwards can leave your PC laid out exactly the way you want them. And it doesn’t take a programmer or guru to set templates up. You just have to understand the strings used by Claws Mail that allow you to insert specific, pre-configured fields into the body of your email.

Figure 1

You can create templates within one of two windows: “Preferences for current account” or “Preferences” (the former only configures templates for the account being used and the latter configures templates globally). Both of these windows can be opened from within the Configuration menu. Once in either of these windows go to the Templates section where you will find  three tabs (see Figure 1): Compose, Reply, and Forward. The first thing you must do is decide what type of template you want to create. Most often people use the Reply template so they can format how they want their replies to look.

As you can see, in Figure 1, I have already created a template. The template I have created does this when I reply to an email:

The first line of the reply reads In a recent email ORIGINAL_SENDER said the following:

QUOTED_EMAIL

to this REPLY_SENDER says:

BODY_OF_REPLY

A: Because it makes understanding the conversation harder?
Q: What is wrong with top posting?

• Where ORIGINAL_SENDER is who the email came from.
• Where QUOTED_EMAIL is the quoted text of the email you are replying to.
• Where REPLY_SENDER is the full name of the user replying.
• Where BODY_OF_REPLY is the text written in the reply.

You will also notice a bit of snarkiness at the end. ;-)

To achieve this layout I used the following pre-defined tags:

• %N – Original sender.
• \n – New line marker.
• %Q – Quoted message body.
• %af – Full name of sender (me).
• %X – Cursor position.

The %X tag is one of the most interesting of the tags. It is with this tag you define where you want your cursor to be placed when you begin the email. Because Claws Mail defaults to bottom posting, and has no means to change this to top posting, you have to define top posting by using the %X tag. So if I want to always top post in my replies I would create a reply template like this:

%X\n
Is my reply to an email sent by %N, that said:\n
%Q

To get a full list of all the possible tags to use click the Information button inside of the Templates configuration window. You will also notice you can use regular expressions in your templates. The possibilites abound!

Final thoughts

Once you start using templates in Claws Mail you will really begin to see how flexible this application is. Once I started using templates I never looked back to Thunderbird. Have you created a cool template for Claws Mail? If so, share it with your fellow Ghacks readers.

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Like all good email clients, Claws Mail can handle PGP encryption for your outgoing and incoming  email. But like many of the advanced features of Claws Mail, PGP is added with the help of plugins. Once you load these plugins, encrypting and decrypting email is simple. Let’s take a look and see how it’s done.

Loading the plugins

The first thing you have to do is to load up the correct plugins. Loading plugins is simple with Claws Mail. Click on the Configuration menu and select the Plugins entry. A new window will open up where you select the plugins you need to load. There are three plugins specific to PGP that you will want to load up (you have to load them one at a time.) They are: PGP/Core, PGP/inline, and PGP/MIME. The PGP/Core plugin is a neceisity as it is the core of the Claws Mail PGP system. The other two plugins handle the PGP feature in different ways. If you want to send your encrypted messages as attachments you will use the PGP/MIME plugin. If you want to send your encrypted messages in line you will use the PGP/inline plugin. Simple.

Configuration

Once you have the plugins loaded you can go to the Configuration menu and select Preferences. If you scroll down in that window you will see GPG listed under Plugins. Click on GPG and you will the few options available for this plugin. The options available are:

• Automatically check signatures
• Use gpg-agent to manage passwords
• Store passphrase in memory
• Grab input while entering a passphrase
• Display warning on startup if GPG doesn’t work

That’s it. The default values should work just fine. Now, let’s move on to actual use.

Encrypting and signing an email

After you compose an email you will need to encrypt and/or sign the email. If you click on the Options menu you will see the Privacy System sub-menu. Click on that to reveal all possible choices. The choices listed will depend upon what plugins you have loaded. If you load all three of the plugins you will have three entries in the Privacy System menu:

• None: Use no encryption
• PGP Inline: Encrypt your message inline.
• PGP MIME: Encrypt your message and add it as an attachment.

Figure 1

After you make your choice go back to the Privacy System sub-menu and select Sign and/or Encrypt. Once you have everything set click the Send button. The first thing you will see is an Encryption warning. You can uncheck this so it doesn’t appear every time. After you click through this warning a window will appear where you can select the encryption key to use. If you only have one (and it is associated as the defalt key for the address) you may not see this window (see Figure 1). After you select the key, click Select (which will dismiss the Select Key window) and then click the Send button to send your email.

Decrypting email

This is the easy part. NOTE: In order to use this feature you have to have the keys imported that you are to use. If you have a key imported into your systems’ PGP all you will have to do is enter the passphrase for the key. When you do that the incoming mail will be decrypted. Simple.

Final thoughts

I have found the Claws Mail pgp system to be the best of breed of any email client I have used. I think you will find it as easy to use and as reliable and powerful as I did. The only downfall is that there isn’t a plugin for importing keys. Maybe that will come in the future.

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One of the aspects of Claws Mail that I like more than that of either Thunderbird or Evolution, is the filter tool. I am sure you know that email filters are one of the best means to manage the enormous amount of email coming down the pipe. You can keep SPAM in the trash, filter specific email to specific folders, and take just about any kind of action you need/want.

For many, the Claws Mail filters might not be as simple to use as the standard fare. But that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be used.  With this tool, it is just a matter of getting used to a different interface. And that is what this article will help you with.

The tools

There are two ways to create a filter with Claws mail: The easy, less configurable method, or the harder, more configurable method. I will only briefly mention the easy method as that is, well, easy. The second, harder, method is what we will primarily focus on.

The easy method

If you have an email selected, click on the Tools menu and then select “Create Filter Rule”. When this new sub-menu pops up you will see four entries:

• Automatically
• By From
• By To
• By Subject

That will define the condition of the filter automatically for you. You will still have to configure the rest of the filter, but this step automates a portion of the creation.

Now let’s take a look at the full creation of a filter by doing things the hard way. I shouldn’t scare you off by saying “hard way”…it’s not really that difficult.

Filter from scratch

Figure 1

When you go to the Configuration menu you will see the Filtering entry. Click that to open up the Filters window (see Figure 1).

As you can see, for the most part, creating a filter is simple. The only aspect that might not be as user-friendly as you are used to is the Conditions and Actions. For these what you have to do is is click the associated Define buttons.  When you do this you will configure the specifics of either the conditions or the action of the filter. Let’s take a look at configuring the conditions of a filter. Click the Define button associated with the Conditions. When you do this a new window will open up.

Figure 2

Figure 2 shows a condition already created. What you can not see, from the image, are the included options in the drop down lists. With different types of filters you will have different drop down lists available. The different types of criteria you can select include: Header, Age, Phrase, Flag, Color lables, etc. Say you select the Header from Match Criteria. When you do you can then select:

Name: From this drop down you can then select such familiar items as To, From, Reply To, etc.

Header: This is where you decide if your header Contains or Doesn’t Contain. Basically this is a positive or negative match.

Once you have your condition rule set you then click the Add button. If you want you can then create more rules for this one condition. Each condition can have multiple rules and you can move the rules up or down in the chain of command. You can also configure if the rule must meet all or at least one of the rules.

Figure 3

When you are finished with your Condution click OK and it is set. You are now ready to define your Action. Click the Define button associated with Action which will open up a new window (see Figure 3).

This is the easier portion of the setup. What you do is select what action you want to take from the Action dropdown and then select the associated sub-action. The associated action will depend upon which Action you choose. For instance, if you select to Move the mail you will then have to select the Destination folder. If you want to flag the message you will have to select how you want it flagged.

Once you have completed this section click OK. Now, before you finalize the new Filter you have to click the Add button in the main window. If you do not do this your newly created filter is not saved. You will get a warning if you try and then click the Continue Editing and then click the Add button.

Your filter is complete. You can test this by click the Tools menu and selecting Filter All Messages in Folder. If your folder is set up correctly you will see the changes made instantly.

Final thoughts

Claws Mail filtering is a very powerful tool that will allow you to create very helpful filters to keep your Claws Mail organized and free from unwanted email.

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But no matter what type of user you are, you will appreciate the plugins available for the client. There are plenty to choose from and, unlike the many extensions/addons for Thunderbird, all of them are useful. In this article I will introduce you to a few of the plugins that are must-haves for any type of user.

Make sure you have them

During the installation of Claws Mail you should have noticed the various plugin packages available. If you didn’t install them initially, go back and do so now. It’s simple: Open up your Add/Remove Software utility, do a search for “claws” (no quotes), find the plugin entries available. You will notice all of the plugins available will have the string “plugin” (again, no quotes) listed in their name. Install any/all plugins you feel you might need.

Now, on to the plugins I feel are must haves.

GtkHtml2 HTML Viewer

Figure 1

One aspect of Claws Mail that you will notice quickly is its inability to write HTML mail. This was done on purpose as the dev team felt like HTML mail was not a good thing (I tend to agree). But I do get a lot of HTML mail (mostly from companies that only send HTML mail) and need to be able to read them. In order to do this I load this plugin.

Not all HTML emails will be rendered. But when one does render you will see it appear as you do in Figure 1. You also have to tell Claws Mail to load the images found in the email. When it does get the images, the emails render perfectly. You can configure GtkHtml2 from within the Preferences window.

Notification

Figure 2

This plugin allows you to select a method for Claws Mail to inform you that email has arrived. I set my email client up to check mail automatically, so having a notification is nice. To configure the notification go to the Preferences window under Notification. There are five different types of notifications:

• Banner: A scrolling banner you can configure to tell you what new mail comes in.
• Popup: A small popup that appears when new mail arrives (see Figure 2).
• Command: Create your own method of notification (such as play a sound with the play command).
• LDC: Enable display of message on external LCD monitor – will need an LCD server running.
• SysTrayIcon: Enable a small system tray icon that will display a message.

Mail archiver

Figure 3

I don’t know about you but I get a lot of mail. And much of that mail is work related. Because that mail is critical I have to keep copies for a long time. But I don’t necessarily want those folders to accumulate thousands upon thousands of emails. For this I use the Mail archiver plugin. This plugin will allow you to save a compressed archive of any folder on your Claws Mail client. To create an archive go to the Tools menu and select Create Archive. When the new window pops up (see Figure 3) enter the information you need and click OK. The archive will appear in the folder you’ve chosen. You’re all backed up.

Final thoughts

There are plenty of other plugins to play with for Claws Mail. The three plugins listed above will help extend Claws Mail beyond its default capabilities and make it an even more user-friendly, powerful experience.

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Claws Mail is based on GTK+ so it will install on nearly any Linux machine running X Windows. It features:

• Multiple Accounts
• Threaded Display
• Filtering
• IPv6 support
• Mbox import/export
• Clickable URLS
• Addressbook
• Granular configuration
• Pre and Post processing filters
• Redirecting
• SSL Certificate Manager
• Address Harvesting via folder or messages

And much more.

Getting and installing

If you open up your Add/Remove Software utility and do a search for “claws” (no quotes) you will find numerous listings. Many of these listings will include a vast array of plugins available. The minimum you want to install is:

• claws-mail
• claws-mail-extra-plugins
• claws-mail-plugins

jWhat the “extra-plugins” will do is install a number of the basic plugins for you. Outside of that you will want to go through the list of all the possible candidate to see what you will need. I also installed:

• claws-themes
• claws-mail-pgpinline

Your needs may dictate other installations. There are thirty-three possible packages to install.

Once you have made your choices click Apply to finish up the installation. Once installed you will find the Claws Mail menu entry in the Internet menu of your Main menu.

First Run

When you first open up Claws Mail you will have to walk through a very straight-forward wizard to set up your account. Once you are finished with the account set up you are ready to rock.

The user interface

Figure 1

As you can see (in Figure 1) the interface will be familiar to anyone that has used any email client of any nature.

One of the first things that might be of issue (at least it was for me) is the date. Notice that the form of the date is YY/MM/DD. If you want to edit the date format you have to open up the Preferences window by click the Configuration menu in the main window. Once inside that window click the Summary sub-section of the Display section. Scroll all the way down until you see the Date Format text area. The default is set up as:

%y/%m/%d(%a) %H:%M

You can arrange this any way you like. My preference is:

%m/%d(%a)/%y %H:%M

NOTE: The (%a) displays the day of the week.

Importing mail box

I had 100% success at importing my Thunderbird Inbox with Claws. To do this click on the File menu and select “Import mbox file”.  A small window will open up where you need to locate your Mbox file and a Destination folder. For a Thunderbird Inbox file you will need to then navigate to:

~/.mozilla-thunderbird/XXX.default/Mail/Local Folders/

and select Inbox (or whatever folder you need to import).

Where XXX is a random string of characters created upon installation of Thunderbird.

In Figure 1 you will see some 8,000 imported emails. It worked perfectly.

Harvesting addresses

Figure 2

This is one of my favorite features of Claws Mail. When I have had to move from installation to installation, one of the things I tend to forget it to export my address book. This isn’t a problem with Claws Mail. With all of the email imported into Claws Mail I can then just harvest all of the addresses I need from within a folder. To do this I allow email to collect in my Inbox and then click on the Tools menu and select the Harvest submenu and then the “From Folder” entry. A small window will open (see Figure 2) where you give your address book a name, a size, and tell the harvester which header field to harvest from. Once you do that click OK and the harvesting will begin.

From within my 8,000+ emails the Harvester grabed over 1,400 addresses. The only problem is the Harvester isn’t terribly intelligent as to how to label these addresses. So most likely you will have to go back through and edit each address.

Final thoughts

You can go through all of the features, one by one, of Claws Mail and spend all day tweaking and tinkering. As I said, Claws Mail will make the power user feel right at home. But don’t think this client is only for the elite user…Claws Mail can be used by anyone. It’s easy, it’s powerful, it’s reliable, and it’s all about Linux. Give Claws Mail a try…you most likely won’t turn back.

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