Visual Mail V3 - Getting Started

Supported system mailbox types

Standard unix style system mailbox types are supported. If Visual Mail is being run for the first time, it will default to look first for a MAIL environment variable. If this is defined, it is used as the name of a system mailbox file. If it is not defined, it check for the existence of the following directories :
  1. /var/spool/mail
  2. /usr/spool/mail
  3. /var/mail
  4. /usr/mail
and sets the system mail box to directory/user.

Visual Mail also supports the use of POP3 mailboxes. To set one up, specify the mailbox name as user@host. When it is first accessed, you will be prompted for the password.

To change the system mailbox that Visual Mail uses or to add additional incoming mailboxes, use the Change Other Options entry under the Other... menu. Edit the field labelled Incoming mailboxes and save your changes once you are finished. Additional mailboxes can be added to this field by separating them with a space character. Each mailbox will have a separate button added at the top of the main screen with the mailbox name as a label. You will have to restart Visual Mail to have this change take effect.

Once the startup options are saved in Visual Mail, it will save the name of the system mailbox file(s) and will no longer use the MAIL environment variable.


Converting from unix style mail folders

To convert any existing unix style mail folders that you may have, use the menu items Import an entire directory of Mail folders or Import a single Mail folder. These can be found in the Folder / News Management... menu under the Other... menu. Remember to make sure that you have lots of disk space available before starting this procedure (and lots of time as well if you have large numbers of messages).


Converting from Visual Mail V2

If you are a Visual Mail V2 user, then you should use the convert-to-vmail3 script that is provided with the Visual Mail V3 distribution. A link is normally located in /usr/local/bin. The script must be run from the command line and should not be interrupted. A few prompts at the begining will set things such as the color and fonts to the same as what was used in Visual Mail V2.