Alpine Quick Start

This page provides a quick overview of basic Alpine features and how to access them.

Main parts of the Alpine screen

The following figure shows a portion of the Alpine screen with the main parts identified.

Main parts of the screen

Screen header


Screen header

Menu bar


The menu bar provides commands needed for each Alpine screen. The two leftmost commands, Check Mail and Compose, are the same in all Alpine screens. The other commands change according to which Alpine screen is displayed.

Left pane


The left pane displays:

Right pane


Depending on what you are doing, the right pane displays one of five things:

Parts of the Compose window

In the Compose window, you can write, send, and reply to messages. The following figure shows the main parts of the Compose window.

Compose screen

Basic Alpine Features

Viewing messages

When you first log in, your Inbox is displayed in the right pane, showing a list of your mail messages.

For more information, see Your Inbox.

Reading mail

To read a message, click on its Subject. For more information, see Reading mail.

Sending mail

To send a message, click Compose (or Reply or Forward) on the menu bar. For more information, see Compose: sending mail.

Search

To search for a message, type a search string in the Search box, at the top of the left pane. Click Advanced Search for more search options. For more information, see Search.

Folders

Folders help you keep your mail organized. Default folders, such as Inbox and Junk, are always there. You can also create your own folders by clicking View/Manage Folders. For more information, see Folders.

Contacts

You can create a contact list,which is a list of addresses that are important or that you frequently use. Click Contacts to add items to your contact list. For more information, click Contacts.

Checking for new mail

You can check for new mail from any Alpine window or folder without returning to your Inbox.

To check for new mail

Settings

You can control the appearance and behavior of many parts of the Alpine screen. For more information, see Settings.

Trash

When you delete a message, it is moved to the trash. When you empty the trash or delete selected messages from the trash, they are removed permanently. You can also recover messages from the trash.

To empty the entire contents of the trash

  1. In the left pane, next to Trash, click [Empty].
  2. Click Empty Trash to confirm.

This permanently deletes all of the messages in the trash.

To permanently delete selected messages from the trash

  1. In the left pane, click Trash.
  2. Select the box to the left of the messages that you want to delete.
  3. On the menu bar, click Delete Forever. Be sure that you have selected the right messages; there is no confirmation screen for this action.

To recover messages from the trash

  1. In the left pane, click Trash.
  2. Select the box to the left of the messages that you want to recover.
  3. On the menu bar, locate the Move or Copy button. Skip this step if the one you want is already displayed. If necessary, click the button and pull down the menu to select Move or Copy.
  4. On the menu bar, click to Folder and select the target folder from the list, or select More Folders to see a list of all folders. If you select More Folders, click the target folder in the list, and then click Copy or Move.