Pine E-mail Program—Getting Started

ITS Help Documents >> ITS E-mail and Calendar Services Documentation >> ITS's Other E-mail Servers >> Pine E-mail Program >> Getting Started

How to Start

1. To begin using Pine, you must first open a secure terminal program. To download and install secure terminal applications for either Windows or Macintosh operating systems, follow the instructions found here.

2. Once your secure terminal window is open, log onto your e-mail account. Detailed instructions setting up the connection to your e-mail server are included on the web page linked in step 1 above.

• Type the name of your e-mail server (e.g., ucsu or spot) in the Host or Session box. Press RETURN or ENTER.
• Enter your CU login name (a.k.a., username) at the login prompt and press RETURN. Make sure your login name is all lowercase.
• You will then see the password prompt. Enter your e-mail password exactly and press RETURN. Note: You must enter your e-mail password here, not your IdentiKey password. Your password will not be displayed on the screen as you type it. Make sure that the caps lock key is not on while entering your password.

Once you are logged into your (Unix) e-mail account, a prompt will display your server name. For example:

ucsu>

3. Type pine at this prompt. Pine will open to the main menu from which you can navigate to your INBOX or your other folders. If this is the first time you are logging on to Pine, the first screen will look different (just hit enter).

Pine Commands

From the main menu you can see all of Pine's features and options. Also, a list of Pine commands is always visible at the bottom of the screen, so there is no need to memorize them.

Note: To move around in Pine, do not use the mouse. Instead, use the arrow keys, letters and special characters. In the examples that follow, ^ stands for the CONTROL key.

From the main menu you can hit enter (or return) to go to your folders and enter again to open your inbox. Or to execute other commands, see the list below.

Main Menu Commands

Note that letter-driven commands will function whether they are upper or lowercase. Also, from the main menu, you can move the cursor (using the arrow keys) over the heading you want and hit enter.

?   HELP -- Help is available from all mail screens and provides information for each particular screen when you type ? from that location.

C   COMPOSE MESSAGE -- Compose a message and send it. You will be prompted for an e-mail address. You can send mail to one address or to multiple addresses separated with a comma. You can also send carbon copies (cc:) or blind carbon copies (bcc:) to other recipients. To send attachments, see the instructions.

I   FOLDER INDEX -- Display a summary of each message in the current folder, including the sender and the subject of the message. This is the command to use to begin reading your mail. From the Index, you will be able to view and act on individual messages.

L   FOLDER LIST -- Open, add, delete and rename mail folders. All messages are kept in folders. By default, you have three folders: (1) INBOX, which holds all incoming mail, (2) sent-mail, which holds a copy of messages you send, and (3) saved-messages, which holds all messages you choose to save. You can also create your own folders by typing A for add.

A   ADDRESS BOOK -- Add, delete or change entries in your address book. This is your personal address book where you can include nicknames that refer to more complex electronic addresses or groups of addresses.

S   SETUP -- Displays all your configuration options, so you can personalize Pine to your preferences, such as configuring Pine to print to your local printer and setting up your signature file.

Q   QUIT -- Quit Pine. When you do this, all messages marked for deletion in the current mailbox will be deleted.

Other Helpful Commands

Control Key -- Many Pine commands require a combination of the Control key and another character. That means pressing the control key then the other character at the same time. For example, CONTROL c. The control key is shown on-screen as ^, so you'll see ^C.

Scrolling -- The space bar is used for scrolling down in indexes or folder lists, and the - key (hyphen) will scroll up. During message composition, use ^V to scroll down and ^Y to scroll up.

^A   Advance -- Takes the cursor to the beginning of the line. ^C Cancel -- To cancel almost any action, use Control C.

^D   Delete -- Deletes one character under the cursor.

^E   End -- Takes the cursor to the end of the current line.

^G   Get Help -- Use Control G to access Pine Help during message composition.

^J   Justify -- Rejustifies the current paragraph. Useful for editing messages during composition.

^K   Cut -- Deletes a line of a message during message composition. To move lines, use this command with Control U (uncut). Several lines can be cut in succession with Control K and then uncut with Control U.

^L   Screen refresh -- If you receive a new message while you are typing or reading one, the new message will pop up in the middle of your screen. To clear the screen, use the ^L command. This will repaint the screen to the proper display.

^O   Postpone -- Postpones current message composition until later. Later when you type C to compose a message, you will be asked to continue the postponed message or start a new one. Postponed messages are stored in the postponed-msgs folder and can be continued at any time.

^U   UnCut -- Pastes a deleted line or lines during message composition. To move lines, use this command with Control K (Cut).

^W   WhereIs -- Use ^W to search for a word or string within message composition. From other locations in Pine, just use W.

^X   Send -- When you are ready to send a composed message, use Control X.