Compose Message Screen

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| PINE 3.90   COMPOSE MESSAGE                 Folder: INBOX   4 Messages |
|                                                                        |
| To      :                                                              |
| Cc      :                                                              |
| Attchmnt:                                                              |
| Subject :                                                              |
| ----- Message Text -----                                               |
|                                                                        |
|                                                                        |
| *** John Smith                ******************                       |
| *** Department of Art, Somewhere University  ***                       |
| *** jsmith@art.somewhere.edu  ******************                       |
|                                                                        |
|                                                                        |
|                                                                        |
|                                                                        |
|^G Get Help ^C Cancel  ^R Read File ^Y Prev Pg ^K Cut Text   ^O Postpone|
|^X Send     ^J Justify ^_ Alt Edit  ^V Next Pg ^U UnCut Text ^T To Spell|
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Compose Message Commands

Moving the Cursor: On most systems your arrows keys will move the cursor around the screen as expected. In addition, these movement keys are always available in the composer: Back Single Character (Ctrl-B), Forward Single Character (Ctrl-F), Up Single Line (Ctrl-P), Down Single Line (Ctrl-N), Beginning of Current Line (Ctrl-A), End of Current Line (Ctrl-E), Up One Screen (Ctrl-Y), Down One Screen (Ctrl-V), Next Word (Ctrl-SPACE)

Editing the Text: Delete Current Character (Ctrl-D), Delete Previous Character (Ctrl-H), Set a Mark (Ctrl-^), Cut Current Block or Line (Ctrl-K), Justify Paragraph (Ctrl-J), and Paste Deleted Lines (Ctrl-U), Unjustify paragraph (Ctrl-U)

General Commands: Where Is / Search for Word in Message (Ctrl-W), Help (Ctrl-G), Suspend (Ctrl-Z), Use Alternate Editor (Ctrl-_), Redraw Screen (Ctrl-L), Read File (Ctrl-R), Spell Check (Ctrl-T)

Message Action Commands: Send (Ctrl-X), Postpone (Ctrl-O) Cancel (Ctrl-C).

The following commands are configurable and may or may not be active in your Pine session: Suspend, Use Alternate Editor

The following commands are not available in PC-Pine: Spell Check, Suspend, Use Alternate Editor

Note: even though Pine does not use Ctrl-S or Ctrl-Q (sometimes known as XOFF and XON), the system you are using may intercept those characters. If you accidentally hit a Ctrl-S and your keyboard mysteriously freezes up, try typing a Ctrl-Q and see if that puts things right.

Control Keys in the Header

When the cursor is in the header part of the message, some of the control commands have special meaning. You will see this difference reflected in the menu displayed at the bottom of your Pine compose screen.

When in the header, the following keys have these meanings:

Ctrl-J: Attach file
Ctrl-R: Rich Header
Ctrl-T: To Address Book or Files

The following commands are not active in the header: Whereis (Ctrl-W), Alternate Editor (Ctrl-_), and Set Mark (Ctrl-^).

Double Use of Ctrl-U

You may notice in the above list that the Ctrl-U key sequence is used for two different things in the midst of composing a message. Its normal meaning is "Paste". That is, it will paste in the line or lines that you last cut with the Ctrl-K. However, immediately following a paragraph justification (Ctrl-J), the Ctrl-U key temporarilly changes into "Unjustify". If the paragraph justification went bad (changed some tabs, justified many paragraphs into one, etc.) you'll see it right away and be able to unjustify. After a few keystrokes, Ctrl-U reverts back to "Paste". It sounds confusing, but you probably won't have a problem with it once you try it.