CHECKING A MESSAGE BEFORE SENDING IT

At the S> prompt, you can use the command display to see what the message looks like before you send it.

Type display or just d.


MM>send
 To: fb2
 cc: mm33, hk12
 Subject: Meeting on Sept 21
 Message (End with CTRL/D or ESC
  Use CTRL/B to insert a file, CTRL/E to enter editor, CTRL/F to run text
  through a filter, CTRL/K to redisplay message, CTRL/L to clear screen and
  redisplay, CTRL/N to abort, CTRL/P to run a program and insert output.):

Let's meet on Sept 21 at 2:00 to go over plans for this semester

Joe
[escape]

S>d
From: Joseph Brennan <jb51@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu>
To: fb2
Cc: mm33, hk12
Subject: Meeting on Sept 21


Let's meet on Sept 21 at 2:00 to go over plans for this semester.

Joe

S>

The above example has a very short message, to save space on this page. Using display is much more valuable when, for a variety of reasons, you cannot see the whole message on screen already. You will find display useful if: you can't scroll up to reread the message; you included a file with control-b; the original screen display was broken up by noise or system messages; and in some other situations.

By itself, display means display the whole message. You can specify parts of the message, as text, headers, or the name of any field in the header. The command display headers or d h is quite useful if you want to check who you addressed the message to without displaying a long text with it.


S>display text

Let's meet on Sept 21 at 2:00 to go over plans for this semester.

Joe

S>


S>d h
From: Joseph Brennan <jb51@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu>
To: fb2
Cc: mm33, hk12
Subject: Meeting on Sept 21

S>


S>d to
To: fb2

S>

If the addresses are your own aliases, or if you inserted them from a file using @filename, when you display you will see the real addresses that will be used. You may want to verify that the alias or mailing list is what you intended.

After display, the next step, in some cases, is to go back and fix something. There are numerous commands you can use at the S> prompt that let you add, remove or change parts of the outgoing message.

Message Text: The commands text and edit bring you back into the message text, using MM's Text Mode and Emacs respectively. You can make changes as desired.
To and cc Fields: The command remove removes an address from either field, while the commands to and cc add to the to and cc fields. The commands erase to and erase cc wipe out the to and cc fields. For example, to remove an address, type remove and the address; to add another address to the To field, type to and the address; to replace the entire To field, type erase to, and then to and the replacement address.
Subject Field: The command subject replaces the content of the Subject field. Type subject and the new subject field.

You can also add, replace and remove other header fields. Type a question mark at the S> prompt to see all the commands available.

After making changes, use the display command again to check the message.

[ Columbia MM Manual ]