Columbia MM
MM Manual

CUSTOMIZING THE PROMPTS

You can change various prompts in MM if you like, by resetting variables.


THE HINTS LINE

You have a choice of whether to see the hints line above the MM prompts. The hints lines show the most commonly used MM commands at each prompt, as shown here.



[ H=headers  R=read  REV=review  S=send   Q=quit  BYE  ?=Hints  HELP ]
MM>

[ D=delete  H=header  R=reply  TY=type  PRI=print   Q=quit  ?=Hints  HELP ]
R>

[ D=display  S=send  TE=text  ED=edit  TY=type   Q=quit  ?=Hints  HELP ]
S>


The hints line is controlled by the variable user-level, which has two possible values, novice and expert. If you see the hints now and would rather not see them, type set user-level expert, and then save-init to save the change.


MODE PROMPTS

You can change the mode prompts to any text you like. They show which of the three modes MM is in. The variables top-level-prompt, read-prompt and send-prompt are normally set to MM>, R> or Read>, and S> or Save> respectively. Note that the > mark is part of the prompt string.

To change the MM> prompt for example, type set top-level-prompt and then the desired prompt in double quotes. You may want to put a blank at the end, before the close quote, so there will be a blank between the prompt and what you type after it. The prompt changes as soon as you reset it, as shown here.



MM>set top-level-prompt "Now what? "
Now what? save-init
Now what?



PROMPTS IN THE SEND PROCEDURE

The send procedure involves several prompts, normally To, cc, Subject and Message.



MM>send
 To:
 cc:
 Subject:
 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.):


The prompt cc is one of three prompts for additional copies of the outgoing message. cc is for carbon copy or courtesy copy, a copy of your message being sent for information to additional people. bcc, which is the same thing, except it is hidden (blind) by not being listed in the message when it is delivered. fcc is a file copy addressed to a file in MM's current working directory.

You can choose whether to be prompted for cc, bcc and fcc by setting the variables prompt-for-cc, prompt-for-bcc and prompt-for-fcc. Normally prompt-for-cc is set to yes and the other two are set to no. Change any of the three variables based on your own use of MM. For example, if you hardly ever use cc, type set prompt-for-cc no and then save-init to save the change. You could still insert a cc into any message by using the cc command at the S> prompt, just as you can insert bcc and fcc fields with the bcc and fcc commands.

You can choose a long or short prompt for Message by setting the variable terse-text-prompt. It is usually set to no, so the prompt is quite long, with four lines in parentheses explaining what control letters you can type. To get a short prompt that just says Msg: and nothing else, type set terse-text-prompt yes; then use save-init to save the change.


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