Composing

Messages are written in the right-hand pane, with the list still in view. There’s no separate editor window unless you ask for one with :e.

Starting a message

Key
m c	new message, from the account you’re in
r	reply to the sender (or Reply-To)
R	reply all. You’re left off; everyone else on To and Cc goes in Cc
f	forward, with the original’s attachments
m on the people screen	write to that person

Replies quote the original below your cursor, under an “On …, … wrote:” line. The subject gets Re: or Fwd: only if it doesn’t already start with one. Replies keep In-Reply-To and References, so they thread properly everywhere, and the original is marked \Answered once the reply is sent.

Fields

The fields are To, Cc, Subject and the body. Bcc appears when you tab to it.

In the address fields, tern suggests contacts from your CardDAV address books as you type, matching names, addresses and companies. Matches at the start of a name or address come first.

Insert mode
tab	take the suggestion, or go to the next field
⇧tab	previous field
⏎	take the suggestion, or jump To → Subject → body
^n ^p ↑ ↓	pick a suggestion
^w ^u	delete a word / to the start of the line
esc	normal mode
^s	send
^t	attach a file
^f	send from your next account

The editor is modal

The body works like vim. You start in insert mode. esc drops to normal mode.

Normal mode
h j k l	move. j and k cross between fields
w b e	word forward / back / end
0 ^ $	line start / end
{ } gg G	paragraph, top, bottom
i a I A o O	insert
x X D C S r J	delete, change, replace, join
dd dw db cc cw	delete or change a line or word
yy p P	yank a line, paste after / before
v V	visual, then y d c
u ^r	undo / redo

Commands:

ZZ :wq :x ^s	send
:w	save to the server’s Drafts folder
ZQ :q!	discard. :q refuses while there are unsent changes
:a <file> ^t	attach (~/ works). ^t or a bare :a asks for the path
:e ^e	edit the whole message in $EDITOR, then come back
:to :cc :bcc :subject	jump to a field

Line wrapping

Long lines wrap on screen only. The message goes out with one line per paragraph, so phones and desktop clients each wrap it to fit. You won’t see the ragged hard-wrapped lines that 72-column mail turns into on a phone.

External editor

:e (or ^e) writes the message, headers included, to a file in ~/.cache/tern/drafts/. It opens that file in your editor, then reads it back into the composer. The editor is editor under [ui], then $VISUAL, then $EDITOR, then the first of nvim, vim, vi or nano it finds. Vim-like editors open with the cursor on the Subject line (new mail) or on the body (replies).

Signatures

An account’s signature is placed below where you type in new messages, replies and forwards. See Accounts.

Choosing who it’s from

A reply is sent from the account the original was delivered to, even in All inboxes. To send from another account, press ^f in the composer. Each press moves to the next account, and the From line and the signature change to match.

When you’re done

Sending goes through the outbox. There’s a 10-second undo (^z), and if you’re offline the message waits and retries. While you write, the message is autosaved, so a crash doesn’t lose it.