Sending Messages

When sending messages from within VM, you will be using the standard Mail major mode provided with GNU Emacs. See section `Mail Mode' in the GNU Emacs Manual. However, `*mail*' buffers created by VM have extra command keys:

C-c C-y (vm-yank-message)

Copies a message from the current folder into the `*mail*' buffer. The message number is read from the minibuffer. By default each line of the copy is prepended with the value of the variable vm-included-text-prefix. All message headers are yanked along with the text. Point is left before the inserted text, the mark after. Any hook functions bound to mail-yank-hooks are run, aftert inserting the text and setting point and mark. If a prefix argument is given, this tells VM to ignore mail-yank-hooks, don't set the mark, don't prepend the value of vm-included-text-prefix to every yanked line, and don't yank any headers other than those specified in vm-visible-headers/vm-invisible-headers.

C-c y (vm-yank-message-other-folder)

Work like vm-yank-message, but it first prompts for the name of a folder from which to yank the message.

C-c C-v <Any VM command key>

All VM commands may be accessed in the `*mail*' buffer by prefixing them with C-c C-v.

The simplest command is m (vm-mail) which sends a mail message much as M-x mail does but allows the added commands described above.

vm-mail can be invoked outside of VM by typing M-x vm-mail. However, of the above commands, only C-c y (vm-yank-message-other-folder) will work; all the other commands require a parent folder.

If you send a message and it is returned by the mail system because it was undeliverable, you an easily resend the message by typing C-r (vm-resend-bounced-message). VM will extract the old message and its pertinent headers from the returned message, and place you in a `*mail*' buffer. You can then change the recipient addresses or do whatever is necessary to correct the original problem and resend the message.