Index Dialog

Introduction – Where am I?

The Index Dialog is NeoMutt’s home screen: the mailbox view where you browse messages one line at a time. It is also called the message index, the mailbox index, or simply “the index”. Most workflows start here, and most of the other dialogs eventually return here.

Index Dialog

12-Jan     Meryl Streep               The Devil Wears Prada                                   (0.3K)
14-Jan     Al Pacino                  └─>                                                     (0.3K)
14-Jan     Glenn Close                  └─>                                                   (0.5K)
18-Jan     Meryl Streep                   └─>                                                 (0.7K)
18-Jan     Al Pacino                        └─>                                               (0.5K)
19-Jan     Tom Hanks                  Les Miserables                                          (0.4K)
20-Jan     Hugh Jackman               └─>                                                     (0.6K)
21-Jan     Tom Hanks                    └─>                                                   (0.6K)
21-Jan     Hugh Jackman                   └─>                                                 (0.7K)
26-Jan     Denzel Washington          Fences                                                  (0.4K)
28-Jan     Viola Davis                └─>                                                     (0.6K)
29-Jan     Angela Bassett               └─>                                                   (0.8K)
31-Jan     Denzel Washington              └─>                                                 (0.7K)
03-Feb     Viola Davis                      └─>                                               (0.3K)
02-Feb     Bryan Cranston             Breaking Bad                                            (0.4K)
03-Feb     Bob Odenkirk               └─>                                                     (0.5K)
06-Feb     Anna Kendrick                └─>                                                   (0.6K)
06-Feb     Jon Hamm                       └─>                                                 (0.6K)
08-Feb     Bryan Cranston                   └─>                                               (0.7K)
04-Feb     Bob Odenkirk                       └─>                                             (0.2K)
09-Feb     Jamie Lee Curtis           Knives Out                                              (0.5K)
10-Feb     Kate Winslet               └─>                                                     (0.6K)
-- ~/work/actors/conversation [Msgs:48/48 50K]   (last-date/date)                            (45%)  
                                                                                                    

What am I looking at?

• The main panel is the message list, with one row per message showing date, flags, author, subject, thread tree, and size.

• The highlighted row is the current message; threaded mailboxes use the tree glyphs to show parent and child relationships.

• The status line summarizes the current mailbox, message counts, sort mode, and your position in the list.

• Depending on your setup, the Sidebar Panel may appear beside the index and the Pager Dialog may be embedded below it.

• Temporary prompts, search input, and status messages appear in the Message Window.

What can I do?

• Open the current message in the Pager Dialog with <display-message>.

• Compose new mail or respond to existing mail with <mail>, <reply>, <group-reply>, <list-reply>, <forward-message>, <bounce-message>, and <compose-to-sender>.

• Organize mail by deleting, undeleting, saving, copying, piping, printing, labeling, tagging, and syncing messages.

• Change the view by limiting, searching, sorting, threading, collapsing threads, and jumping between unread or tagged mail.

• Open related tools such as the Attach Dialog, Query Dialog, Autocrypt Dialog, help pages, and the command line.

• Full reference: Index Functions, Generic Functions, Sidebar Functions.

Where can I go next?

• <display-message> opens the Pager Dialog.

• <mail>, <reply>, <group-reply>, <list-reply>, <forward-message>, <bounce-message>, and <compose-to-sender> open the Compose Dialog.

• <recall-message> resumes a draft; if there is more than one postponed draft, NeoMutt shows the Postpone Dialog first.

• <change-folder> can open the Browser Dialog when you ask for mailbox browsing with ?.

• <view-attachments> opens the Attach Dialog.

• <query> opens the Query Dialog.

• <autocrypt-acct-menu> opens the Autocrypt Dialog.

• ?, <show-log-messages>, :set, :bind, :macro, :version, and :color open the Simple Pagers.

• :, /, and l use the Message Window.

• TLS or certificate problems may interrupt the flow with the Certificate Dialog.

Where did I come from?

• Normal startup usually lands here directly.

• Selecting a mailbox in the Browser Dialog opens the index for that mailbox.

• Quitting the Pager Dialog returns to the index.

• Sending, postponing, or aborting in the Compose Dialog returns here.

• Exiting the Attach Dialog, Query Dialog, Autocrypt Dialog, or other short-lived dialogs usually brings you back here.

• Accepting or rejecting a certificate normally returns to the operation that was trying to show, sync, or open this mailbox.

How do I configure this?

• Start with Index Config, General Config, and Sidebar Config.

• Common options include $index_format, $status_format, $sort, $sort_aux, $use_threads, $collapse_all, $hide_thread_subject, and $resolve.

• Mailbox lists and labels are shaped by :mailboxes, :named-mailboxes, and :index-format-hook.

• Colours come from Colour Objects, especially index, index_author, index_date, index_flags, index_subject, index_size, index_label, tree, indicator, and status.