Pager Dialog#
Introduction – Where am I?#
The Pager Dialog is NeoMutt’s message-reading view. It shows one email in detail and lets you read the headers and body without losing access to message-level actions. Depending on your layout, it may appear as a split view underneath the index or as the main focus of the screen.
Date: Mon, 02 Mar 2026 13:00:00 GMT From: Jodie Foster <jf@tangerine.com> To: Anthony Hopkins <ah@cherry.com> Subject: The Silence of the Lambs Anthony, It's been over thirty years since The Silence of the Lambs and I still get asked about it every single week. The film refuses to age. I was thinking about our first scene together — Clarice walking down that corridor to Hannibal's cell. Jonathan Demme kept the camera so close to my face that I genuinely felt claustrophobic. Do you remember your preparation for that first meeting? Jodie ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ - - 121/143: Jodie Foster The Silence of the Lambs -- (all)
04-Mar └─>Re: The Princess Bride (0.6K) 02-Mar The Silence of the Lambs (0.5K) 04-Mar └─> (0.9K) 06-Mar └─> (0.7K) 07-Mar └─> (0.6K) 2026-01-05 -- ~/mail/conversation [Msgs:143/143 Post:4 163K] (last-date/date) (86%) Date: Mon, 02 Mar 2026 13:00:00 GMT From: Jodie Foster <jf@tangerine.com> To: Anthony Hopkins <ah@cherry.com> Subject: The Silence of the Lambs Anthony, It's been over thirty years since The Silence of the Lambs and I still get asked about it every single week. The film refuses to age. I was thinking about our first scene together — Clarice walking down that corridor to Hannibal's cell. Jonathan Demme kept the camera so close to my face that I genuinely felt claustrophobic. Do you remember your preparation for that first meeting? - - 121/143: Jodie Foster The Silence of the Lambs -- (98%)
04-Mar └─>Re: The Princess Bride (0.6K) 02-Mar The Silence of the Lambs (0.5K) 04-Mar └─> (0.9K) 06-Mar └─> (0.7K) 07-Mar └─> (0.6K) 2026-01-05 -- ~/mail/conversation [Msgs:143/143 Post:4 163K] (last-date/date) Date: Mon, 02 Mar 2026 13:00:00 GMT From: Jodie Foster <jf@tangerine.com> To: Anthony Hopkins <ah@cherry.com> Subject: The Silence of the Lambs Anthony, It's been over thirty years since The Silence of the Lambs and I still get asked about it every single week. The film refuses to age. I was thinking about our first scene together — Clarice walking down that corridor to Hannibal's cell. Jonathan Demme kept the camera so close to my face that I genuinely felt claustrophobic. Do you remember your preparation for that first meeting? - - 121/143: Jodie Foster The Silence of the Lambs -- (98%)
What am I looking at?#
The header area shows the important message headers such as Date, From, To, and Subject.
The body area displays the message text, quoted replies, signatures, and any ANSI colour sequences that NeoMutt renders.
The pager status line shows which message you are reading, where you are in the mailbox, and how far through the message you have scrolled.
In split mode, the Index Dialog remains visible above the pager so you can keep message context while reading.
The Sidebar Panel and Message Window can still appear around the pager when enabled.
What can I do?#
Scroll by line, half-page, page, or jump straight to the top, bottom, headers, or first unquoted text.
Search inside the current message, repeat searches, and toggle quoted-text visibility.
Reply, group-reply, list-reply, forward, bounce, save, print, pipe, label, or delete the message without going back to the index first.
Move directly to the next or previous message, thread, subthread, or unread message while staying in reading mode.
Open the Attach Dialog, create an alias from the sender, or inspect the raw message.
Full reference: Pager Functions, Index Functions, Sidebar Functions, Generic Functions.
Where can I go next?#
q or x returns to the Index Dialog.
<reply>,<group-reply>,<list-reply>,<forward-message>,<mail>, and<bounce-message>open the Compose Dialog.<view-attachments>opens the Attach Dialog.?,
<show-log-messages>, and V open one of the Simple Pagers.: and / use the Message Window for commands and searches.
Many mailbox-changing functions forwarded from the index can take you to the Browser Dialog or another mailbox.
Where did I come from?#
You usually arrive from the Index Dialog via
<display-message>.If you stay inside the pager and move to the next or previous message, you are still following the same index mailbox context.
Some workflows return here after raw-message viewing or after dismissing short-lived prompts in the Message Window.
How do I configure this?#
Start with Pager Config and General Config.
Common options include
$pager_format,$pager_index_lines,$smart_wrap,$markers,$quote_regex,$header, and$weed.Header display can be shaped with
:ignore,:unignore,:header-order, and:unheader-order.Colours come from Colour Objects, especially
header,hdrdefault,body,quoted0throughquoted9,signature,search,markers,tilde,tree, andstatus.