Updating when new mail arrives

[Gaelyne Gasson <gaelyne videocam net au>]

G'day Daniel,

> I'm new to the list, and to Balsa.  Hell, I'm new to Linux but that just
> makes me a good test candidate, right?

Welcome to the world of Linux!  :-)
 
> I installed Balsa 1.0 from an RPM, and it works nicely.  I use
> fetchmail/procmail to get and filter my incoming mail in to a number of
> separate mailboxes.  

I do the same. 

> Balsa seems to recognize these nicely, but when a new
> message arrives while Balsa's already open it does not show up.  

It should do - it normally highlights the folder name when there's new mail in
a folder.  Here's a couple of things to check - first, when you know there's
new mail in a folder, click on the "Check Email icon".  You should see the
folder with the new mail become bold and the default colour is blue for folders
with new mail.  If this doesn't happen, something is definitely amiss.  

If the above does work, the next thing to do is go to: 
Settings / Preferences / Mail Options 

Tick the option for Check Mail Automatically and set the time for how often it
checks for new mail.  I've found 5 minutes to be reasonable.  And if new mail
arrives inbetween that I want to see, I just click on the "Check Email" icon
for it. 


> So my question is this:  Do I really have to keep quitting and reloading
> Balsa to make it realise the fact that there are new messages in my
> mailboxes?

No, and indeed sometimes doing this can have an opposite effect, in my
experience. For instance, if I quit Balsa while there's new mail in a
procmail-fed folder, it won't show me that the folder has new mail after I've
re-opened Balsa, until another new message arrives while Balsa is running.  So,
I tend to leave Balsa running all the time as it gives me the best results.  

I suppose I should have mentioned this to the folks who write the software
before, but I guess I have now.  <big grin> 


Cheers,
Gaelyne


    *  .  *      
  . _\/ \/_ .    Gaelyne R. Gasson        gaelyne@videocam.net.au
   \  \ /  /     90 Hilliers Rd           Phone: +61 8 8322-2716 
 -==>: X :<==-   Reynella, S.A. 5161      Fax:   +61 8 8387-5810  
   / _/ \_ \     Australia                ICQ:   5069384
  '  /\ /\  '               http://gaelyne.com/ 
    *  '  *            http://videocam.net.au/xmas.html