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<head><title>Enigmail Help: Message Reading</title>
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<h3>Using Enigmail when reading messages</h3>
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<li><b>Decrypt button in main Mail window</b><br>
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This button can be used for several purposes: decrypt, verify, or import
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public keys. Normally decryption/verification happens automatically,
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although this can be disabled through a preference. However, if this fails,
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usually a short error message will appear in the Enigmail status line. If
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you click the Decrypt button, you will be able to see a more detailed error
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message, including the output from the GnuPG command.
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<li><b>Pen and Key icons in Message Header display</b><br>
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The <em>Pen</em> and <em>Key</em> icons in the Message Header display indicate if
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the message you are reading was signed and/or encrypted and if the signature is
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good, i.e. the message has not been changed since it was signed. If the message
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has been changed, the <em>Pen</em> icon will change to a <em>Broken Pen</em> to
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indicate that the signature is bad. Right clicking on either the Pen or Key icons
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will bring up a menu with the following options:
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<li><em>OpenPGP Security info</em>: allows you to view the output status from
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GnuPG for the message.</li>
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<li><em>Copy OpenPGP Security info</em>: copies the output status from GnuPG to the
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clipboard; to paste into a reply message, etc.</li>
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<li><em>View OpenPGP Photo ID</em>: allows you to view the <em>Photo ID</em> of the
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person who sent the message, if they have a photo embedded in their Public Key.
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(<em>This option will only be enabled if a Photo ID exists in their key.)</em></li>
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<li><em>S/MIME Security info</em>: allows you to view the S/MIME Security Info
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<p>If you do not have <em>keyserver-options auto-key-retrieve</em> set in your
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<tt>gpg.conf</tt> file and you read a message which is signed or encrypted,
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you will see a <em>Pen</em> icon in the headers display area with a <em>Question
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mark</em> on it, the Enigmail status line in the headers area will say <em>Part
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of the message signed; click pen icon for details</em> and the message in the
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Message Pane will show all the OpenPGP message block indicators and the signature
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<p>You may also see this if you have <em>keyserver-options auto-key-retrieve</em>
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set in your <tt>gpg.conf</tt> file and the OpenPGP key is not available on the default
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<p>Clicking on the <em>Pen and Question mark</em> icon will bring up a window
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advising that the key is unavailable in your keyring. Clicking on OK will
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bring up another window with a list of keyservers from which you can select to
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download the sender's public key from.</p>
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<p>To configure the list of keyservers you wish to use, go to <b>Enigmail ->
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Preferences -> Basic</b> tab and enter the keyserver addresses in the
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<em>Keyserver(s):</em> box, separated by a comma. <em>The first keyserver in the
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list will be used as the default.</p></em>
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<li><b>Opening encrypted attachments / importing attached OpenPGP keys</b><br>
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Attachments named *.pgp, *.asc and *.gpg are recognized as attachments that
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can be handled specially by Enigmail. Right clicking on such an attachment
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enables two special menu items in the context menu: <em>Decrypt and Open</em>
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and <em>Decrypt and Save</em>. Use these two menu items if you want Enigmail
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to decrypt an attachment before opening or saving it. If an attachment is
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recognized as an OpenPGP key file, you are offered to import the keys it into
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Further help is available on the
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<a href="http://www.enigmail.net/support/" target="_blank">Enigmail Help web page</a>