I've searched the forum and other help areas but do not see how I can send an email to multiple recipients all in one email. Of course I realize that I can list each in a separate TO line but I am talking about a group that I may often send emails to as a group.

I am using KAddressBook v 4.4.2 and one screen I saw leads me to think 'distribution' is not an option in this version. Maybe I misunderstand what is being spoken of. The following paragraph is very confusing to me. I don't know what Nepomuk is, but I installed it. I think -- I don't see it in any menus. I don't know what Strigi is. I don't know what Akonadi is but it is in my applications/accessories menu. At least something called Akonadiytray is there.

Initial Requirements

Nepomuk must be running. Open SystemSettings > Advanced tab > Desktop search and enable Nepomuk. Strigi may be too heavy on resources if your hardware struggles, but enabling Strigi is optional. Turn it off if it gives you problems, though lack of indexing will necessarily impact the extent to which Nepomuk can work. MySQL must be working. This has been problematic on some distributions. If you have problems you will probably benefit from reading the Akonadi Troubleshooting page.

Also, I don't see where to "Open SystemSettings > Advanced tab > Desktop"

I would like to put a list of email addresses in a group or separate address book and just list the group as the recipient. Can this be done? If so, how?

Deedon

Deedon wrote:I've searched the forum and other help areas but do not see how I can send an email to multiple recipients all in one email. Of course I realize that I can list each in a separate TO line but I am talking about a group that I may often send emails to as a group.

I am using KAddressBook v 4.4.2 and one screen I saw leads me to think 'distribution' is not an option in this version. Maybe I misunderstand what is being spoken of.

Groups are the replacement for Distribution Lists. Create a new group and add the addresses that will be included. One caveat - don't use the format "lastname, firstname" because the commas confuse the listing. This may not be relevant in later versions, but I have certainly found it to be in 4.4

The following paragraph is very confusing to me. I don't know what Nepomuk is, but I installed it. I think -- I don't see it in any menus. I don't know what Strigi is. I don't know what Akonadi is but it is in my applications/accessories menu. At least something called Akonadiytray is there.

Initial Requirements

Nepomuk must be running. Open SystemSettings > Advanced tab > Desktop search and enable Nepomuk. Strigi may be too heavy on resources if your hardware struggles, but enabling Strigi is optional. Turn it off if it gives you problems, though lack of indexing will necessarily impact the extent to which Nepomuk can work. MySQL must be working. This has been problematic on some distributions. If you have problems you will probably benefit from reading the Akonadi Troubleshooting page.

Nepomuk is a background tool - it organises information in the background to make it more quickly and easily available. It's not something you should need to worry about. That comment is there because it is a warning not to disable it. You lose a good deal of functionality if it's disabled.

Strigi is a different matter. Strigi indexes everything in the areas you allow it to - normally everything under your /home. It doesn't just index file names, it searches inside files to index there, too. The end result should be excellent search returns, both in content and speed. The downside is that it does use a lot of resources, so anyone with less well-endowed hardware may have to turn off indexing. It is possible to pause indexing, and re-enable it to work overnight, though. Once the initial indexing is done it may not cause any problems. You have to see whether it's acceptable to you or not. The point is that this is optional, whereas Nepomuk is needed.

Also, I don't see where to "Open SystemSettings > Advanced tab > Desktop"

System Settings is the control panel for KDE applications and workspaces. You probably have it already in your Favourites section of the start menu. It's icon is a screwdriver and spanner crossed.

I would like to put a list of email addresses in a group or separate address book and just list the group as the recipient. Can this be done? If so, how?

Deedon

It can be done, as I said, but how good it is depends on the exact version you have. Try it as I described it. If it doesn't work properly, tell us exactly what did happen and we'll try to get it sorted for you.

Unrelated to KOffice, so I have moved the topic to the "Office & productivity" forum, used for kmail/kaddressbook discussions.

cyrille wrote:Unrelated to KOffice, so I have moved the topic to the "Office & productivity" forum, used for kmail/kaddressbook discussions.

Sorry, I did not discern the difference but I do now.

annew wrote:Groups are the replacement for Distribution Lists. Create a new group and add the addresses that will be included.

I created a new group. I was only given fields for a name and an email address instead of the complete set of info allowed for a contact. OK, While I could use an additional field or two, I don't have to have them.

I filled the two fields each for two imaginary (for testing purposes) people. If I click on the name of the group, it opens up the group list. All I can do here is add, modify or delete the names and addresses. Alternatively, I can highlight the group name and the list of members will appear in the right window.

From this window I can click on a member's address and a compose window opens with that member as the recipient. However, if I click on another address it opens a new window. The only way I see to add the other members to the original email is to copy and paste into new 'TO' fields for each one. This is a cumbersome method to do mass mailings. I see no way to choose all of the members of a group at one time.

Also, I don't see where to "Open SystemSettings > Advanced tab > Desktop"

System Settings is the control panel for KDE applications and workspaces. You probably have it already in your Favourites section of the start menu. It's icon is a screwdriver and spanner crossed.

The Configuration Editor was nowhere to be found. I did go to System/Preferences/Main Menu. I found Configuration Editor listed under Applications/System Tools. It was not checked. I checked it then was able to find it under Applications/System Tools (top menus).

So I opened the Configuration Editor and used the find option for Nepomuk but did not find it. I think we've made some progress and I appreciate the help provided. But I still can't send mass mailings. Where do I go from here?

Deedon

I think you hsve a few confusions. First, addresses must be already in your addressbook before you can add them to a group. Then, when you start to type a name into those two fields you'll see a list of matches and can pick out the right one. That's all you need to do - any other information on the person's vcard is available if needed, but you don't see it in the group view. Name and email address are all that is relevant there.To use the group, you should see the group's name on your list of contacts.You type only the name of the group, and the message should go to everyone in the group.If you have more than one mail account, or can create an extra one, it's a good idea to make a test group with your own addresses. I do that when I set up a new installation.

SystemSettings - I think you were looking in the wrong place. It's actually a program name. You can type it (without capitals) into kontact or krunner (alt-F2) or typing settings into the search box in the kickoff (or lancelot) menu.

annew wrote:I think you hsve a few confusions.

I'll not argue that I'm confused.

annew wrote: First, addresses must be already in your addressbook before you can add them to a group. Then, when you start to type a name into those two fields you'll see a list of matches and can pick out the right one. That's all you need to do - any other information on the person's vcard is available if needed, but you don't see it in the group view. Name and email address are all that is relevant there.To use the group,.

So I deleted the group that I had been testing with. Started a new one and put in two existing contacts from my KAddressBook.

annew wrote: you should see the group's name on your list of contacts.You type only the name of the group, and the message should go to everyone in the group.

Are there any restrictions in the group name? Restrictions against spaces or punctuation marks, or length, etc. The reason I ask is I have tried three ways of using "DerbysBlogSubscribers" as a group name. I get no error messages when setting it up. However, it does not work to send emails to the two members of the group.

I presume that the place where I am to type the name of the group is either in the 'TO' field in a message to be sent or in the window in "Select Recipient" box that is available when sending an email. When I type it in the "Select Recipient" box, it does not show in the list and I don't have an option to "Add as To" or any other Add.

When I type it directly into the "To" box and click Send, I get the following error message.

Sending failed:
Message sending failed since the following recipients were rejected by the server:
DerbysBlogSubscribers@deedon-desktop (The server responded: "5.1.2 Use fully qualified domain name: DerbysBlogSubscribers@deedon-desktop")
The message will stay in the 'outbox' folder until you either fix the problem (e.g. a broken address) or remove the message from the 'outbox' folder.
The following transport was used:
David Deedon

annew wrote:SystemSettings - I think you were looking in the wrong place. It's actually a program name. You can type it (without capitals) into kontact or krunner (alt-F2) or typing settings into the search box in the kickoff (or lancelot) menu.

I did not find SystemSettings until I went to Synaptic Package Manager. It apparently had not been installed. I installed it and I find it now with the (alt-F2) and under System/Preferences.

In an earlier reply you indicated that I only needed to be sure I did not turn off Nepomuk. And it was because I could not find Nepomuk that I asked about SystemSettings. So maybe I don't need it. As stated earlier, I did install Nepomuk and it shows that it is installed (per Synaptic Package Manager). Still I see no trace of it anywhere (maybe I don't need to see it). I am sure I have not disabled it.

So it must be something else that keeps me from seeing my group name in the Select Recipient box.

I do very much appreciate the help you are providing.

Deedon

Now I'm confused. You shouldn't have to manually install those packages - they are part of most default installations.

The error message says that it isn't recognising it as a Group/Distribution-List - it's trying to treat it as a person, so we may need to step through that again, but before we do I think it might be as well to start from scratch, by saying which distribution you use, and which version of KDE is included.

I'm travelling home today, so it may be 24 hours before I can answer.

annew wrote:Now I'm confused. You shouldn't have to manually install those packages - they are part of most default installations.

That's what I thought but I'm fairly new to Linux and have little idea of what I'm doing.

annew wrote:The error message says that it isn't recognising it as a Group/Distribution-List - it's trying to treat it as a person, so we may need to step through that again, but before we do I think it might be as well to start from scratch, by saying which distribution you use, and which version of KDE is included.

I'm travelling home today, so it may be 24 hours before I can answer.

Maybe just as well. My monitor died today and I got behind in everything. Oh, well. I got a new and better monitor because of it.

I am using Ubuntu with Lucid Lynx. What I have that should be KDE (4.2.2) related (based on the name) is: KPackageKit, Kmail (1.13.2), KAddressBook (4.2.2), and KOrganizer (4.2.2).

I hope this info is helpful. Please let me know what else you need to know and I'll try to figure it out.

Deedon

I don't use Kubuntu, so I don't know what's possible with Lucid Lynx. I do know that 4.2.2 is very old and there have been many changes and improvements since then. Please look at your package manager (sorry I don't know its name, but it's where you install and upgrade software). My advice would be to accept every upgrade it offers you, then come back and tell us which version you now have. Meanwhile, I'll get a Kubuntu user to watch this topic, so that we have distro-specific help.

If I give you help or instructions based on my much later version it's absolutely guaranteed that I'll confuse you further

Kubuntu 10.04 aka Lucid Lynx ships KDE SC 4.4.2, not 4.2.2.

I only shortly went through the posts, but do I guess correctly that you are using Kmail on top of a Gnome installation? Ubuntu and Kubuntu are two different releases, Ubuntu comes with Gnome (and the Synaptic Package Manager), Kubuntu comes with KDE (and the KPackageKit). If my guess is correct, then you probably don't have a complete KDE installation and should install the package called kde-full.

If you are using Synaptic, please activate the updates repositories in the sources (Settings menu -> Repositories -> Updates tab, then make sure you have all four update lines checked).
To get all possible upgrade lick on the "Reload" button, then the "Mark all Updates" button plus search for the package 'kde-full' so it will also be installed. Then click on the "Apply " button and get a coffee/tea/beverage of your choice and be patient, it may take some time.

I hope this helps

Mamarok wrote:Kubuntu 10.04 aka Lucid Lynx ships KDE SC 4.4.2, not 4.2.2.

I only shortly went through the posts, but do I guess correctly that you are using Kmail on top of a Gnome installation?

Yes.

Mamarok wrote:Ubuntu and Kubuntu are two different releases, Ubuntu comes with Gnome (and the Synaptic Package Manager), Kubuntu comes with KDE (and the KPackageKit). If my guess is correct, then you probably don't have a complete KDE installation and should install the package called kde-full.

Yes, I use Ubuntu and have Synaptic Package Manager. Somehow, I also have KPackageKit. So far as I know or recall, I've never used KPackageKit.

Mamarok wrote:If you are using Synaptic, please activate the updates repositories in the sources (Settings menu -> Repositories -> Updates tab, then make sure you have all four update lines checked).
To get all possible upgrade lick on the "Reload" button, then the "Mark all Updates" button plus search for the package 'kde-full' so it will also be installed. Then click on the "Apply " button and get a coffee/tea/beverage of your choice and be patient, it may take some time.

I hope this helps

I did all of the above. I kept the Gnome as my default desktop. Good idea or bad idea?

I still have the original problem of not being able to send out mass emails unless I list each member of the group manually in a separate TO line. If I put the name of the group in the TO line manually, I still get the error message I showed in my message here on July 8. In other words, whatever was not happening is still not happening. I can't see any difference (but it did take a while to install kde-full).

David

David, I'm going to ask you to try a different approach because it may help us identify your problem. Please log out, then select the KDE desktop, and launch kontact from there. If we can get everything working as you wish you can then switch back to Gnome if you are happier with it.

We have assumed that you want to use KAddressBook with KMail - please confirm that this is what you aim for.

annew wrote:David, I'm going to ask you to try a different approach because it may help us identify your problem. Please log out, then select the KDE desktop, and launch kontact from there. If we can get everything working as you wish you can then switch back to Gnome if you are happier with it.

When I log out the only option I have is to log in as someone else. And since no other users have been set up, that it not even a true option. I see nothing about choosing the desktop.
There have been a great many items added to the various menus since I installed kde-all, but I have checked them and do not find a way to change desktop manager.

annew wrote:We have assumed that you want to use KAddressBook with KMail - please confirm that this is what you aim for.

That is correct. I like KMail and, except for this problem, like KAddressBook.

Deedon

to "Switch Between Gnome And KDE Desktops In Ubuntu Or Kubuntu"
see http://www.watchingthenet.com/switch-be ... buntu.html