## 21 Customizations ¶

Useful ways to customize VM.

### 21.1 Reading messages ¶

#### Shrunken headers ¶

Some messages come with huge lists of recipients and one has to page through them before getting to the actual content of the message. The shrunken headers feature, included in `vm-rfaddons`, addresses this problem. To use the feature, you must add `shrunken-headers` to the variable `vm-enable-addons` in your VM init file:

    (setq vm-enable-addons (cons 'shrunken-headers vm-enable-addons))

The add-on abbreviates all the message headers to single lines, and adds a button at the end. You can click the button to expand the header to its full length. The function `vm-shrunken-headers-toggle` can be used to expand or collapse all the headers of a message. You might bind this to a key, if you use it often.

(This add-on was provided by Robert Fenk.)

#### MIME alternatives ¶

The default setting of VM for handling MIME alternatives is `best-internal`, which means the best alternative that can be displayed internally in VM is chosen. Many users have environments where only `text/plain` parts can be displayed internally. However, some messages come with `text/html` parts that are expected to be more faithful to the sender’s composition. On occasion, you might wish to see the `text/html` part even if it has to be viewed externally.

The function `vm-toggle-best-mime` function, included in `vm-rfaddons`, allows you to change VM’s selection method to `best` temporarily so that you can view the `text/html` part. You can use the same function to change the method back to `best-internal`.

(Thanks to Alley Stoughton for this contribution.)

### 21.2 Saving messages and attachments ¶

#### Auto saving attachments ¶

Messages with attachments get bulky and increase the size of VM folders, slowing down VM. The functions `vm-save-all-attachments` and `vm-save-attachments` provide ways to save attachments of messages on the file system and deleting them from the mail folders.

The function `vm-mime-auto-save-all-attachments`, included in `vm-rfaddons`, provides enhanced functionality for saving attachments. It saves the attachments in a subdirectory of `vm-mime-save-attachment-save-directory`, whose name is obtained by concating the “from”, “subject” and “date” headers of the message. This can be customized via the variable `vm-mime-auto-save-all-attachments-subdir`.

You can save the attachments of all new messages automatically by putting `vm-mime-auto-save-all-attachments` in `vm-select-new-message-hook`.

(This add-on was provided by Robert Fenk.)

### 21.3 Printing messages ¶