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(gnus)Using MIME

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Using MIME
==========

   Mime is a standard for waving your hands through the air, aimlessly,
while people stand around yawning.

   MIME, however, is a standard for encoding your articles, aimlessly,
while all newsreaders die of fear.

   MIME may specify what character set the article uses, the encoding
of the characters, and it also makes it possible to embed pictures and
other naughty stuff in innocent-looking articles.

   Gnus pushes MIME articles through `gnus-display-mime-function' to
display the MIME parts.  This is `gnus-display-mime' by default, which
creates a bundle of clickable buttons that can be used to display, save
and manipulate the MIME objects.

   The following commands are available when you have placed point over
a MIME button:

`<RET> (Article)'
`Mouse-2 (Article)'
     Toggle displaying of the MIME object (`gnus-article-press-button').

`M-<RET> (Article)'
`v (Article)'
     Prompt for a method, and then view the MIME object using this
     method (`gnus-mime-view-part').

`o (Article)'
     Prompt for a file name, and then save the MIME object
     (`gnus-mime-save-part').

`c (Article)'
     Copy the MIME object to a fresh buffer and display this buffer
     (`gnus-mime-copy-part').

`t (Article)'
     View the MIME object as if it were a different MIME media type
     (`gnus-mime-view-part-as-type').

`| (Article)'
     Output the MIME object to a process (`gnus-mime-pipe-part').

`i (Article)'
     Insert the contents of the MIME object into the buffer
     (`gnus-mime-inline-part') as text/plain.  If given a prefix, insert
     the raw contents without decoding.  If given a numerical prefix,
     you can do semi-manual charset stuff (see
     `gnus-summary-show-article-charset-alist' in Note: Paging the
     Article).

`. (Article)'
     Interactively run an action on the MIME object
     (`gnus-mime-action-on-part').

   Gnus will display some MIME objects automatically.  The way Gnus
determines which parts to do this with is described in the Emacs MIME
manual.

   It might be best to just use the toggling functions from the article
buffer to avoid getting nasty surprises.  (For instance, you enter the
group `alt.sing-a-long' and, before you know it, MIME has decoded the
sound file in the article and some horrible sing-a-long song comes
screaming out your speakers, and you can't find the volume button,
because there isn't one, and people are starting to look at you, and you
try to stop the program, but you can't, and you can't find the program
to control the volume, and everybody else in the room suddenly decides
to look at you disdainfully, and you'll feel rather stupid.)

   Any similarity to real events and people is purely coincidental.
Ahem.

   Also see Note: MIME Commands.