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## 12 The Speedbar

You can also use the speedbar (see the section Speedbar Frames in The GNU Emacs Manual) to view your folders. To bring up the speedbar, run `M-x speedbar <RET>`. You will see a new frame appear with all of your MH folders. Folders with unseen messages appear in boldface. Click on a folder name with `Mouse-2` to visit that folder in a similar fashion to the command `F v` (`mh-visit-folder`) (see Folders). Click on the ‘`+`’ icon to expand and view the sub-folders of that folder.

The speedbar can be manipulated with the keyboard as well. Use the Emacs navigational keys (like the arrow keys, or `C-n`) to move the cursor over the desired folder and then use the shortcuts for the menu items listed in the table below.

‘`Visit Folder (<RET>)`’
  Visits the selected folder just as if you had used `F v` (`mh-speed-view`).
‘`Expand Nested Folders (`+`)`’
  Expands the selected folder in the speedbar, exposing the children folders inside it (`mh-speed-expand-folder`).
‘`Contract Nested Folders (`-`)`’
  Contracts or collapses the selected folder in the speedbar, hiding the children folders inside it (`mh-speed-contract-folder`).
‘`Refresh Speedbar (`r`)`’
  Regenerates the list of folders in the speedbar. Run this command if you've added or deleted a folder, or want to update the unseen message count before the next automatic update (`mh-speed-refresh`).

You can click on `Mouse-3` to bring up a context menu that contains these items. Dismiss the speedbar with `C-x 5 0` (`delete-frame`).

The MH-E speedbar uses the MH command `flists` 1 to generate the list of folders. The ‘`mh-speedbar`’ customization group contains the following option which controls how often the speedbar calls `flists`.

`mh-speed-update-interval`
  Time between speedbar updates in seconds (default: 60). Set to 0 to disable automatic update.

You can modify the appearance of the folders in the speedbar by customizing the following faces.

`mh-speedbar-folder`
  Basic folder face.
`mh-speedbar-folder-with-unseen-messages`
  Folder face when folder contains unread messages.
`mh-speedbar-selected-folder`
  Selected folder face.
`mh-speedbar-selected-folder-with-unseen-messages`
  Selected folder face when folder contains unread messages.

#### Footnotes

[1] See the section Searching for Sequences with flist in the MH book.