[Macworld]

Post your comments for Review: Mail 3.2 e-mail software here

[anneveen]

Sofar the best email client I have used. No need for Entourage!
Anne

[TxTom]

I like the features that Apple has added, but so far, the only program with a Junk filter I actually think WORKS is Thunderbird. I might give Mail another shot since it's so danged purty, but it's got to show me some filtering that works.

[hayesk]

There are some problems though.
Mail's IMAP support is not complete. It does not support subscriptions to mailboxes, and it sometimes leaves me with duplicate messages.
The To-do feature needs improvement. Most of my to-dos have extensive notes in the notes field. I wish Mail would use the message pane to display the notes field, but it is relegated to a column. This is useless if the notes are more than a few words, which is almost all of the time.
I also wish I could add notes to regular mail messages. There is a plug-in but it doesn't play nice with IMAP.
Finally, I wish Mail would sync the actual mail with .Mac, but maybe that's asking a bit much.

[mkmcfr]

That's great. Too bad it doesn't work. Just keeps hanging all the time. Why would one want To-Dos and Notes in your email program? The calendar is where they should be. But that aside, is there a conflict between iCal and Mail? Ever since the new version of Mail, it just keeps hanging every time.

[surtur]

Are you stuck with just Mail's Stationary or can you creat your own HTML email?

[leicaman]

Mail never gives me a bit of a problem. So you've got something going on besides Mail itself that's causing the problem. Though I'm not a big user of iCal, I love the way mail picks up on dates and times. And I like Notes and ToDos in mail. It's the only program I have open all the time, although Safari is a close second.

[macnuke]

Like Mail the best out of all i Have played with.
unfortunately, i am stuck with Tiger for a while longer.
so no Mail 3.anything for me.

[stonefingers]

It's simple, straight-forward, no-frills email. I do wish it had better integration with iCal and iWork, but then again, I like it's simplicity.

[warlock7]

Are you running any RSS feeds through Mail? I've run into hanging issues with Safari as an RSS feed provider. I've moved all of my RSS feeds to an alternate method and most of the hanging issues I had have cleared up since then.

[bforcier]

Problem I've had with Mail for a long time is that Apple keeps insisting that you should keep separate activities like contact activity, calendar activity and mail activity.
Am I the only one who happens to think that actually having those 3 items in the same program makes sense?
Can you easily transform a mail into an event or lookup a contact with full credentials in Mail? No.
At least, in Entourage 200x or Notes or Outlook 200x, you do everything in one application. There's something to be said about that...

[pcharles]

I've not used Thunderbird or Entourage a lot because I keep coming back to what I feel is the better interface of Apple Mail. It is not perfect, none of them are, but I've really not felt any of the other applications are as nice to use as Apple Mail. Maybe I am unsophisticated in my needs, but I find the search, mailboxes, rules, and HTML functionality very nice without being over powering. I think the RSS is a nice touch as it saves me using a third party reader, and it allows me to see the messages along side my email.

What I do find strange is the way that software and hardware is reviewed. Not just at MW, but in many places and it seems like there is no consistency from one set of pros and cons to the next. I notice Mail has the same rating as Entourage, yet it seems the latter is lacking RSS even though no mention of this was made. Does Entourage even work with time machine? Mail is slammed for having poor time machine integration, which I do not understand because in Mail, I click time machine and can look at any older emails without any trouble. This is something I cannot seem to do in the others.

I realize this is all personal preference anyway, and maybe its just the scientist in me, but it seems strange to mark something down for having an immature feature others do not. To me that it like slamming an auto manufacturer for supplying Goodyear tyres on the vehicle when others are not supplying any tyres at all.

[pcharles]

We have to use MeetingMaker here at the university, so having iCal separate from Mail is wonderful for me. Entourage has all the features you ask for, and look what a complete mess that is.

[bforcier]

That's just it, I don't have those many messes.

I even have multiple 'Exchange' accounts in an Entourage 2004 identity from different client's servers I monitor (running Kerio Mail Server) and it does that just fine. Tell me an Exchange or Kerio integration is as easy to support with Mail as it is with Entourage 2004 or 2008 and I might change opinions. Until then or untll Apple really comes out with a really collaborative server like Kerio or M$ (I had to make the pun) does then maybe I'll change my opinion.



Mail is great for pop and IMAP accounts but I've never had success with Exchange Server or Kerio either in native mode (full service offering, not just pulling and sending emails).