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20 Replies Last post: Nov 7, 2007 12:21 AM by jesusali Go to original post 1 2 Previous Next

Charles_Martel

13 posts since
Jun 29, 2007

15. Nov 6, 2007 10:45 AM

in response to: jmincey

Re: Apple Mail 3

The Apple method of handling Inboxes is fine with me. I have 10 accounts and have instituted lots of rules to automatically move incoming mail to folders by subject. The only mail that actually stays in the Inbox is mail I am not expecting.
I read mail from a Smart Mailbox of "Unread E-Mails".

Do I keep lot of E-Mails? "My Momma was born during the Depression and I don't throw out anything either." - A friend of mine.

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StephanieE

2 posts since
Nov 6, 2007

16. Nov 6, 2007 12:37 PM

in response to: jmincey

Re: Apple Mail 3

Quote:<hr />
Not all uses of Mail are about consumers. Sometimes there can be business or IT implications for the use of Mail. Those who need multiple accounts will find the current Mail sidebar a complete mess to navigate -- especially when they add custom folders to each account.

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I use Mail for both business and personal email with around ten email accounts and the sidebar isn't a mess for me - this kind of choice is a very personal thing, what you love, someone else will hate, what I love, a third person will think is atrocious. Over the years, I've used Outlook, Outlook Express, Eudora and Thunderbird extensively for large amounts of email and over a dozen email accounts for both business and personal use at any one time and being a pack rat, hoarding years and years of mail. I'm a recent Mac convert, been coveting Macs for years but didn't make the switch till Vista drove me to it and I bought a Macbook last April. Personally, I love Mail more than any other email program, including TBird and OE. One caveat, I use Mail Tags and Mail Act-On which makes Mail perfect for me. I can do everything I used to do in OE and TBird in Mail plus lots of other stuff that I never could do in either OE or TBird.

Quote:<hr />
Supporting tabs in Mail solves this completely.

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Tabs is an interesting idea, I love them in Firefox and other programs that use them and choice is the best thing - offering several view variations for the user to choose what works best for them. TBird gives the option of separate groups of folders for each mail account or one set of folders for all mail accounts (that was my choice when I used it) and plugins give even more options for the layout.

In Mail, I don't usually bother with the account subfolders for the Inbox, Sent, Trash, Junk, I use about ten mailbox folders and about 60-70 smart mailbox folders grouped in smart folders according to business and personal categories. That's what works for me.

Instead of waiting for Apple to make changes, perhaps use smart folders and smart mailboxes? Set up different ones for each mail account, perhaps use the Mail Tags and filters to automatically tag mail and then the smart folders will contain what you want?

Or use TBird - if that fits your needs best, why not use that instead of Mail? I don't look for an OS to provide all the software I want, I want the OS to provide a good base and then I'll pick and choose the software that best meets my needs.

What I'd really like to see Apple beef up is Safari, it needs several critical improvements before I can even consider using it instead of Firefox. But that's a different discussion.

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StephanieE

2 posts since
Nov 6, 2007

17. Nov 6, 2007 12:41 PM

in response to: Walt_Basil

Re: Apple Mail 3

Quote:<hr />
Another funny thing I realized from this discussion (mention of E'rage) is that I have not re-installed my copy of Office since my fresh install of Leopard. hmm. Maybe, I really don't need it eh? In my windows world, that would have been the first thing I installed.

<hr />

Since v2 of Open Office finally made it a real alternative to MS Office, I've been using it instead of MS and I love NeoOffice, it's quite spiffy and does a couple (important to me) things in a Lotus fashion - that's what I used for years and years instead of Excel so NeoOffice has been an excellent replacement for MS Office.

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Walt_Basil

302 posts since
Sep 26, 2004

18. Nov 6, 2007 3:05 PM

in response to: StephanieE

Re: Apple Mail 3

Quote:<hr />
Since v2 of Open Office finally made it a real alternative to MS Office, I've been using it instead of MS and I love NeoOffice, it's quite spiffy and does a couple (important to me) things in a Lotus fashion - that's what I used for years and years instead of Excel so NeoOffice has been an excellent replacement for MS Office.

<hr />

I guess Im one of the lucky ones who dont bring any work home. At no time does anyone ever email a Word, Excel, or Powerpoint file that I must make changes to, or in any way do something with and return it to the PC world. For my personal use, which is what my Mac is for anyways, I have no need for any type of office documents. My replacement for Office can be TextEdit right now. The only time I currently have any use for Word itself, is on a PC and I happen to write myself a document. I save it in Word (without any special options or prefs) and mail it to myself. I later open it on my Mac with TextEdit. Since it is only text, and never tables or the like, TextEdit excels at this. Even faster than my Pages would, obviously by a second or a second and a half.

Having said that, I will also admit to having my own copy of Office - just in case. And since I can buy a legit copy for around $20US from a Home User Agreement license between my employer and Microsoft, Ill be buying the next version as well. I have no gripes about using Microsoft products. There are two times a year that I may have to open a real Word document with tables, columns, table of contents, etc. that just doesnt convert over without removing a line here and there when used between Open or Neo Office, or Pages. Thats when Ill install my copy of Office. And its because I want to work on it at home because its what I like to do. I dont get paid for the time.

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moose_n_squirrel

2,831 posts since
Sep 16, 2004

19. Nov 6, 2007 3:28 PM

in response to: Walt_Basil

Re: Apple Mail 3

Quote:<hr />
Something I miss from the Version 1 Mail - drawers. I wish my mailboxes could be viewed from a drawer. Small thing.

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Oh god...all Mac developers are rapidly abandoning drawers, and not a moment too soon. What an Apple UI disaster they were. Hard to get keyboard focus, always opening from the sides of full-width windows into the neverland beyond the edge of the screen...just awful.

I'm waiting for my Leopard order to arrive, so does anyone know if you can now use the Home and End keys to get to the top and bottom of a mailbox full of messages?

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jesusali

1 posts since
Nov 6, 2007

20. Nov 7, 2007 12:21 AM

in response to: jmincey

Re: Apple Mail 3

I've got three Macs - a laptop at work, laptop at home, eMac at the studio - and they all have my three email accounts loaded in Mail. One IMAP and two POP. I can't send from the IMAP account unless I'm on campus (on their network ports).

I want everyone to start responding to my Gmail (pop in Apple Mail) account, so regardless of which server the messages come in on, I send them out with the Gmail address, from the Gmail address.

I have never had a problem in three years and I think I'm running a pretty complicated setup. Or, at least one that could easily be prone to confusion.

When I ever need to differentiate messages, I just tip the Inbox and select one server at a time and thus only see the messages on that server. Perhaps you could name the accounts better and that would help?

Or perhaps, use different clients for different accounts? As in, your work accounts all go to Thunderbird and your personal accounts to Mail?

Hmmm... the more I think about it, I guess it is a reasonable request. Maybe like another poster suggested, Smart Mailboxes could straighten things out.

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