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mail.app status in menu bar?

eoblaed

eoblaed

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Apr 21, 2010
3,122
3,290
I'm wondering if there's anyway to get some kind of Mail.app status (e.g. unread mail alert, etc) in the menu bar in the upper right hand corner of the desktop (ie. up by the clock).

I work in multiple 'spaces' a lot, and it's a bit of a pain to have to keep alt-commanding or swiping to the other space, etc, to see if I have unread mail. If there was a little icon that would notify me of unread mail up there that would be nifty. Extra points for being able to click on it to bring me instantly to my mail.app wherever it is.
 
You must keep your Dock hidden, since the Mail icon in the Dock shows the unread count.

I use Growl for the same purpose, with the included GrowlMail plugin. Instead of a menubar notification, I get a small popup in the top right corner of my screen, with a preview of the message. It fades away after a few seconds, so it doesn't get in the way, but it alerts me to new messages. EDIT: You can click on it to go directly to the message, btw, since that was something you wanted. I also keep the Dock showing, though, so if I miss the message for some reason I still have that to alert me to new messages.

jW
 
eoblaed said:
I'm wondering if there's anyway to get some kind of Mail.app status (e.g. unread mail alert, etc) in the menu bar in the upper right hand corner of the desktop (ie. up by the clock).
Click to expand...

I use a freeware app called Mail Unread Menu that both tells you when you have unread mail and gives you a way to pull Mail to the front to read it.
 
Dale Sorel said:
I use a freeware app called Mail Unread Menu that both tells you when you have unread mail and gives you a way to pull Mail to the front to read it.
Click to expand...

Me too, but there was a thread on this the other day in this forum and it was stated that it doesn't work in Lion (I don't know since I'm still using Snow Leopard).
 
I keep the dock exposed on the left side of the screen to show an unread count and also use Herald to show a popup when a new mail comes in.
 
Mal said:
You must keep your Dock hidden, since the Mail icon in the Dock shows the unread count.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I keep my dock hidden. Even with a large monitor, I have so many terminal windows open while I'm coding I just don't like having that cluttery row of stuff taking up space. Since the menu bar at the top is always there, no matter what, it seems like an ideal space to have that kind of notification.

I'll give Growl a try, and also that Mail Unread Menu and see which of those work for my set up.

Thanks!

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Weaselboy said:
I keep the dock exposed on the left side of the screen to show an unread count and also use Herald to show a popup when a new mail comes in.
Click to expand...

Hmm. Herald looks nice, too.
 
This is what I get when trying to install Mail Unread Mac

2q1c975.png
 
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