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why use Mail?

0007776

0007776

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Original poster
Jul 11, 2006
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What does mail or a similar program do that is any better than just accessing your eMail online, or why do you use it?
 
I love the fact that you just open it and you don't have to login to recieve your mail, that and what Artalliance said, good for multiple accounts.
 
i used to find it great for junk filtering and the suchlike. instant searching (compared with online) was great too.

however, i consolidated all my domain email to come through google hosted, because for a while i had a desktop only (and needing to access your email constantly in many different locations, it made sense), but with that comes only POP access, which i can't stand. so i'm just using it through the gmail-ish interface.

however, now i'm laptop equipped again i may move back to mail.app, and restore my imap server shortly :)
 
Call me superficial, shallow, and lazy, but I think it looks nice and it makes it so easy to drag and drop photos, audio/ video clips, and even something as simple as bolding/italicizing/ underlining text. I like it.

And it's so satisfying to get that little 'you've got new messages' chime.
 
i like it for the pretty UI, ease of use, and the integration into the OS. Also it will be nice with my iPhone =)
 
I agree with everything everyone has said about the app :)

I've thrown a mod onto mine that splits the windows vertically, ULTIMATE for widescreen machines (MBP).. looks a treat.
 
Cybix said:
I agree with everything everyone has said about the app :)

I've thrown a mod onto mine that splits the windows vertically, ULTIMATE for widescreen machines (MBP).. looks a treat.
Click to expand...

I have that plug in as well, I can't go back to a horizontal split. I also have the mail.appetizer plug in for when I get a new message, a window pops up on my screen telling who send it and the beginning of the message. from the pop up I can choose to read the message right then, trash it, or mark as "read".
 
I have not used 'on-line' mail for quite some time. But, it used to have many limitations and be full of adds. My ISP provides POP/SMTP services, which combined with Mail, make the app do everything I think is important.
 
but..

..methinks I'd lose my gmail functionality and ease of access.

Happy accessing mail from everywhere, and working with threaded messages. -- plus, I don't need to store all that mail!

Still cool though.

Mike
 
wwooden said:
I have that plug in as well, I can't go back to a horizontal split. I also have the mail.appetizer plug in for when I get a new message, a window pops up on my screen telling who send it and the beginning of the message. from the pop up I can choose to read the message right then, trash it, or mark as "read".
Click to expand...

so with the mail.appetizer plug, you still use panther? because the bottom of the site says not compatible with "tiger" and plus when i installed, mail deactivated it anyways.

edit: i found the "tiger beta"
 
I use mail because its a lot faster to check your mail. I hate that when you're using gmail (or any web-based email) I have to wait for the page (or ajax) to load the new message, then wait again if I want to go back to the inbox. I can't just select a message hit the delete key and go on to the next message, I have to wait for the page to load. And I find that really annoying and frustrating.

Also, because I'm annoyed less by checking my email (cause its faster) I find I'm more productive with sending and responding to email.

So basically it's just the speed for me. Also the fact that its integrated nicely with all the other apple programs and spotlight as well. Also love the drag and drop into the dock, use that all the time for attachments.
 
I use Thunderbird because I've had multiple accounts, depending on ISPs and so I have history that I'm saving. However, getting e-mail from current accounts is so much easier with one application and I can search things, even when I'm not connected to the internet.
 
Assuming that I use Mail.app and put in my GMail settings, how do I get Mail to show threaded messages/emails?? That's one great thing with GMail, messages with the same subject are grouped together as one long email thread.

Also, where on my Hard Drive does Mail.app store my emails?? Just incase I wanted to delete individual emails off my Mac but still leave them on the GMail server.

Once I figure those two things out then I'll just use Mail to access my GMail account instead of going online to do it with Safari.
 
1. don't need to click "next page"
2. don't need to go one by one for each email acc
3. fast search
4. color label
5. realtime alarm when new email arrive


PS. Im using Thunderbird.
 
Ninja Dom said:
Assuming that I use Mail.app and put in my GMail settings, how do I get Mail to show threaded messages/emails?? That's one great thing with GMail, messages with the same subject are grouped together as one long email thread.
Click to expand...

From Mail help:

Viewing messages in a thread
A "message thread" is the chain of replies in an email conversation. Mail can help you quickly identify all of the messages in a thread by highlighting them in the color of your choice and grouping them together under the most recent message, sorted by date. Even if someone changes the subject line, Mail keeps the messages grouped together with the other messages in the thread. You can view them together and file them or delete them quickly.

To highlight all messages in a thread in the same color when you select one message in the thread, choose Mail > Preferences and click Viewing. Select "Highlight related messages using color."
To select a highlight color, click the color well in the Viewing pane of Mail Preferences and choose a highlight color in the Colors panel.
To group your email by thread, select a mailbox and choose View > "Organize by Thread."
To see all the messages in all threads, choose View > Expand All Threads.
To see all the messages in a specific thread, click the triangle to the left of the thread or select the thread and press the Right Arrow key.
To collapse all threads, choose View > Collapse All Threads.
To collapse a single thread, click the triangle to the left of the thread or select the thread and press the Left Arrow key.
To step through messages in a thread when you have organized your mailbox by thread, choose View > Select > "Next Message in this Thread" or "Previous Message in this Thread." Or, use the Up Arrow and Down Arrow keys.
When you select a collapsed thread, the message content area of the Mail window shows the subject of the thread, the originator of the thread, the date the thread was started, the number of unread messages, the total number of messages, and a list of the messages, including which ones came with attachments.

Mail uses special headers in each email message to determine if a message belongs to the same thread. If these headers are not present, the subject is used to determine if a message belongs to the thread.
 
Laziness.

I've always done email that way, so now it's just easier to keep it that way. I'd like the option of having all my email on gmail, but I'd have to tweak a bunch of settings, plus possibly lose all of my archived mail.

Also, it's nice to have the option of offline access to my emails.
 
It's probably the best app Apple have written for Mac OS X in terms of features/intergration/reliability.

I thought this for a while now.
 
How do you guys add your gmail accounts to the mail.ap? I've tried several times but can't get it to work.
 
Okay, I've just configured Mail for my GMail account. It's currently importing all of my inbox from my GMail account into Mail.

I'm gonna give this a good try and see if it is better than using GMail on the web.

Oh yeah, thanks for the instructions on the various Viewing options.
 
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