Mail.app Plug-Ins

Because I got my new MacBook, I needed to switch from Entourage to Mail. Why? Office is not yet universal, which causes the Office applications to be very slow. I spend most of my time in my email application, so it’s essential for me that my mail application works without hiccups and sluggish behavior.

Entourage is very slow when you start the application, but also wasn’t very responsive when I worked with it. Selecting several emails and deleting them, or moving emails to another folder was very, very slow. At first I thought that I could work with it, but it just started to irritate me more every day and finally I made the switch to Mail.

If you are used to Entourage, which I was, this is a very big step. Mail is designed to do only one thing: read mail. Entourage, on the other hand, gives you the ability to make to-dos and notes, it has a calendar function, and you can do project management; it is a complete suite to keep track of everything you do on a daily basis - at least in my case it was.

With Mail, I had to find other solutions for my to-dos, notes, and calendar. What I dislike about this is that I need other applications. I solved this by using iCal for my calendar and notes. I email the to-dos to myself, which I then archive in a specific folder. When the to-do is completed, I just delete the email and I’m done. (In Leopard, to-dos will be integrated in Mail, so that is good news)

So, I solved these workflow issues. That leaves me with the problem of the GUI. I really think that it should have more tweak options. The Weblog hawkwings.net is dedicated to making Mail better by using plug-ins. I found two plug-ins that made the Mail experience a bit better. I use Letterbox, which gives me the look and feel of Entourage and really helps me adjust to Mail. The other plug-in I really love and use intensively is Mail Act-on which gives you the ability to move your messages around with a simple hot-key; you can set colors and activate special rules - it just makes the workflow in Mail much better. The last plug-in I want to mention is a simple enhancer for the look and feel - it is not very functional, but, hey, the eye wants something, too. This plug-in is called Mail Appetizer, and it provides a very nice splash screen when new mail arrives. You can change the fonts, set the transparency, and customize the splash screen the way you want it.

I really would recommend to add the Hawkwings blog to your RSS reader. It’s a very good blog for Mail tips and tricks and of course new plug-ins.

[tags]Entourage, Office, Mail, Universal[/tags]