MailUnreadStatusBar - Discreet Notification for Apple Mail
Not everyone wants their email in their face all the time, which can happen with MailAppetizer. MailUnreadStatusBar is a notification utility that takes a more low key approach. Your email is just a click away but it’s not flashed up automatically to disrupt your work flow.
This excellent plug-in puts a little icon of the Apple Mail stamp in your status bar that lists the number of unread emails you have. You can customise which folders it tracks, and the icon’s drop down menu lists the unread mail by folder, allowing you to jump right to the folder you want or need to read.
I have found it a bit temperamental. It seems to forget from time to time which mailboxes to check and occasionally freezes. Still, it’s my favourite utility of its kind, and it’s free. Download it from QueueSoft.
Tags: Apple Mail, mail.app, menubar, nifty, notification, utilitiesRelated posts
September 30th, 2005 at 9:56 pm
[...] I don’t chat enough to make this one of my “always on” plug-ins, like Mail Act-on or MailUnreadStatusBar. But if I did, it would be a favourite. Good idea. Nicely executed. It’s shareware (USD 12.95 for personal use, USD 24.95 for businesses) and you can download it from the FreeVerse web site. [...]
October 6th, 2005 at 9:12 pm
[...] The conduit is freeware although donations are not refused. It is available from the developer’s website, the same developer who makes the excellent menubar notification utility, MailUnreadStatusbar. [...]
October 13th, 2005 at 3:44 pm
[...] It makes Apple Mail’s Dock icon count show all unread messages instead of just the ones in the inbox. Very useful if you use rules to move emails out of your inbox into other folders before you read them. (Of course, MailUnreadStatusBar can keep an eye on whatever folders you tell it to). [...]
October 30th, 2005 at 8:18 am
[...] So many notification options exists for Apple Mail — “loud” ones like iAlert or MailAppetizer, discreet ones like MailUnreadStatusBar, spoken ones like the Announce Mail or Spoken Sender Applescripts — that it is possible to overlook Mail’s built-in notification features. [...]
November 5th, 2005 at 9:50 am
[...] On the notification “volume scale” I place it half-way between discreet utilities like MailUnreadStatusBar and louder options like MailAppetizer, which splashes the lot, text of the message and all, in front of you. [...]
November 7th, 2005 at 8:40 am
[...] The message count display can be configured to show only the inbox or all unread messages. These enhancements bring it closer to MailUnreadStatusBar, although the latter still holds the edge in flexibilty IMHO. [...]
December 21st, 2005 at 10:20 am
[...] MailUnreadStatusBar. Discreet and useful notification. [...]
January 2nd, 2006 at 9:55 am
[...] Personally, I can’t see the point of this. It’s a cold day in Hell when Mail.app isn’t already running on my Mac and utilities like MailAppetizer and MailUnreadStatusBar provide more efficient notification, but widget nuts will love it. [...]
February 18th, 2006 at 7:08 pm
[...] MailUnreadStatusBar (a menubar icon displays the number of unread emails in Apple Mail — in any folder/s, not just the Inbox) [...]