Three-pane Mail.app hack that works
Screenshots have been floating around for a while with mockups of a three-paned Mail.app à la Outlook.
But now there is a hack that actually works.
A member of the Ars Technica Open Forum, Mithras, has posted a hacked binary of Mail.app, which displays the preview screen on the right, giving Mail a “widescreen” form factor.
And it actually works:
Click image for a full-sized view
Mithras’ binary has a different name (MailWidescreen) so you can copy it into your Applications folder without fear of overwriting your default copy (although backing up is always, always wise. UPDATE: Always!). Then just open the one you want each time.
Unfortunately, you cannot yet manually resize the middle column, although Mithras promises a fix for this within the week.
There is however a work-around. The middle pane of the hack takes its size from the depth of the Message List in your normal copy of Mail.
So, if the middle column is too small, open your default copy of Mail.app and increase the depth of the Message List. Then the middle screen in MailWidescreen will be correspondingly wider. Make it wider than you want. Then it will reduce to the width you actually want as you resize the whole window from the bottom right.
You can read the whole thread 
on the Ars Technica Openforum or cut to the chase and… download the binary.
UPDATE: Mithras works fast. He has now packaged it in the form of a classic Mail.app bundle , which you can drop into your ~/Library/Mail/Bundles folder where MailTags, Mail Act-on, Mail.appetizer and the rest live. And just as easily take it out again. Extra bonus: the middle column can now be manually re-sized as normal.
[Thanks, Nick]
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Tags: apple GUI, Apple Mail, Apple Mail Tips, hacks, mail.app, outlook, preview pane, three panes, widescreen
June 2nd, 2006 at 9:54 am
This is awesome! Although I’m not sure if I should trust a hacked copy of my with all my account information.
June 2nd, 2006 at 10:00 am
Sure. I made a complete backup first just to be on the safe side.
But all seems to be well. I gave the hacked version a good workout, and now I am back in the default Mail.app. Everything’s working fine.
June 2nd, 2006 at 10:12 am
I think Marcel’s concern is data theft, not data loss.
But I don’t really share his concern.
—–
You are using the word “depth” very oddly, to my American ears, Tim. Are you talking about the changing the “width” of the middle pane? And using “depth” is just a different dialect of English issue?
June 2nd, 2006 at 10:16 am
Hmmm…
What I mean to say is that the middle pane of the hacked version seems to set its width from the depth (or “length” maybe) or the Message List in the default version.
So the more messages you can see in your default version’s Message window, the wider your middle column will be in the middle pane.
How would an American say that?
June 2nd, 2006 at 10:24 am
“So the more messages you can see in your default version’s Message window, the wider your middle column will be in the middle pane.
How would an American say that?”
Just like you did right here.
——
If I’m understanding you correctly this time, that’s really weird behavior. (Not just wrong behavior, but weird too. I can’t figure out how it got that way.)
What happens if you switch mailboxes from one with few messages to one with many? Does the middle pane immediate re-size its width?
June 2nd, 2006 at 10:50 am
Actually I meant both, although data theft should be no issue as this appears to be a GUI hack only. Whatever, I checked it out but will not keep using it because it really feels like a quick hack.
Hopefully Leopard will bring the much awaited widescreen capability (maybe along with other improvements).
June 2nd, 2006 at 11:17 am
H o l y…
My co-workers would like to thank you for filling up my schedule tomorrow Tim:)… wait, I may just do this tonight… awesome.
I’m sure fellow IMAP users wouldn’t worry too much about data corruptions, but I’d agree with the POP users, there maybe something odd to do.
Thanks for the tip off, I haven’t checked my RSS reader in a couple days:)
June 2nd, 2006 at 11:28 am
sniff… it’s beautiful… so long Thunderbird, you were just ok for a while… sent you my desktop screenshot, trying it out on IMAP — no destruction so far.
June 2nd, 2006 at 11:36 am
It worked perfectly for me on all three of my IMAP accounts.
June 2nd, 2006 at 11:41 am
Mail Stamps wouldn’t take, but I assumed so — that would be hack #2 one of us needs to do soon:)
June 2nd, 2006 at 11:57 am
@Chucky: That’s good news. I try to sound as American as possible on this site, given that 89% of the readers (well, the hits at any rate) come from the USA.
June 2nd, 2006 at 12:25 pm
I’d like the widescreen setup, but this download doesn’t seem to work for me. All I get is the same vertical split view, but with the resize widget gone. Resizing the message list in Mail doesn’t help — it just resizes the preview pane (which is still a portion of a vertical split rather than a horizontal split) to have a new height.
– Simone
June 2nd, 2006 at 1:27 pm
One of my IT buddies said he had the same problem — his fix was to remove the old mail application from the applications folder completely after he deleted the plist in his userfolder > Library > Preferences (should be com.apple.mail.plist)
June 2nd, 2006 at 1:51 pm
he’s now changed it to an easy to install plug-in. i tried it and it works perfectly. now it even has the resizable window columns! he works fast.
download and instructions available here:
http://harnly.net/downloads/MailWidescreen.html
June 2nd, 2006 at 3:11 pm
I hope that if apple does bring widescreen viewing in leopord, they atleast have the deceny to allow for 2 line display (just like outlike) in the middle pane… I hate thunderbirds way…
June 2nd, 2006 at 3:14 pm
I’m not convinced that Apple is going to do anything like this.
I’ve emailed the post off to someone in the Mail Development Team to see if they have a reaction of any kind, but haven’t heard anything back yet.
June 2nd, 2006 at 5:41 pm
Tim,
I guess we’ll see what happens. I’d also kiss someone at apple if they gave me some type of option to sort folders first always, in all views.
I submitted it as a feature/request probably my first week using a mac, and they marked it duplicate… makes me wonder how many people want the same :)
June 2nd, 2006 at 8:19 pm
I think this haxie is pretty, but do I really need it. I don’t think so, so did not download it.
June 2nd, 2006 at 8:44 pm
Simply amazing!!! Thanks a lot, I love how Mail.app feels now, it’s so natural and elegant.
June 2nd, 2006 at 10:48 pm
The thing that would be nice is for the bundle to hack the list view to make it two lines with the subject line appearing under sender, date, etc.
Given that this is out there now, what is the desire for having the ability for the MailTags panel to be horizontal (at the top or the bottom)?
June 2nd, 2006 at 10:52 pm
oh man! thank you so much. this is great., really great. best hack ever :P
June 2nd, 2006 at 11:00 pm
Plugin works like a charm. And yes, Mailtags at the bottom would be really sweet!
June 3rd, 2006 at 12:18 am
Sorry, I am a novice hacker. This works great, but how do you revert to the original look? Thanks.
June 3rd, 2006 at 12:29 am
Close Mail.app.
Open your ~/Library/Mail/Bundles folder to find the bundle, or use Finder to search for “MailWidescreen.mailbundle”.
Move it to your Desktop or whereever else you want to store it.
Restart Mail.app. All done.
June 3rd, 2006 at 1:33 am
I still don’t understand — this hack still isn’t working for me even using the bundle method. I followed the instructions for enabling Mail bundles (I originally got a compatibility alert dialog because I had modified the preferences while Mail was still open, and Mail overwrote them on quit) to the letter, but the bundle still isn’t working.
Whereas before, I was still getting a vertical split but with the manual resize widget removed, now I’m just getting no change at all — i.e.: it’s still vertically split, but the resize widget now works.
What’s the deal?
– Simone
June 3rd, 2006 at 3:12 am
Superb idea. Apple should make a preference for choosing layout. I’ve immediately emailed Apple Feedback to request it.
June 3rd, 2006 at 3:17 am
Nice. Would be interesting to be able to put the body of the email in the middle so it is in the center of the screen, with the header listings on the right and the mailboxes on the left. Puts the focus on what is in important. Thanks.
June 3rd, 2006 at 3:20 am
I would love this for certian situations, especially on widescreen monitors.
I’m off to install the plugin.
the current layout doesn’t show me enough messages at a time in the table.
June 3rd, 2006 at 3:21 am
I like the idea of having a choice but its toooo Windows for me. If that is what I wanted I would simply use Entourage.
June 3rd, 2006 at 7:39 am
I really like the 3-column view for when I’m working on a widescreen monitor, however It also works for smaller screens by simpley typing command-shift-M to hide the mialbox view.
This really should be a user preference.
June 3rd, 2006 at 9:21 am
Still waiting for acknowledgment of a message I sent you a few days ago before sending some feedback about the MailTags panel. :-)
June 3rd, 2006 at 10:47 am
Ack… would love for this sucker to work on my end (this is the Holy Grail I’ve been waiting for) but add me to the list of folks for whom it’s just not functioning.
Anyone else have it not work? I removed all other bundles I was using so this is the only one, but still no go…
June 3rd, 2006 at 10:49 am
One thought — all my other bundles are in my usr/library/mail/bundles directory. Should this go at the top-level directory for /library/mail?
All that’s there currently is a folder called AccountTypes.
June 3rd, 2006 at 11:24 am
No, it goes in your ~/Library/Mail/Bundles directory.
Did you quit Mail and run the Terminal commands to enable bundles, the ones on Mithras’ page about the plugin?
June 3rd, 2006 at 1:46 pm
Ah, it does work. The third pane doesn’t display by default — didn’t know you had to double-click on the buffered grey edge on the right to get it to work.
Will take a wee bit getting used to. One thing I do is use YouControlDesktops and have one desktop for Mail and IM, one for RSS and Safari, etc. Having a full-screen mail app means I need to move IM somewhere else… small details, to be sure, but it’s all about productivity in the end, isn’t it?
That said, AWESOME.
June 3rd, 2006 at 8:26 pm
Having a longer list of e-mails is one benefit, but also, having a long message displayed in a more natural pane, with dimension proportions like in a printed page, is convenient too, and in my opinion the best feature offered by this nice bundle.
Nevertheless, with the mail-tags pane visible, the message page becomes too narrow, should be nice to have it dispayed horizontally at the bottom of the page. Moreover, if the mailbox pane could be put on top of the message list, more room for subject lines and other metadata would be available. Conclusion: we need a preference pane that will allow positioning of all four panes (mailboxes, message list, message, mail tags) at will.
June 4th, 2006 at 3:07 pm
This is just a great plugin. The productivity improvement is also considerable, and it works as promised. Kudos to the author.
June 5th, 2006 at 5:56 am
That three-pane Apple Mail hack is sweet!…
If you have a widescreen MacBook, you’ll definitely want this! Hawk Wings reports on a useful Apple Mail hack that’s now rolled into a simple plugin. It adds a third vertical pane to your Mail app, allowing you to preview more of your ma…
June 5th, 2006 at 6:47 am
Great plugin! Thanks for the headup (tho I’m glad I waited for the bundle). It really makes my Mail.app experience better and more productive. Perfect example of why I love this blog.
June 5th, 2006 at 9:30 pm
Works nicely for the admin account, but does not work for any standard or managed accounts…
Bundles are in their ~/Library and not /Library, and the terminal commands were issued from within those accts…
Any ideas?
June 6th, 2006 at 1:43 am
When you open up Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail do you have something similar to:
bplist00“_BundleCompatibilityVersion]EnableBundlesQ2Q1
*8:
June 6th, 2006 at 12:41 pm
CCCCCOOOOOOOLLLLLLLL!!!!!
I really enjoy this bundle. I think is more easy to use Mail.app…
June 11th, 2006 at 11:59 pm
All but the
Q1Q2is there…August 12th, 2006 at 9:43 pm
Three Columns Apple Mail – Finally!…
Grab the “plugin” from Harnly, read the forum thread at Ars Technica, and read the excellent comment at Hawk Wings named Three-pane Mail.app hack that works.
……
September 27th, 2006 at 2:14 am
[...] via [...]
October 23rd, 2006 at 11:43 am
I am really enjoying using this plugin, but I would like to be able to toggle it from the view menu. Sometimes the three column style is nice, and other times the normal classic mail.app style is nice. Having the toggle would allow users to switch styles on the fly.
November 3rd, 2006 at 10:57 am
[...] 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. [...]
February 19th, 2007 at 6:58 am
The link to this hack seems to have disappeared. Is it still available?
February 20th, 2007 at 12:26 am
Treo, thanks for letting know about the broken link. I’ve fixed it up now:
http://harnly.net/
November 5th, 2007 at 3:02 am
When Leopard is installed the plugin” Letterbox” does not work.
Will new uppgrade of this plugin, seems to that Apple is not going to do anything like this. They have 300 new things in leopard but this, NO.
November 5th, 2007 at 6:45 am
There’s hope for Letterbox:
http://harnly.net/2007/software/letterbox/letterbox-for-leopard-its-coming/
January 27th, 2009 at 6:53 pm
[...] a whole bunch of other folks (43Folders, Hawk Wings – 1, 2,), many of them far more Apple-savvy than me, I have downloaded and installed the Letterbox [...]