I’m not sure how long this has been up on the Apple web site. I’ve never noticed it before.

Apple has created a preview of the HTML Stationery that will be available in Leopard Mail.

As regular readers of Hawk Wings will already expect, I’m not big fan. But don’t let that rob you of the pleasure you’ll no doubt get from exploring the kinds of productivity leaps that Leopard Mail will offer.

The nine examples fall into standard stationery categories — thank-yous, news, get well soon messages, invitations, Valentine’s Day and so on.

Here are just two examples of what we can look forward to, a thank-you and a Birthday email:

“Mail. You’ve got more”, reads the tag line on the Apple web site.

Never a truer word. mail.app, apple mail, leopard mail, stationery, html, oh dear, email

Aved asks on the MacOSX support forum:

I was wondering if anyone knows how to edit the color for the unread mail dock icon? Default is red, but I have been messing around with new icons and mine is grey now and doesn’t really stand out.

His problem is complicated by the fact that he is using something called ShapeShifter , a GUI hack from Unsanity that applies “themes” to the whole Mac OS X interface.

If you are not using ShapeShifter, the answer is simple enough. You will find blow-by-blow instructions in an earlier Hawk Wings post.

You can roll your own badges by editing the existing ones in Photoshop.

Or you can take the easy way out. Hawk Wings now hosts a blue set and a green set of mail badges, as well as a mixed set that was once hosted on ResExcellence (R.I.P.?).

Once you get started hacking away at the look of Mail, it can be hard to stop. See “Hacking Mail’s interface” for more interface hatchet goodness.

UPDATE: As Chris points out in the comments, you can also go completely berserk with Dockstar:

(Or, for that matter, with Docktopus.)mail.app, apple mail, interface, icons, mail badges, hacks, new mail

MacWorld writer Christopher Breen offers three ways to print out contact information from Address Book so that you can take it with you in a day planner (Filofax, Franklin, Day Runner, etc).

Well, two ways really. He covers using Address Book’s own built-in printing option, first through the included settings and then using instructions in a tip in the Apple Discussions forum.

He also suggests using the freeware Palm Desktop for Mac software , which offers more extensive options that are easier to configure than the Apple Discussions tip.

You can add one more option by quickly scanning the Address Book entries in the Hawk Wings Plugin and Addon List.

Address Book Reports (see an earlier Hawk Wings post ) offers many more options than the features built-in to Address Book.

It is shareware (USD 15) but will be money well spent for people with unusual day planners or boutique needs or for people who simply like to have all the options at their finger-tips.address book, day planner, filofax, franklin, contacts, printing, hipster, not apple mail, productivity

Rubin emails to ask:

I was reading your new post on Address Book syncing and backup, and I noticed on the screen capture that you had a little Yojimbo icon on your Finder windows. I’m a Yojimbo user and a big fan too. How did you get this little icon and what does it do?

Fair question.

While the Finder Toolbar can be expanded with many useful pre-defined extras (Control-Click on Finder’s Toolbar and select “Customize Toolbar…”), you can also add your own favourite items:

I dragged some of the apps that I use a lot (TextMate, Terminal, Yojimbo) from the Applications folder onto the Toolbar. That creates a shortcut on the Toolbar. Now I can quickly launch the apps by clicking on these icons and, more importantly, I can drag files onto the icons to open them.

I’ve also added on the right some of the folders into which I often need to file things. When tidying up, I drag the files onto those folders and they’re filed.

Of course, there are other ways to do these things, not least Quicksilver, but another option is always welcome. not apple mail, finder, icons, shortcuts, productivity, yojimbo, terminal, textmate, toolbar, customize

Today MacFixIt carries one of those gut-wrenching horror stories from a reader that you read about from time to time:

Tonight, while cleaning up my address book to sync to the blackberry, I got the spinning ball of death, which resulted in having to restart the computer. When I did, address book was empty the next time I opened it. Database gone. Backup database gone.

Not long ago, a Hawk Wings reader experienced something similar after syncing his PowerBook with a Nokia 6682. Although he enjoyed the added bonus of a very puzzling exchange with Apple Tech Support following his wipe-out.

Of course, prevention is the best cure. That is to say, you can’t really lose what you have backed up. Back up your ~/Library/Application Support/AddressBook folder often.

However, if you find yourself in a jam and the backup is not as up-to-date as it might be, there is still hope.

Address Book is smart. It keeps a little backup of its own in a AddressBook.data.previous file inside the directory mentioned above:

To restore it, all you need to do is quit Address Book, delete the dead AddressBook.data file and rename the backup to AddressBook.data. Whew! not apple mail, address book, data loss, recovery, deleted contacts, tips, backup, productivity

MacWorld columnist and macOSXHints top dog Rob Griffiths takes time out to throw together a few hints on making sure that an iCal calendar is empty before you delete it.

He points out that you can find out what’s left in an old calendar by using iCal’s search feature (make sure only the calendar you are investigating is ticked in the calendar’s list, Select View > Show Search Results).

Or, if you are sure it is empty, highlight it and try to delete it.

If it is empty, iCal removes it without asking any questions. If it’s not, then iCal prompts you to make sure you want to get rid of it. not apple mail, ical, deleting calendars, data loss, tips

Washington Post blogger Brian Krebs uses the recent release of a Windows security patch to fire up the campaign to end HTML email.

He reminds his readers that “viewing your e-mail in anything other than plain text mode is asking for trouble on a Windows computer.”

He then proceeds to list some of the reasons why HTML should be avoided, including better protection against phishing attacks, avoiding “spam touting graphic images from adult Web sites” and not seeing your own HTML emails end up in someone else’s spam folder. (See a much more comprehensive list of reasons on the Free Anti Spam web site.)

Instructions are provided on using plain text in Outlook 2003, Outlook Express, Thunderbird and Opera. These might be useful for Hawk Wings readers in a distressing work environment.

Mail.app users have at least three ways to deal with incoming HTML emails—see an earlier Hawk Wings post, “Viewing HTML messages in Apple Mail“).

I am a fan of the first, most brutal option myself, but I am also a realist. See further King Canute (Wikipedia ).

UPDATE: Nicholas takes a different view . “Arguing that email users should not have access to different fonts or colours is much like arguing that they should still be using the word processors of 1987 as well,” he suggests.

[Thanks, Michael]mail.app, apple mail, windows, outlook, html, plain text, thunderbird, opera, outlook express