The latest public beta of MailTags 2.0 has been released.
It’s unlikely but possible that some Apple Mail users don’t know what MailTags is. It’s a plugin for Mail.app that brings powerful tagging and management to your email, smarter integration with iCal and forms the cornerstone of Getting Things Done with Apple Mail.
Improvements over the previous public beta are most visible in speed, stability and a tweaked interface.
Tagging and opening large mailboxes are both now markedly quicker. Scott has optimized that way rules are applied, postponing IMAP updates to end of rule application.
Stability is also improved. Messages are no longer sometimes deleted when tags are rapidly applied to a large number of messages and the number of temporary duplicates has been reduced. In addition, MailTags now more reliably deletes iCal events attached to the message when clearing all tags via the MailTags pane or menu.
Tabbing through the to-do and event pop-up windows no longer crashes Mail on occasions.
In the kind of nice touch that belongs to an app nearing its final polish, the MailTags tag icon no longer appears printed messages.
In the main MailTags pane, the same polish is noticeable.
The widgets and buttons have been redrawn to match better the overall look and feel of Mac OS X. An Action button on each to-do or events gives quick access to editing/viewing/deleting options.
The pop-up windows have also been reworked a little. Copy and Paste functions now work in the text fields, which also accept non-English characters.
The pp-up windows look good and are easy to work with:
Some niggling problems remain. MailTags and PGP signatures don’t agree with each other. And some beta-testers find that MailTags will sometimes make .Mac accounts reject the account’s password (although a restart fixes that) and sporadic crashes sometimes occur when printing.
Overall, MailTags 2.0 now looks and feels like a plugin that is almost ready to be released in final form.
The prince of Mail.app plugins hovers on the verge of even greater greatness.
You can read more about MailTags 2.0 and download the new public beta from Scott’s web site 
, where you will also find a forum for any questions.
I like this update. It’s cleaner and more elegant on screen. The keywords dropdown box no longer hangs around on the screen when I close the email window.
One question though. Each time I install a new version of MailTags I have to remove and reinstall my JunkMatcher rules (worth it though). Otherwise any junk related action hangs Mail and requires a force quit.
Has anyone one else found the same issue?