This means that you can use a limited set of operators to construct more complex and better-targeted searches than you ever could before. Spotlight in Leopard can filter results by metadata categories like “author:” or “date:”. Leopard Mail does the same thing.

For example, this search lets me quickly find all the emails sent from a Christ Church South Yarra email address that contain the word “beer”. Not as many as one might think! Still, the search enables me to find quickly that the answer is Boags.

Another search from work yesterday quickly finds all the emails from the Director of Communications at College which contain the word “font”. Without too much browsing I discover that Optima is the approved font for all external communications and can get on with actually writing one.

A third example. This search lists all the emails that have arrived since 3 December that mention Tiger, including the one from a Hawk Wings reader who wonders why I don’t post about Tiger Mail anymore.

Not everything about Leopard Mail is focussed on greater productivity, but this smarter way of digging through your email and finding what you are looking for is a great leap forward.

After a few posts carping on about this or that failing in Mail.app, it’s good to stumble on something like this and remember what a truly great email client it is.mail.app, apple mail, leopard mail, beer, Christ Church South Yarra, tiger mail, productivity, spotlight, searchingSimilar Posts:

• Two apps for a smarter Spotlight
• “Entire Message” searches blank?
• Google offers blog search
• Five favourite time-saving Leopard Tips
• Chatalog – Integrating iChat logs into Mail

Nonetheless, a refreshing and challenging post from Matt Raible deserves a mention.

Despite the fact (or, perhaps, because of it) that the author “grew up in the back woods of Montana with no electricity” and is “mostly Irish”, it is one of the best lists of nine productivity tips and six life tips that I’ve read in a long while.

It’s refreshing because Matt is not pushing any particular barrow. The advice reads like it has been distilled simply from his own experience as a successful (and mostly happy) self-employed programmer.

It’s challenging because reading about how someone else does stuff always makes you think about how you do stuff yourself. Why, all these years, have I not been opening a beer for focus at 11 pm as Matt suggests?

Lifehacking (as they say) at its best.productivity, GTD, happiness, life, meetings, beer, tips, getting things doneSimilar Posts:

• Productivity tips for profit and pleasure
• Four ways for Mail users to beat Exchange’s public folders
• What did you say? I’ve got a blog?
• Talking Mail.app: Matt Haughey
• Smarter Searches in Leopard Mail