A plugin for iPhoto exists that extends the range of email clients you can use to email photos from iPhoto, but nothing so far plugs that gap for webmail services.

Juan Leon stepped up to the challenge. He has produced an iPhoto plugin that uses Gmail to send photos.

After you install the package, you will find a new pane in iPhoto’s Export menu (File > Export in iPhoto 6, Share > Export in iPhoto 5):

The only possible pitfall here are the options for sizing the images. If the image you want to send is less than 800 pixels in width or height, the plugin enlarges it to that size. In that case, just select “Send original”.

Juan says that the plugin “is still a very early piece of software, probably has many bugs, and is rough around the edges”. I emailed a dozen photos of varying size and format tonight and it seems to work fine.

The resulting emails look good:

He welcomes constructive criticism at the email address you can find on his web page where you will also find the plugin, which is donationware.gmail, iphoto, email, photos, exporting, sharing, plugin, google

I was surprised to discover an email that I received a few days ago was written in Mailsmith, so someone is still using it. (In fact, he is a member of the Mac blogging nobility, where Mailsmith retains strong appeal, so I shouldn’t have been so surprised).

If you are using Mailsmith and thinking about a move to Mail.app (or anywhere else), David Hamilton has written a script that exports emails in a smarter way than the default that comes with Mailsmith itself.

He has tweaked it so that it will preserve your folder hierarchy in Mailsmith which the default script flattens.

Of course, “no guarantees, representations, or warrantees by the author or anyone else”. mail.app, apple mail, mailsmith, exporting, applescript, folders, switching

An updated version of Export Address Book brings support for vCards and Address Book groups.

Export Address Book is an app which exports all the data in your Address Book into an independent data file that you can archive or import elsewhere or use for merges with apps like Word and FileMaker.

In the latest version you can now export your contacts as vCards, either as multiple files or as one vCard with multiple entries. You can select what information from the Address Book record should be included in the vCard.

When you add contacts, you can now specify Group information which will automatically update in any documents you create with its data.

Export Address Book is shareware (12.50 Euros = USD 16) and is available from the developer’s web site .address book, exporting, contacts, vcards, groups, productivity

Last Week macOSXHints ran a tip about using Mail.app’s “Save As…” option to export messages in mbox format.

Mark Pilgrim, who recently switched from OS X to Linux, takes the opportunity to point out that this option doesn’t create a valid mbox. Rather, it is another example of Apple’s wicked addiction to proprietary file formats.

Mail.app was the straw that broke the camel’s back for Mark. It made him switch away. And the pain is still raw:

However, in the interests of fairness, I will amend my previous statement that Mail.app is a roach motel that auto-upgraded 14 years of my mail into a proprietary, undocumented format with no possibility of exporting it to an open format. This is not true. Mail.app is a roach motel that auto-upgraded 14 years of my mail into a proprietary, undocumented format with a tantalizingly broken export feature. I apologize for the confusion.

Mail.app. Gone but not easily forgotten.

Fortunately developers have found solutions and work-arounds for exporting Mail 2.0 messages. Mark could use either emlx to mbox converter or, better, the Archive script in Andreas Amann’s excellent Mail Scripts to solve his problem.mail.app, apple mail, pilgrim, mbox, emlx, exporting, switching

Export Address Book is an app which exports all the data in your Address Book into an independent data file that you can archive or import elsewhere or use for merges with apps like Word and FileMaker.

It allows you to select which contacts to export, which fields from those contacts and how to order them, settings which can be saved as a template for repeated use:

An updated version (1.2) adds support for UTF-16 encoding, which provides full multilingual compatibility for Word 2004 merges or FileMaker databases.

It also features more flexible drag ‘n’ drop capabilities for contacts and contact information fields.

The help menu offers basic guidance and information about things like text encodings:

Export Address Book is shareware (10 Euros = USD 12.50) and is available from the developer’s web site .address book, exporting, contacts, word, merges, filemaker, productivity

Export Address Book is an app which (unsurprisingly) exports all the data in your Address Book into an independent data file that you can archive, use with a Microsoft Word Merge or FileMaker database or import into your favourite web-based email service.

It is a universal binary and comes with an Automator action to automate repeated exports.

The app overs considerable control over the export process, allowing you to select which records to export, which fields from those records, how to order them and whether to give the exported data customised labels:

A new version (1.1) released today includes two new formats, CSV and HTML tables, for the exported data and more options for handling line breaks, as you can see from the new options pane:

Export Address Book is shareware (10 Euros = USD 12.50) and is available from the developer’s web site.address book, exporting, contacts, csv, tsv, html, helpful apps

Looking for a way to export your Address Book contacts into a webmail service like Gmail?

Antonio Lorè has written a simple but efficient utility that will export all your Address Book contacts into a CSV file ready for exporting into another email client or webmail service.

As you can see from the icon, he is thinking mainly of GMail, but a number of webmail services can import contacts in CSV format.

The app presents you with a simple interface:

All you need to do is select the location for the finished export and click “Export to CSV”. Easy.

A to G (formerly AddressBookToCSV) and the Swiss Brotherli web site offer the same exporting service.

Address Book to CSV Exporter is freeware and is available from the developer’s web site .gmail, csv, contacts, address book, exporting, importing