Hawk Wings » GUI

UNO 1.5: Mail.app’s good looks for every app

Tim Gaden — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 13:23:01 +0000

It’s almost eighteen months since I first posted about the noticeable “Rise and Rise of the Mail-like Look” in many apps. Yojimbo, SOHO Smart Notes, ecto and many more have since followed suit, so that Fraser Spiers’ “ExposÃ© confusion” is a greater danger than ever.

If you fancy an even more unified GUI across all your apps, UNO is the utility for you.

An updated version has just been released which brings the Mail-like look of a unified Toolbar/Titlebar and lighter metal look to all the windows in your system. Its aim is “to enhance aqua interface consistency, by making all elements look and feel as one.”

UNO 1.5 has been completely rewritten. Some annoying glitches (the QuickTime window, for example) are now fixed, and the developers have produced a wider range of skins for iTunes.

The app’s main interface offers a preview of how your system will look after applying the tweak:

Notice also the Uninstall button which allows you to unwind the changes easily if you want to return to vanilla Mac OS X.

In this version, Mail.app gets some special treatment. After applying UNO, the lozenge-shaped buttons are replaced with Safari- or Finder-like rectangular buttons and the unread mail icon is “aquafied”:

This is only an option though. If you like UNO’s consistent style and the default lozenged-up look of Tiger Mail you can choose that combination in the interface option drop-down boxes on the left of the main screen.

You can read more about UNO and view the entire 1.5 changelog on the developer’s web site.

UNO is free-ware (donations not refused) and is available from the app’s website .UNO, unified toolbar, lighter metal, apple interface, GUI, brushed metal, hack, tip, mail.app, apple mailSimilar Posts:

Letterbox 0.16: Installer, visual enhancements

Tim Gaden — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 20:57:15 +0000

The developer of the widescreen, 3-pane plugin for Mail.app, Letterbox, has been busy.

He has just released version 0.16, which offers an installer, a new icon, some visual enhancements and some minor bugfixes.

Running the installer a second time offers an “uninstall” option, which is handy for people who don’t like digging around in their Mail folder.

He has also written a FAQ, a future features list and a list of known bugs.

You can get the updated plugin from the developer’s web site .letterbox, mail.app, apple mail, plugins, widescreen, GUI, hack Similar Posts:

Another three-pane Mail.app mock-up

Tim Gaden — Tue, 28 Feb 2006 13:59:18 +0000

A month ago Joshua Bryant posted a mock-up of Mail.app with an Outlook / Entourage preview pane on the right.

Scott Dunlap sends in another mock-up:

Click for the full-sized image.

He writes of Joshua’s: “I think he made it too Entourage-like by making messages 2 lines. That’s probably needed for laptop usage, but this is what I want.”

Which one would you prefer if — entirely hypothetically — a clever developer were thinking of producing a hack to do this? Or would you not touch either one with a ten-foot pole?mail.app, apple mail, hacks, interface, GUI, entourage, outlook, preview pane, mock-up Similar Posts:

The complete Mail-like makeover

Tim Gaden — Fri, 14 Oct 2005 22:22:51 +0000

Speaking of the Rise and Rise of the Mail-like Look, the GUI hack UNO can bring the unified Toolbar/Titlebar and lighter metal look to all the windows in your system. UNO’s aim is “to enhance aqua interface consistency, by making all elements look and feel as one.”

Here it is with (from the back), Mellel, a word processor, Apple Mail (Mail 2.0 with the odd new buttons removed), ecto and Script Editor:

UNO can be installed and uninstalled by running it from the disk image. You can see more screenshots and download the hack from UNO’s website.UNO, unified toolbar, lighter metal, apple interface, GUI, brushed metal, hack, tipSimilar Posts: