Apple has updated four new technotes for users of its revamped webmail interface.

In brief:

1. Firefox issues when sending mail — Firefox can unexpectedly quit when sending an .Mac webmail message with a large attachment.
2. Entourage folder accents convert to HTML — The webmail interface converts Entourage folders with accents into HTML tags. Advice: Don’t use accents.
3. Scrollbar issues when expanding the Address Book — The interface doesn’t draw scrollbars for an expanded correctly when using the two-pane view.
4. Ways to use the online Address Book to create new messages — Two ways to use the online Address Book to create a new message. And one thing not to do.

.mac, dotmac, apple, technotes, firefox, entourage, accents, address book, interface

The promised new-look interface for .Mac Mail is here and it looks good.

A month ago Apple announced a new look for its webmail service, based on the look of Apple Mail, powered by Ajax and with some keyboard shortcuts à la Gmail thrown in.

In general, the announcement met with cautious welcome, although many wondered if it would be enough to stem criticism of Apple’s online offerings.

Now we can all see for ourselves.

The interface looks just like Mail.app except for an Address Book search field in the bottom left:

Preferences offer further options for two-pane or three-pane viewing, large or small mailbox icons, keyboard shortcuts or not, mailbox behaviours, number of messages to view at a time and more.

The most innovative new thing is the introduction of the single-letter keyboard shortcuts pioneered by the Gmail interface.

No doubt many people will find these more convenient that the multiple-keystroke combinations required in the Desktop app, both easier to remember and easier to execute.

Die-hards like me will find themselves pressing the Desktop combinations and wondering why nothing happens, but we will adjust.

Drag and drop is very smooth and welcome, especially as the webmail interface doesn’t allow for all the plugins one might otherwise use to make filing easier and quicker.

If you have a .Mac account, check in and test it out for yourself. Otherwise see Apple’s pitch on it. Is it all you hoped for?

[Derik DeLong - and just about everyone else - beat me to it]mail.app, apple mail, Dotmac, webmail, interface, gmail, keyboard shortcuts, apple

Jean-Michel took exception to a screenshot of my copy of Mail.app in another post about navigating around Mail with the keyboard.

He asks,

I’m sorry, but how old is that screengrab? it looks completely different to my mail.app, is this some of the hawkwings add-ons?

It is. I have modified the look of my Mail.app with two utilities that are easy to use and give (to my mind) a much nicer work environment. Compare these two interfaces:

First, the lozenges in mine (the front one) are gone, thanks to Mail Stamps. Now they are big, bold and brassy, just how I like them.

Harder to see but still noticeable, I have run UNO , system-wide theming utility for OS X that brings the unified Toolbar/Titlebar and lighter metal look of Mail and iTunes to all your skinnable apps.

I like the look. And, of course, once you get the taste for it, it’s hard to stop.

You can replace Mail.app’s Dock icon with one of the 295 alternatives on the Hawk Wings’ icon list, which also contains instructions on how to do it.

You can also replace the new mail badges that appear over the icon in the Dock with one of a number of alternatives.

Using the tips for hacking the Letterbox plugin, you can start to make changes to the nib files which control the layout of Mail.app’s message list and preview pane.

Lastly, if you are really keen, you could replace the mailbox icons with any number of improbable images that appeal to you. Use the Hawk Wings Hasta la Vista icon set, or make something better yourself.

Needless to say, no one in their right mind would try this without having backed things up first.

Go on. Take out the cleaver and make a Mail.app of your own! mail.app, apple mail, interface, hacks, icons, dock, notification badges, mailbox icons, nib files

Pierre Igot at Betalogue has some of the sharpest eyes in the blogging world. He repeatedly sees flaws in interface design that I overlook. Whether it is problems with the way Mail handles the format=flowed feature or threading, he’s got it nailed.

He’s done it again with iCal, pointing out something that I must have looked at a hundred times and never “seen”.

Pierre notes iCal’s inability to modify its language when the the value in question is not plural (as in this screenshot of an iCal alarm). He wonders whether anyone at Apple uses iCal and has noticed that it needs to be fixed.

Of course, it’s not earth-shattering. Still, Apple is a company that takes pride in the polish of its apps, so it rankles as Pierre point out:

Yeah, I know, it’s a detail. It’s not a bug. It doesn’t cause iCal to crash. It doesn’t cause iCal to fail to sound the alarm one hour before the event. So the problem is not high on anyone’s to-do list. But surely it is still somewhere on someone’s to-do list? And one day it will be fixed, right?

Now it will niggle at me too. ical, interface, alarms, apple, betalogue, Apple GUI, attention to detail

The new Cube Interface in Quicksilver is very nice, almost nice enough to tempt me away from the Bezel that I have used since I first stumbled across the app.

But the icons on each side of the interface are very small. I can only make out what they are by squinting.

So, emboldened by playing around with the look of Letterbox, I thought that I would see if you can make the icons bigger with Interface Builder. And you can.

Here’s a screenshot (poor quality, apologies) of the default layout and my tweaked one, which makes the central icon smaller and the ones on the side a little bigger:

It’s not hard to do. Interface Builder comes with the Mac OS X Developer Tools.

These tools are not installed by default, but you can find them on your installation discs, where they live in a folder called “Xcode Tools”. After installation you will find them in a folder called “Developer” in the root directory (this may not be the right word, but a hangover from pre-Mac days) of your harddrive.

Once they are installed, you can navigate to the Cube Interface.qsplugin file which is your ~/Library/Application Support/Quicksilver/Plugins folder.

Command-click (or right click) on the file and select “Show Package Contents”. Then navigate to the QSCubeInterface.nib file in Contents/Resources folder. You might want to back it up before you start playing with it, just in case.

Double click on the nib file to open it in Interface builder.

You will see the layout pictured here on the left. The squares are just like image place-holders or text boxes in any other app. You can resize them to your heart’s content.

Save and close Interface Builder and you are done. You might want to save a copy of your modified nib file somewhere else. I think Quicksilver’s update service will overwrite it when a new version of the plugin is installed.

No more squinting. Enjoy.quicksilver, productivity, interface, hacks, tips, cube interface, interface builder, who dares wins

See “Cube Interface” in the plugins list of the latest version – β49 (Borzoi) 3776.quicksilver, interface, cube, productivity, not apple mail

Bryan Veloso takes Hawk Wings’ little posts on replacing icons in Mail.app’s interface and on the “Hasta La Vista” Windows replacement set to a whole new level.

He has posted an excellent tutorial with screenshots on replacing the icons in the Mailbox Drawer.

He uses Pixadex and icons from the Minium icon set , but you could use any icons that took your fancy.interface, mail.app, apple mail, icons, hacks, mods