The poster at Apathy Online has developed a quick hack for Panther Mail users that will give them the “Outlook-like” three-pane layout.

Tiger Mail users can use Aaron Harnly’s excellent Letterbox plugin . However, despite a few positive reports, Aaron doesn’t promise seamless operation in Panther Mail.

If Letterbox fails you in Panther, this could be the fall-back you are looking for.

The end result looks like this:

Image from ApathyOnline

Installing it is easier than you might think.

First, quit Mail. Then navigate to it in your Applications folder and right-click on Mail’s icon. Select the “Show Package Contents” option:

Then navigate through the Contents and Resources folders to the English.lproj folder. (Or the lproj folder for the language you use.)

Open it. Find the MessageViewer.nib file:

Back-up the original file before you do anything, either making a duplicate in the same place or copying it to the Desktop.

Then right-click on the MessageViewer.nib icon, choose the “Show Package Contents” option again and replace the files inside with the three modified files from ApathyOnline.

Restart Mail.app and enjoy.

Disclaimer: I have not tested this myself, no longer having a Mac with Panther installed. Also, since I can’t remember that far back, I have simply assumed the layout of the Mail package is the same. If it isn’t, I hope that someone will tell me. mail.app, apple mail, hacks, three pane, outlook, panther, tiger, widescreen

Not everyone likes the new lozenge buttons in Tiger Mail. John Siracusa at Ars Technica calls them “hideously ugly”. Giles Turnbull at MacDevCenter finds that “Euw…” sums it all up. And Leopard doesn’t remove them.

In fact, the lozenges are spreading. It looks like Preview will feature them in Leopard:

Foad Afshari has posted a disk image containing the “de-lozenged” icons from Tristan O’Tierney’s Cage Fighter , a utility (broken since 10.4.6) that removes the bubble from the buttons. A before and after shot gives you an idea of the transformation:

The disk image also contains the buttons from Panther Mail and instructions on how to manually install them into Mail.app’s package.

However, there is an easier way. Andrew Escobar’s Mail Stamps still works nicely. It does all the hack work for you, replacing the Tiger lozenges with bold and brassy Panther icons:

Mail Stamps includes an uninstaller so you can return to the Tiger look if the mood takes you.

The change will not bust or damage Mail in any way. It only replaces some images deep inside Mail’s application package. You can banish those lozenges with 100% confidence.

Hopefully, someone is already working on “Preview Stamps”.mail.app, apple mail, mail stamps, icons, tiger, lozenges, hacks, panther, buttons

PocketLight is an OS 10.3 search app for Mail.app, iCal, Address Book and files in specified folders that was developed before Tiger was released. Spotlight overtakes it, but users still on Panther can enjoy its Spotlight-like abilities.

The developer has released a final version of the app, which will no longer be updated.

It won’t run on 10.4, so I can’t provide a screenshot, but the interface looks (briefly before it quits) like Spotlight, offering matches for your search term in a separate “Spotlight pane” for Mail, iCal and Address Book

It contains French, Italian and German localisations.

PocketLight is freeware and is available from the developer’s web site .panther, spotlight, mail.app, apple mail, ical, address book, searching

John Siracusa of Ars Technica has written a long and interesting post on Leopard and the future of Finder.

It’s worth reading.

He suggests:

Dissatisfaction with the Mac OS X Finder is endemic in the Mac user community, ranging from mild frustration to deep-seated rage.

Apple recently advertised for a software engineer to join the development team for Finder.

John, who is always interested in Finder, takes this as a sign of things to come and ponders what Finder’s keepers have in store for the future.

Along the way he touches on the history of Finder, muses on Leopard (10.5) and even Ocelot (10.6).

Recent switchers like me, who know of nothing before Panther, will find lots to learn. Old hands will no doubt find much to prompt their memories and provoke them.

[Thanks, Dan !]

From a thread on the Apple Mail Discussions Board come some tips for going backwards in Mail.app from the new emlx file format in Mail 2.0 to Panther Mail’s mbox format:

1. The emlx to mbox converter that’s been blogged here before, but with a step-by-step walkthrough.
2. Andreas Amann’s Mail Scripts contains an Archive script that can export Tiger’s emlx files as an mbox file.

One poster is going backwards because Tiger Mail has too many problems. Another is going backwards for various reasons he won’t go into. A third user on MacUsers.org is going backwards because his work set-up demands it.tiger, panther, mail, mbox, emlx, mail.app, apple mail

Textpander has been updated with some nifty new features.

This time-saving (and finger-saving) utility stores snippets of text and images that you can insert in your typing with user-defined shortcuts. It’s one of my favorite OS X add-ons and saves me lots of time in Apple Mail and elsewhere.

The updated version features as new variable (%clipboard) allowing you to insert whatever is in the Clipboard into your snippets. Sweet.

It now imports snippets from other apps better and works more smoothly with Nisus Writer nlang files. Panther users will be pleased to learn that it now works in 10.3.9 as well. The version also adds French and German localizations.

You can get the updated version from the developer’s web site.

When Tiger was released, Mail’s new interface was a shock to many people. New lozenge-shaped buttons appeared in the toolbar, which some thought were not only ugly in themselves, but out of step with the rest of Tiger’s interface. They wanted to wind back the clock, and return to the look of Apple Mail in Panther.

If the new look bugs you, three applications can return you to the Panther look. Mail Stamps will replace the lozenge-shaped buttons with the icons from Panther. An uninstaller painlessly returns Mail to the new look if you want to later. Running Mail Stamps turned my Mail’s appearance from this:

to this:

Cagefighter and Debuttonizer are two other apps that will do the same job. Both are freeware.

Mail Stamps 2.0.1 was released on 15 September 2005.
Mail Stamps 2.1 was released on 5 December 2005.

Updated 5 December 2005icons, mail.app, apple mail, lozenge-shaped buttons, panther, apple GUI, hack, interface