As MailTags forges it way towards an official Version 2.2, Scott Morrison has released the fourth public beta of the plugin.

In addition to a bunch of the usual improvements and bug-fixes (improving the reliability of the Spotlight Importer, tweaking some Preference options and settings, a nice resizable keyword token field which now displays all your tags), this latest release addresses a quirk with the way Gmail implements IMAP. In order to prevent problems, it now saves tags only to the local cache of Gmail accounts in Mail.app.

MailTags looks more polished, as Scott makes it into the most “native” plugin going around. It almost seems built-in to the app, rather than an added extra.

The pop-up dialogs for to-dos and events created on a Leopard Mail Note are now a fetching dark brown colour, which blends in nicely with the yellow lined-paper of the Note itself:

I missed the third public beta, being at the beach, so haven’t yet had a chance to note a change in the way MailTags is constructed.

Some elements are now split off as optional “extras” — plug-ins for the plug-in, so to speak — which promises a more efficient, more flexible, more user-customisable future.

It also provides a easy invitation for third-party developers to create specific MailTags plug-ins for their apps (OmniFocus, Yojimbo, Things, iGTD?).

Its iCal integration features are now a separate “extra” and a new feature, the Quick Message Colour Picker is another. It lets you colour-code the selected email with a single mouse click. A new Extras Preference Tab in the MailTags Pane controls their behaviour.

For example, in the Message Colour extra preferences, you can chose your preferred swatch colours and decide whether or not to delete the message colour when all MailTags info is deleted from an email.

If you don’t want an option to colour emails on the fly, you can just disable the extra in the Preferences:

Another small but useful feature in the new beta is the welcome return of the red icon to mark a tag that hasn’t been uploaded to the IMAP server yet. Mail users on dial-up connections at the beach (and probably elsewhere) will be pleased to see this back.

You can read more about MailTags for Leopard and download the newest, fourth public beta from Scott’s web site , where you will also find a forum for any questions, bug reports or comments.

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Scott Morrison has released a second public beta of MailTags for Leopard.

The updated beta features all the improvement of the six private beta versions that he has rolled out since the last public beta.

As a result, MailTags is now faster, more stable and reliable under Leopard. In particular, issues with Preferences, tagging, formatting links to individual emails (message URLs) and rules have been resolved.

MailTags also no longer causes Mail.app to open in the background.

However, it is not all just tidying up. Scott has added two new features to the second beta.

MailTags will now check the indev website for new versions at launch. If an updated version is found, the new release notes will be displayed with a button to open the download page in your browser:

In addition, the new beta adds a MT Debug menu to Mail’s menubar to help testers choose different debugging options. Once upon a time, these options could only be accessed with arcane Terminal commands. Not any more.

What’s next? Now that the foundation of the plugin are solid under Leopard, Scott intends to re-introduce the to-do and event features of MailTags. Soon my niggles with the way Leopard Mail does this itself will be a thing of the past!

Once again, Scott’s warning is worth heeding:

Our private beta testers have worked over the last few weeks to test many functions of MailTags. Our priorities are, as always, data safety (for your mail and your tags), reliability and stability. While we are confident that MailTags meets these requirements, we advise that some issues may have escaped our notice. We strongly recommend you maintain backups of your mail data or avoid using MailTags in critical situations.

You can read more about MailTags for Leopard and download the new public beta from Scott’s web site , where you will also find a forum for any questions, bug reports or comments.

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• MailTags 2.0 Public Beta 5: Attachment bug fixed

MailTags, the prince of Mail.app plugins, is now available in a Leopard-friendly public beta.

Scott outlines in a post on his web site how MailTags retains its productivity edge for Leopard Mail users. Although Leopard Mail includes notes and to-dos, MailTags still does it better. Its notes are smarter, its to-dos more flexible and its project features unmatched.

For example, tagging emails and RSS feeds with the same MailTags project makes it possible to see both sorts of data in one hit in Mail’s search window.

A list of Leopard Mail’s abilities without and with MailTags makes the advantages clear:

The beta has been hassle-free for me since upgrading to Leopard last Friday. Now in its fifth version, most of the kinks have been ironed out by Scott’s squad of beta-test commandos. MailTags to-dos don’t work for the moment, neither does the option to “view the originating message”. But they will.

Download and enjoy.

It’s all good for me, but heed Scott’s warning nonetheless: “We strongly recommend you maintain backups of your mail data or avoid using MailTags in critical situations.”

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Scott Morrison has released a new public beta of his IMAP-savvy MailTags 2.0 plugin.

Public Beta 10 introduces the ability to turn off the automatic saving of tags to IMAP servers and to manage it manually. It also fixes numerous bugs, especially issues related to smart mailboxes and “to do”-related criteria.

Since tagging IMAP messages can create extra bandwidth usage, there is now an option in MailTags’ Preferences to switch off the autmoatic saving of tags to the IMAP server. This preference is on by default. Turning it off means that tags are only saved to the local cache files. You save bandwidth, but the tags are naturally not available to other computers.

For added fine-tuning, you can choose not to save tags on messages over a certain size:

When a message has tags that are only saved to the local cache, an extra button “Save To IMAP” appears at the bottom of the tags panel.

Clicking this button will immediately save the locally cached data to the IMAP server. A similar option appears in the MailTags menu and in Mail’s Contextual menu. Or you can just highlight the message and press ⌃⌘S.

Given Scott’s trademark attention to detail and completeness, a new criterion has been added for smart mailbox configuration: “IMAP Tags are/are not saved to server”.

A new icon in the MailTags column quickly indicates which messages have tags saved to the IMAP server or not. The messages with the orange tag icon have tags saved locally only:

Lastly, as extra insurance, tags not saved to the IMAP server are retained during mailbox rebuilds.

The latest public beta also contains a bucketful of bugfixes. The interface has been firmed up, HUD windows are better positioned, and customised MailTags columns behave better in the Mail Viewer.

Smart Mailboxes based on To Do items, especially on completed items, are smarter and will now work as expected, although you may need to reindex your tags using the new “Reindex Tags” option in the Preferences).

To dos now display using the user’s internationalization (or internationalisation) settings. Huzzah!

MailTags and iCal now mutually update deleted to dos and events more consistently.

Rules management has also been further improved. Two potential crashes when applying or editing rules have bene corrected, and rules are more efficiently applied.

Users with Dovecot IMAP servers will be glad to hear that MailTags no longer overwrites its X-Keywords headers when rebuilding mailboxes.

MailTags’ SpotLight importer has been updated to take account of new to do counts, completion status and IMAP save status.

This long list only picks the best bits out of a much longer changelog on the MailTags web site.

You can read more about MailTags 2.0 and download the new public beta from Scott’s web site , where you will also find a forum for any questions.

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• MailTags 2.0 Public Beta 9: Better and better
• MailTags 2.0 Public Beta 7: Speed, stability

Scott Morrison has released another public beta of the undisputed prince of Mail.app plugins.

How do you make the best plugin better? By making it even more reliable, slicker and easier on the eye.

Scott has polished the interface. You will see substantial tweaks to the to-do pop-up. Alarms have been added for to-dos and events (message with or without audio alert), a nice calendar makes picking the due date for to-dos easier and the tab key now does what it is supposed to:

A long-standing issue with the possible double download of messages in some situations has been fixed. And .Mac accounts now authenticate properly.

Memory leaks have been plugged, leaving Mail “more stable, snappier and less memory-hungry over time”.

You won’t believe how fast Mail now opens large mailboxes.

And the main MailTags pane continues to see improvements. The old “Due Date” section gets a name change to “Deadline” in order to avoid confusion with iCal items.

Parts of the pane are more compactly designed and the Notes section collapses more elegantly.

Behind the scenes, a “Reindex Tags” button has been added to the About/Register Tab of the MailTags Preferences.

This performs a Spotlight import of tags if smart mailboxes are not working properly.

The expiry date for Public Beta 9 has been extended to 15 April 2007, when Scott expects that the final version will be out.

Not bad, eh?

This long list only picks the best bits out of a much longer changelog on the MailTags web site.

You can read more about MailTags 2.0 and download the new public beta from Scott’s web site , where you will also find a forum for any questions.

Related posts

• New MailTags Beta: Multiple to-dos and events
• MailTags for Leopard: New Public Beta
• MailTags 2.2 Public Beta 4: Polished flexibility
• MailTags 2.0 Public Beta 7: Speed, stability
• MailTags 2.0 Public Beta 5: Attachment bug fixed

The latest public beta of MailTags 2.0 has been released.

It’s unlikely but possible that some Apple Mail users don’t know what MailTags is. It’s a plugin for Mail.app that brings powerful tagging and management to your email, smarter integration with iCal and forms the cornerstone of Getting Things Done with Apple Mail.

Improvements over the previous public beta are most visible in speed, stability and a tweaked interface.

Tagging and opening large mailboxes are both now markedly quicker. Scott has optimized that way rules are applied, postponing IMAP updates to end of rule application.

Stability is also improved. Messages are no longer sometimes deleted when tags are rapidly applied to a large number of messages and the number of temporary duplicates has been reduced. In addition, MailTags now more reliably deletes iCal events attached to the message when clearing all tags via the MailTags pane or menu.

Tabbing through the to-do and event pop-up windows no longer crashes Mail on occasions.

In the kind of nice touch that belongs to an app nearing its final polish, the MailTags tag icon no longer appears printed messages.

In the main MailTags pane, the same polish is noticeable.

The widgets and buttons have been redrawn to match better the overall look and feel of Mac OS X. An Action button on each to-do or events gives quick access to editing/viewing/deleting options.

The pop-up windows have also been reworked a little. Copy and Paste functions now work in the text fields, which also accept non-English characters.

The pp-up windows look good and are easy to work with:

Some niggling problems remain. MailTags and PGP signatures don’t agree with each other. And some beta-testers find that MailTags will sometimes make .Mac accounts reject the account’s password (although a restart fixes that) and sporadic crashes sometimes occur when printing.

Overall, MailTags 2.0 now looks and feels like a plugin that is almost ready to be released in final form.

The prince of Mail.app plugins hovers on the verge of even greater greatness.

You can read more about MailTags 2.0 and download the new public beta from Scott’s web site , where you will also find a forum for any questions.

Related posts

• New MailTags Beta: Multiple to-dos and events
• MailTags for Leopard: New Public Beta
• MailTags 2.2 Public Beta 4: Polished flexibility
• MailTags 2.0 Public Beta 9: Better and better
• MailTags 2.0 Public Beta 5: Attachment bug fixed