Jochen Wolters at MacDevCenter likes the new to-do and notes features in Leopard Mail. He thinks that

The addition of to-do’s and notes to Mail may indicate that Apple has some useful ideas for enhancing a “non-glamourous” application like Mail beyond just beautiful eye candy.

But his ambitions for Mail don’t stop there. He would like to see the development of “Folder action”-like workflows through AppleScript and Automator. Some of this is already here, he notes, with Mail Act-on and other plugins. Nonetheless,

I’d love to see the equivalent to the Finder’s Folder Actions for every mailbox in Mail, multiple varieties for core functionality like ‘Reply’…, message threading across mailboxes, automatic filing of messages based on those threads, etc…
…Adding workflows which average users could create and edit, and which would advance automated email handling in ways that makes even die-hard productivity geeks smile, could make Apple Mail stand out from the crowd for more than just its good-looking UI.

mail.app, apple mail, automator, applescript, filing, workflow, productivity, rules, folder actions

MacInTouch reader Bill Benson posted a rule in the .Mac section of that site yesterday which will catch much of the current “image spam” plague.

He noticed that the image spam emails always have two distinguishing marks: they come from a different address each time and the Content-Type header begins with “multipart/related”.

So a rule that matches both those conditions like the one below will snag them before they hit your inbox:

The only tricky thing here is selecting the “Edit Header List…” from the list of conditions and then entering “Content-Type” in the next window. “Content-Type” will now appear in the list of conditions. You will need to select it and enter as its content “multipart/related”.

You might choose to replace the “Not in my previous recipients list” condition with “Not in my Address Book” depending on your own correspondence patterns. Adjust to suit your own tastes.

There is a small downside. It seems likely that this rule will move some “false positives” into the Junk folder. But checking that from time to time is much better than wading through the image spam that Mail.app’s Junk filter is currently missing.

UPDATE: It will be easier to spot any false positives moved by this rule, if you add a “Set Color of Message” action to it, choosing a unique colour. That will help them stand out in an overstuffed Junk folder.spam, junk, image spam, stocks, mail.app, apple mail, rules

Matt Comi at Big Bucket Amusement has worked out a clever way to begin downloading torrents at home.

He configures Mail.app using a rule and an AppleScript so that it automatically strips out any torrent that you might email to your home computer from work or wherever and passes it to Azureus which starts the download.

His post contains the Applescript, screenshots and instructions on how to set this up.

[Via macOSXHints ]mail.app, apple mail, applescript, rules, torrents, remote control, tips, Azureus

A poster on macOSXHints has written an AppleScript that allows you to control your Mac remotely, performing a variety of tasks that you can trigger using an email in Mail.app.

Unable to connect to his Mac at home via VNC or SSH due to a firewall, he developed a script. When added to a rule in Mail.app, it is triggered by keywords in an email that send to your Mac at home.

The script can get a file to post back to you, launch an application, perform a shell script or save an attachment to a certain location.

If you are not worried about the security implications of this, you can also check out two other apps, Commander and RCMail, which offer the same “remote control” functions via Mail.app and AppleScript.applescript, remote control, remote access, rules, mail.app, apple mail, helpful apps, plugins

Pierre Igot at Betalogue is frustrated by the not-very-smart algorithm that controls the way Mail threads messages. It doesn’t have to be as dumb as it is, he reckons:

As far as I know, Mail also uses unique e-mail message identifiers in the message headers to follow threads even when subject lines are changed. So it obviously can be smart in some cases. Why does it have to be so dumb in other cases?

He wishes that Mail had some kind of manual command to separate emails that Mail has mistakenly dumped together.

Kevin Bjorke, a Shading Engineer at NVIDIA, wonders why Mail.app won’t tell him what messages have been moved by its rules as Eudora does. “The program hides information from me and puts the burden of organization onto me to keep in my head — the opposite of what “productivity software” is supposed to do,” he says.

Rob Hyndman has just switched to Macs, buying a shiny new MacBook Pro. He is liking the whole experience , especially using Apple Mail:

Apple Mail is a joy to use on this box. Very simple, elegant, clean. I’m forgetting Outlook already :). But I do need to figure out proper archiving of emails. I have 5 years worth +, to about 5 gigs of email that I need to have handy and searchable.

mail.app, apple mail, unhappy users, rules, threading, switcher

If you didn’t read Fraser Speirs’ “Talking Mail.app” interview, you might have missed his mention of a nifty little AppleScript for Growl that he has written.

The script can be attached to a Mail.app rule and will send the From and Subject headers of an email to Growl’s notification pop-ups.

You can get the script from Fraser’s wiki .growl, notification, mail.app, apple mail, applescript, rules, fraser speirs

Scott Morrison has released an updated version of Mail Act-On, a plugin that quickly files and flags Mail.app messages.

It is incredibly useful. It holds the number two spot in the “Top ten things every mail.app user should have” and is mentioned more than any other plugin in the “Talking Mail.app” interview series.

The new version (1.3.2) is a universal plugin, now offering Act-On goodness for the new Intel-based Macs as well.

It also contains a small bugfix. Rules that are disabled in Preferences will no longer show up in the Act-On Menu.

Mail Act-On is donation-ware and is available from Scott’s web site . Scott also maintains a page of tips for getting the most out of Mail Act-On.mail.app, apple, apple mail, mail act-on, rules, scott morrison, plugins, universal, Intel Macs