Comments on: free software for Mail OS X

By: Dany Silverman

Dany Silverman — Tue, 14 Oct 2003 10:30:54 +0000

Another solution is to use server-side filtering. I use procmail and about 95% of the time it puts things in the right place and I don't have to worry about dragging stuff about. The learning curve is a bit steep, but the benefits are pretty great, especially if you check your (IMAP) account from multiple locations/computers. Otherwise, yeah, the "Rules" thing is pretty nice, although not perfect.

By: Aaron Swartz

Aaron Swartz — Fri, 10 Oct 2003 21:03:16 +0000

Oops, my solution doesn't select the next message. I can use the UI scripting to have it select the next menu item, and that properly selects the next message, but selecting menu items doesn't work from the scripts menu (which itself works by selecting a menu item). Aargh!

By: asubedi

asubedi — Fri, 10 Oct 2003 20:35:59 +0000

Prof. Lessig,

Its in someone else's comment! Sorry for the confusion.

http://www.lessig.org/blog/archives/001187.shtml

Thanks

By: Aaron Swartz

Aaron Swartz — Fri, 10 Oct 2003 19:21:05 +0000

OK, I think I've figured out how to do pretty much what I wanted, although it may only work on Panther:

http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/001054

Thanks for the help, everyone.

By: lessig

lessig — Fri, 10 Oct 2003 16:34:41 +0000

thanks for the tips and clarifications. see how much you learn by revealing your ignorance! And asubedi -- where on my website does it say that? I have machines that I've installed GNU/Linux on (and some installed for me), but my machine in my hand is a Mac. And while I've spent a great deal of time showing how cool stuff can be done by making Powerpoint simple, I'm switching to something else soon. MSFT programs are the only programs that crash in OS X (that I've found, at least).

By: Nick

Nick — Fri, 10 Oct 2003 12:21:32 +0000

Uh, Mail.app already has those abilities. Just go to Preferences | Rules and you can set it up to recognize that emails from (or to) a particular corporate source belong in a special folder and put it there automatically.

So I guess that makes it a first-class mail program. :)

By: Mike Perry

Mike Perry — Fri, 10 Oct 2003 03:47:48 +0000

Even better would be an email program that you could train to KNOW which folder to place each email based its source. Hit a single ‘put away’ key, and it would know to put an email from [email protected] into the Friends/John folder. (It could also be smart enough to learn to put all mail from one corporate source into a specific folder.) Last but not least, it could be told to put the mail you SEND to someone in that person’s folder. That would make it far easier to follow a trail of correspondence.

I’ve meant to suggest this to Apple for months. Except for its SPAM scanning Mail is rather lack-luster. This one feature would make it a first-class mail program.

–Mike Perry

By: Jonathan Nathan

Jonathan Nathan — Fri, 10 Oct 2003 01:56:48 +0000

To bind these AppleScripts to a keyboard equivalent, I like the freeware launcher Xkeys by David Stark.

By: Darren Rowse

Darren Rowse — Fri, 10 Oct 2003 01:16:40 +0000

I had been thinking the same thing just this morning as I tediously dragged and dropped all my email into appropriate folders...there has to be an easier way.

By: Aaron Swartz

Aaron Swartz — Fri, 10 Oct 2003 00:00:52 +0000

I had the exact same problem; I started using Cocoa Gestures but something that could be activated by a key would be much nicer. But how do you bind these AppleScripts to a key?