Mac OS X (Tiger) 10.4 — Mail
I use Mail all the time; so the update had a
pretty big impact on me. In Panther, Mail would get more and more sluggish the
longer it ran. I have not seen that in Tiger and that makes it a lot more
pleasant to use than the previous version.
I do not particularly like the new look of Mail,
but the functionality has increased in useful ways. Searching for mail is
greatly improved because Mail now uses the new Spotlight search feature of
Tiger. Also, the ability to selectively delete mail messages on a remote server
is sometimes useful, such as when there is a work-related email amidst a bunch
of spam messages. In the Panther version, it was all or none. Now I can
selectively preserve messages on the server for access when I'm in my
office.
Smart mailboxes are very nice.
When you create a smart mailbox you specify a set of conditions that have to be
met for mail to be included in the mailbox. Any message matching those
conditions automatically appears in the mailbox. Smart mailboxes are virtual
folders. Mail is not really moved there. You could, for example, have mail
from everyone in your birth family (parents and siblings) filed in a general
Family folder and then have a smart mailbox showing just mail from your parents.
Suppose you are trying to coordinate a special event with a group of people each
of whom has his own mailbox. You could create a smart mailbox to show just the
emails related to the event and thereby collect together mail from members of
the group temporarily while you are planning the
event.
One thing I don't like about
smart mailboxes is the limited logic you are allowed to specify. You get to
choose between including messages that satisfy
all
the conditions or at least
one of the conditions. You cannot ask for
messages that either satisfy all of one set of conditions or all of a different
set of conditions. You cannot ask for messages that satisfy both some of one
set of conditions and some of a different set of conditions. The specifications
are also weak in allowing only certain
negative
conditions.
Posted: Sunday - May 15, 2005 at 11:31 PM