iPhoto Mailer Patcher

What is it?

iPhoto Mailer Patcher is a hack for Apple iPhoto. iPhoto 4.0 has the ability to send pictures with America Online, Eudora, Mail and Microsoft Entourage. iPhoto Mailer Patcher adds support for Claris Emailer, Mailsmith, Outlook Express, PowerMail and QuickMail Pro.

System requirements

iPhoto Mailer Patcher 4.0 requires iPhoto version 4.0. Versions for iPhoto 2.0 and 1.1.1 are available here.

How to install it?

Make sure you have iPhoto version 4.0 installed. This version of iPhoto Mailer Patcher is only intended to work with iPhoto 4.0.

- Launch iPhoto Mailer Patcher from the Finder.

- Click "Patch" to patch iPhoto. iPhoto Mailer Patcher will remind you to quit iPhoto (even if it is not running). You should do so before applying the patch.

You are done. You can now select your favorite mailer in iPhoto (in the Preferences dialog).

How to uninstall it?

If you want to restore iPhoto to to its original state, follow these steps:

- Launch iPhoto Mailer Patcher from the Finder.

- Click "Restore" to restore iPhoto to its original state. iPhoto Mailer Patcher will remind you to quit iPhoto (even if it is not running). You should do so before restoring the application.

You are done.

Note: if you patched iPhoto when it was at version 2.0 and then upgraded to version 4.0, you will need iPhoto Mailer Patcher 4.0 to restore iPhoto.

Known problems and limitations

iPhoto Mailer Patcher modifies the iPhoto application, which must be located at YourMacOSXDisk/Applications/ (the default location when you install iPhoto). If you do not have sufficient access privileges on this folder and/or iPhoto itself, you will get an error when iPhoto Mailer Patcher attempts to modify iPhoto.

iPhoto uses AppleScript to send e-mail. Unfortunately, scripting Mail is different from scripting anything else. Using AppleScript, Mail can insert an image as an attachment anywhere in the text. So if you send more than one image, each image will appear in the e-mail body between its title and the title of the next image. This is impossible to do with the other mailers. The titles and comments are displayed all in a row and the images are not visible in the body of your message. However, they will be displayed at the end of your text when you send it (this feature depends on the recipient's e-mail client, though).

There is a minor issue with the Claris Emailer script. It creates a new email with the photos attached, but Emailer by default will close and queue that email for delivery. This means you will need to go into your Out Box and open the email in order to add addresses to it. If you know how to make Emailer open the message automatically, please contact me.

How much is it?

iPhoto Mailer Patcher is free. It may be distributed to anybody in the original unmodified form.

If you find it useful and want to support the author by making a donation (it's all the rage these days, after all) you can do so via PayPal. Just click on the image below. If you make a donation, you will get access to the Patcher's source code if you are interested.

Sending images by drag and drop

An alternate way to send images by e-mail from iPhoto is to drag and drop your pictures from the iPhoto window to your mailer icon in the Dock. You can also drag your images from iPhoto to the "attachments" or "enclosures" window of most of the programs. BUT the huge issue is that your images won't be optimized at all.

Disclaimer

iPhoto Mailer Patcher should be harmless to both your iPhoto installation and your System. It is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY. The author can not be held responsible for any damage or loss of work which results from the use of this software. You use it at you own risk. iPhoto Mailer Patcher does nothing more than renaming and adding/removing some files in an application bundle. If by any chance your copy of iPhoto gets corrupted, simply trash it and reinstall it from the original CD. There is no way for iPhoto Mailer Patcher to harm your iPhoto Library. The Library is stored in another location on the disk which is left completely untouched, even if you reinstall iPhoto.

Credits

iPhoto Mailer Patcher was made by Simon Jacquier.

The Claris Emailer script was made by Chris Bartlett after Dave Nathanson suggested it.

iPhoto Mailer Patcher has nothing to do with Apple. Neither do the author. Please do not contact Apple for support. Use this e-mail address instead: jacksim@mac.com.

Version history

January 16, 2004 4.0 Added support for iPhoto 4.0

January 31, 2003 2.0 Support for America Online, Eudora and Entourage is included by default in iPhoto version 2.0
Modified to add support for Claris Emailer, Mailsmith, Outlook Express, PowerMail and QuickMail Pro

May 11, 2002 1.1.1a Added support for Eudora, Mailsmith, PowerMail and QuickMail Pro
Changed the name of the program to a more generic one
Some minor changes

May 8, 2002 1.1.1 First public release
The version number reflects the compatibility with iPhoto 1.1.1