How the **** do I get my old 6.something MAIL app back

Question

I just 'upgraded' from 6.something can't remember it was maybe 6.8, whatever came on my Mac Air 3 years ago.  I only upgrades because there is a piece of design software I want to use  that won't run on 6.  What ever happened to their vaunted backward compatability, how can folks be writing software that won't work on an operating system that is 3 years old?  I'm still using my G4 desktop with 4.11.  That probably goes back 8 years if I'm guessing right, and I understand it may be a bridge too far but working with software developers to orphan 3 year old machines is not the Mac I once knew.
But I digress .
I had no idea this 'upgrade' was going to screw with Mail and my Address Book.  They have ruined the search function in Mail by bringing it under spotlight.
The new appearance is useless. It looks like Gmail which I hate.
All I want is a succinct list view of messages and a dedicated robust search function that easily sets criteria for which fields to look in.
The new version is hopeless. How do I go back. I didn't sign up for new Mail . I DONT WANT IT. I was so happy with my Mac experience, even though the air card on my Air won't connect I've been using it as a desktop machine.  And after seeing this new operating system, I don't even want a new Mac computer if I can't get the old MAIL back.
MAybe late to the party here and sorry to fill the question up with observations, but these suppport communities are equally useless to search, have a lousy interface, I can never figure out how to find my own threads nevermind ones where the issue might already have been discussed.  Now they have just made the MAIL application as bad as their support forum.
Thanks,
Brian

Answer 1

Bee,
thanks for that.  I never have a clue when 'preferences' will be useful anymore.  I went to the spotlight preferences to try to fix the case sensitivity problem or figure out where you can now chose which field to restrict the search to in mail, and instead the only preferences they offer is how much gobbledy gook to search at once as if the default is likely to be every kind of file and its content in the computer.  That is the least likely search and their dogged adherence to the idea that this is what people want put me off spotlight from the moment they introduced it.
And, silly me, my intuition when I didn't like the View was to look under the View menu.  And then go to the help menu and put in "view" in the search which, for reasons only apple knows does not bring up matches for "viewing" which  would have lead me to the correct answer - not only available in the preferences route but also located under Window>Viewing.  I don't get it, I don't know whay they would restrict a search in the help field to exclude the same word with a different ending, but when I search in my address book they have started adding snippets so if I search for "Rose" I'll get the name "Ambrose" and they put Ambrose and anything else they find that is alphabetically in front of Rose first, pushing what I really want hopelessly down the list.  This is as bad as phone searches when I search for Rose and get a bunch of florists.  That's fine, but give me anything that begins with Rose first instead of hopelessly buried hundreds of results down because of "AAA florist" and the like.
Good search isn't about this unlimited access to your whole computer and treating everything the same. Rather its about restriction.  Searches with the most subtle and effective restrictions are where its at and apple seems to moving the wrong direction. This is why MAILs old search function worked so much better in my opinion, because all the stupid cellphone style searches for these that to search your mail (and the internet at the same time half the time) but offer no restrictions are a waste of my effort trying to use useless touch screens to put in search indecies.
In this vein, and most unfortunately, changing to classic view did not bring up the classic search restrictors.  I get the search restriction bar, but it only offers choices amongst my mail boxeswhich simply duplices the choices I can make in the vertical pane on the left.  This bar used to be where you would get your field restrictions, i.e. entire message, subject, from , to.
And then case sensitivity setting used to show up in a bar at the bottom.
None of that stuff shows up.  The so  called "help" delivered with these apps says you can click an arrow to get those choices, but it doesn't say where the arrow is. I ca't find it. Why do I have to click an arrow. What happened to the restrictor bar.
It is hard to calm down after I had a three month nightmare to get this 'upgrade' in the first place and the only thing it tells you about itself is you can used two fingers to scroll which is the least important feature Mac has ever developed for me. If, instead, a dialogue box pops up telling you how to revert if you don't like it, or if they think that telegraphs lack of belief in their new product, how about a dialogue box asking whether you are conservative user who doesn't like interface changes, etc. and then deliver settings accordingly instead of forcing you into their horrible google like regime and you having to pick your way through the minefields to get as much of your old useful interface back.
It is of course great that folks like you will take the time to reply and that is the least exasperating and most hopeful part of this, although I would think that this is a place where apple would value feedback and mine is emphatically, go backwards.  The old MAIL and most importantly the old MAIL search distinguished Mac for me.  It was the most useful, fastest, functional mail reader and they should leave it alone.
Yeah, I have a couple ideas like you ought to be able to set defaults for the inbox and the outbox so that it always searches the from field in the inbox and the to field in the outbox as the default and then you can change from there. but I never even bothered to voice that thought because, whenever they mess with something decent, they usually make it worse.  And having to click the field restriction was a small penalty to pay for their lack of foresight in that area.
I search those from and to fields, respectively to inbox and outbox, more than any other and then subject is my next most searched field.  Instead they deliver a search engine whose default is entire message and no way to restrict it. I've got 60,000 messages that I regularly search and they have just torpedoed a big advantage. But what's worse, they did it because they have created some kind of incompatability between 6 and 7 that caused me to have to 'upgrade' in the first place.
I think this attitude, that whatever apple comes up with will be the next great thing has overtaken their support of earlier apple platforms and backward compatability that assured you that when you decided to buy apple products you weren't going to be orphaned.  The mindset is more forcing you into their newer lines and designs.  We already pay a premium to buy mac products and I justfiy that because I'm going to get twice or three times the life out of the computer that I will out of an IBM.  But if they aren't supporting and encouraging software support to  continue for their line long enough for me to get those extra years and they keep diminishing my operating experience, then paying the premium doesn't make any sense.  I'm grossly disappointed because I've been Mac  since 1984 and they are trying their level best to alienate me -- and succeeding.
Calm folks like you are their best weapon to keep folks like me on this platform and I do appreciate your response, but it is hard to calm down.
Brian
Brian