Interface for Composing Mail

OK- I am a recent fence jumper from years of PC use- so this may be considered just whining. but I wonder if there is a way to get a more usable interface in the native Mail client on the MAC. I love the integration with iCal and Addressbook but would like a more "point and click" way to create bulleted lists, bold, underline etc. I was very surprised not to be able to put formatting icons on the top menu of a message.
I have been at this about 6 months and still swear under my breath every time I have created a list and now have to go back and insert a bullet- then start editing items one at at time (space delete/ return). I have looked at other client software but would miss the integration. Are there tricks to this that long time Mac users can help me with... or is this just a case of "suck it up noob and learn to do it the Mac way." Any help appreciated...

IBGoldberg,
The problem is that you are expecting too much of the email protocol. Mail uses standard Rich Text formatting, for those messages that are sent with any formatting at all. And, the Rich Text format is the only format supported by email universally (universally, that is, by modern email servers and clients).
The problem is that there are subtle differences in the ways that Rich Text are handled in various clients. These differences make it difficult or impossible to implement complex formatting that will be interpreted consistently across all clients and platforms. Thus, only basic formatting is available, at least in Mail. In short, interoperability is key.
You may say, "but my "XX" Windows client, when I used it, provided this functionality." True, but it is almost certain that the functionality would only be interoperable with someone using the same client, on the same platform. That's Microsoft's game, you know! I'm not being critical, but that is part of their business model, and it fits in with how they make their money.
My recommendation would be to use a bona-fide word processor for those times you need to compose a complexly formatted message, then save that as a PDF. You would then email the PDF, which should be accessible to anyone, using any client on any platform. This is the only way to insure that your desired formatting will be seen by the recipients exactly as you composed it, regardless of the recipient's situation. This holds true no matter which OS and software you happen to be using.
Scott

Similar Messages

Toolbar for Composing Mail?

Why is it that Apple Mail doesn't have a tool bar with "bold," "italics," etc., when composing mail? Or am I missing something?
I always have to goto the Format menu and then the Style option to get access to these sorts of options...

IBGoldberg,
The problem is that you are expecting too much of the email protocol. Mail uses standard Rich Text formatting, for those messages that are sent with any formatting at all. And, the Rich Text format is the only format supported by email universally (universally, that is, by modern email servers and clients).
The problem is that there are subtle differences in the ways that Rich Text are handled in various clients. These differences make it difficult or impossible to implement complex formatting that will be interpreted consistently across all clients and platforms. Thus, only basic formatting is available, at least in Mail. In short, interoperability is key.
You may say, "but my "XX" Windows client, when I used it, provided this functionality." True, but it is almost certain that the functionality would only be interoperable with someone using the same client, on the same platform. That's Microsoft's game, you know! I'm not being critical, but that is part of their business model, and it fits in with how they make their money.
My recommendation would be to use a bona-fide word processor for those times you need to compose a complexly formatted message, then save that as a PDF. You would then email the PDF, which should be accessible to anyone, using any client on any platform. This is the only way to insure that your desired formatting will be seen by the recipients exactly as you composed it, regardless of the recipient's situation. This holds true no matter which OS and software you happen to be using.
Scott

Audio interface for composing/Post Production, not recording

Greetings all,
I'm well familiar with the recommended interfaces for those who are into recording or live work. However, I wonder if anyone has a recommendation for an interface that works well for composers and/or post-production, since I'm setting up a machine dedicated to that kind of work. I'm not interested in high quality ADC or mic preamps associated with audio sources and that should, in theory, keep the cost down. However, 6 or 8 outputs are a must.
If I end up with Ensemble or FF800, so be it but they are overkill for what I want on my composition machine.
Thanks, all!
Pete

How about an AudioFire 12? I know it includes ADC, but it's high quality and will save you significant money. No digital I/O though, but 12 outs.

Make Entourage default mail program for composing?

Hey folks. I'm trying to get Entourage to be teh default mail program for composing mail as well as reading mail. I already set it to be default for reading mail from the Mail program, bt when I click a "send to" someone type link, Mail keeps popping up. How do I change that? Thanks.

DrSupachicken,
In Mail Preferences you can set your default mail reader to the preferred application. Which one is curently set as your default? I don't have Entourage installed so I Mail (3.5) is the only option. In your case you should be able to select either Entourage or Mail. Let me know if that helps.
Chris

Aliases not displayed for outgoing mail choice

Since the birth of Mobile Me, my Mail OS X aliases are not available for new outgoing mail. I can choose them on Mobile Me, but not on my own laptop Mail.

Hi,
I've got the same problem myself! But I've been upgraded to 10.4.11 for a long time now, so that's not the easy solution for me!
I use Mail for my .mac/.me account. I use a few different .mac aliases for different groups I correspond with.
When composing a message in Mail, I am no longer getting the "From" pulldown menu near the address fields to let me select which alias I want to send the message from. It just defaults to my primary address. Even when a message is sent to me at one of the aliases and I reply to it, Mail ignores the alias and makes the new message come from my primary address instead.
When I choose "customize" from the pulldown menu near the address fields, it gives me all the other options (To, cc, bcc, etc.) but nothing to get the "From" menu back.
I can still do this from the web interface for my .me account, but I don't want to have to go to the slow and clunky web app just for this simple thing.
Btw, I tried the ol' restart the computer trick, just in case. Still have the problem.
Anyone have any suggestions?
Thanks in advance,
Rick

Unable to open "compose mail/settings/contacts" in standard view in 2 out of 3 Gmail accounts

Unable to open "compose mail/settings/contacts" in standard view in 2 out of 3 Gmail accounts. When "compose new mail" is selected "loading...." appears at the top then the page is frozen. ie you can't select inbox etc. Changing from standard to basic h/ml then clears the Loading... and gmail can be used (without spellcheck etc).
This might not be Mozilla, but I can access these accounts in standard view on another computer.

Your Gmail account may well be an IMAP account, just like the iCloud mail account. In which case it will work in just the same way as iCloud mail, except that you will have to set it up manually on each device, where as iCloud mail adds the account itself when you log into iCloud.
Whilst it works the same as iCloud mail it isn't iCloud that syncs it for you.

A more successful experiment in creating compositable user interfaces for Config Dialogs

A couple weeks ago I posted an experiment in creating compositable user interfaces using transparent subpanels. The approach might best be described as, "It at least was notable for being novel."
Today, I'm posting another attempt, this one along more traditional lines, and far more successful. Particularly notable: this one can do all the arbitrary composition of the last one AND it solves the TAB order problem.
This solution uses a picture control and renders N copies of a control. When the user tabs to a control or moves the mouse over the control, a real control slides into that position to be able to catch the events (update mouse over draw state, highlight for keyboard focus, handle typing, etc). When the Value Change occurs, a master array of data is updated and the picture control is updated.
This is something that has been attempted in various forms in the past, but there are two aspects of this particular implementation that make it nice:
its programmatic interface for specifying the behavior of the various objects should make it fairly easy for a user of the framework to programmatically generate their dialogs
it handles the TAB problem without flickering, something I haven't seen in other attemps
This idea spawns out of conversation about the previous experiment -- thanks to those of you who posted on various forums, e-mailed me, or, in a couple cases, showed up at my desk. That last one is not something I'm encouraging unless you work at NI... just saying. :-)
Now, this experiement has already yeilded some interesting conversation. We note that as long as controls are instantiated independent of each other -- that is, no property of one control depends upon the property of another control -- this dialog system scales nicely. But in this experiment, I implemented Radio Buttons, which interact with each other -- when one is set True, the others go False. As soon as controls start interacting with each other (such as graying out one control when a checkbox is toggled, or having expandable sections, or really complex cases like updating a graph as some options change, like happens in some Express VI config dialogs) then we start needing ways to refer to the other controls. This rapidly moves us in one of two directions: naming controls or creating references. The naming approach is definitely my preference as it fits better with dataflow and I can do some interesting effects with breaking apart some of the tree. But all of this quickly starts sounding like "Please implement a XAML parser in LabVIEW." For those of you unfamiliar with XAML, in the world of UI design, it might very well be the coolest thing since sliced bread. A XAML string would indeed fit with dataflow, and we could start building that up. I hesitate to head down this road for two reasons. One, as many have noted, there's really not a good XML parsing library written in LabVIEW that can give me a useful DOM tree. Two, that's a huge project and my gut sense is that you'd have to complete a fairly large chunk of it before you'd start seeing any return on investment. But it is worth thinking about -- I might be wrong. Wouldn't be the first time. This code that I've posted today can at least get you started on the generation side if one of you decides to become industrious.
I'm turning my attention away from this project for now... coding in G is lots of fun, and I wish I could spend more days doing it, but this has been a side project and it's time to get back to my assigned projects in text programming. Building a powerful platform for automatic UI generation in LabVIEW would be really useful -- I see lots of requests for this sort of thing, and other languages are pulling ahead of us in this domain.
[UPDATE 5/17/2012 - There is an improved version.]
Solved!
Go to Solution.
Attachments:
ConfighThroughCtrlCreation.zip ‏558 KB

Elijah K wrote:
Thanks for posting this Aristos. I would normally be one of those to go bug you at your desk, but in case I'm not the only one with this question... which particular flickering problem are you referring to? The act of switching tabs? In all honesty, I've never noticed...
When you move controls around on the screen, normally you try to Defer Panel Updates while you do that. But Defer Panel Updates has an effect on control's abilities to catch certain mouse clicks, so when you're trying to move a control to catch the mouse, you have to work a lot without Defer Panel Updates, so if you're adjusting captions, etc, to match the new location, you can see flicker as properties adjust. You can move the control off-screen, as long as you have already updated the picture control to reflect the changes. It took a while to catch all the ways that the flickering can crop up. I think I got 'em all.
Attached are the VIs saved for LV 2009. Actually, they're saved for LV 8.6, but it doesn't work in 8.6 because of a bug in the picture control that existed back then.
Attachments:
ComposableUI_LV2009.zip ‏391 KB

How to see actual fonts while composing mail?

This is driving me crazy. I often copy and paste different bits of text from other sources into email messages I compose in Mail. When I paste in the text, it always appears to be in the same font and size as the existing text. Once I send the email, I discover, much to my chagrin, that the pasted text often shows up in a different font or style. This holds true even if I send an email to myself and read it in Mail. If it is just in a slightly different font it only looks a little sloppy, but it is very embarrassing when it is a radically different font or size.
Sometimes the errant font is applied to only fixed-width fonts, and I can fix it for my own display by setting my "fixed width font" and "message font" to the same thing. But this just makes it look better for me -- anyone else is still seeing the different fonts. And sometimes it happens with formatted text (i.e, pasting a line from a webpage where the text looks fine in the composed mail but shows as huge and bold when the mail is received).
I have my "composing - message format" preferences set to Rich Text, because I want to be able to send rich text messages. I have tried to train myself to use the "paste and match style" command, but I am so used to "command - v" that it is hard to remember to use "shift-option-command - v" every time.
If I change a font intentionally, using the format fonts palette, the different font is immediately visible in the compose window.
This happens on both my Macbook, not on my and my Mac Mini; they are each running Mail 3.6 and OS X 10.5.8
Any ideas? It is very frustrating.

Wish I could be king. But you described the problem perfectly and I am still but a pawn. All I can say is that I trashed the mail preferences (com.apple.mail.plist) on my Mac Mini, and now my MacBook seems to work right.
Sorry. :>) But that is the truth... The MacBook now has actually sometimes displayed pasted text in its actual, different, font and style as I paste it into a partially composed new mail message.
In other (more rational) words, the problem seems to be tied to pasting only certain types of text. I have not been able yet to pinpoint what. Yes, frustrating indeed. The only work-around has been to re-train my fingers to command-option-shift V, for "paste and match style" (like you, I do not want to always use only plain text). Maybe someone else will eventually weigh in with a real solution. The solution I want is just to be able to consistently see any font variations within my message before I send the email.
The info about the different ppi scales between Windows and Mac is interesting, although not relevant to this particular problem. It does explain the apparent overall size differences I have seen before.

User interface for updating/adding attributes in OID

Hello,
I have not done the develop work in OAS10g (web, oid, +) though I have years experiences as DBA in OAS and Oracle database servers.
I need to develop a user interface for users to add or update the user's attributes such as sn, manager etc.
The IDM system is working in prod: OAS 10g r2, installed (upgraded to) with infrastructure and oid 10.1.4.3.
OID: user attributes have been loaded with: CN, UID, mail and etc.
The requirement
User interface: an app based Ohttp web 10g
I'd like the interface works like:
The user accessing the web interface, is prompted with UID and mail. if the user correctly fills the fields, then will be prompted with the attributes which user can add or update.
Because I have Not done any development in OAS (web, oid), I need know what skills I need to aquire. ANd how should I proceed?
I may know the skills would be Ohttp development and OID API (LDAP), but I need these be specific as much as possible.
Can any point the direction with examples and docs?
TIA
GA

ajaybabu007 wrote:
For managing the user related activities (create,update,lock,unlock,delete and so on) through an Web UI interface can be administrated with the Oracle Identity Management Self Service Console (http://infra_host_name:7777/oiddas) which is an inbuild component of OID/OSSO. Please provide orcladmin/<password> credentials for accessing this Web UI.
---ABP thanks.
1) the app for user to add/update the attributes. we cannot give orcladmin to them
2) though the users as their own can access the oiddas, there are only limit of user info could be updated, which cannot serve the attributes we customized and loaded in OID.

Firefox spell-check dictionary switches to incorrect language when starting compose mail in Gmail

I have Firefox 11.0 with dictionaries for Lithuanian and Russian languages installed. It seems that no matter what dictionary language is selected, after I start composing mail in Gmail, it switches the dictionary language to Russian (it changes the spellchecker.dictionary property).
Steps to recreate:
1. Say, the dictionary language is set to Lithuanian in some way (the spellchecker.dictionary property is "lt")
2. Restart Firefox
3. Open Gmail page (spellchecker.dictionary is still "lt")
4. Start composing new mail - this is when the spellchecker.dictionary property gets changed to "ru"
(there are other, more complicated scenarios, when this happens, sometimes it is even enough to reload the Gmail tab)
Firefox general.useragent.locale property is "lt-LT", Gmail display language is "English-US". I don't know what other settings I should check. Of course, I could uninstall Russian altogether, but I do need it sometimes, so it would be nice to have, but not as a default language every time I open my mail.
I have found a similar bug https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=717433 , maybe this is related.

There is no built-in way to use more than one dictionary at a time. The [https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3414/ Dictionary Switcher] extension may be of use to you.

Problem about auto backup of composing mail

I am using Leopard Mail with Gmail IMAP setting
When composing mail, Mail automatically makes backup of the mail about every 30 seconds.
Therefore I have to delete more than thirty useless "backups" after I sent the mail.
Any similar case here? How could I stop Mail from doing this.

HI,
based on this SAP notes:
You can create a backup for a selected Database using Service Manager and also schedule the back up itself.
To do so please perform the following steps:
   1. Double click on the Service Manager icon at the bottom of your screen (Quick Launch Bar) or go to Start, Programs, SAP Business One, Service Manager, Service Manager.
   2. In the Server field, select your server.
   3. In the Service field, select SBO BackUp.
   4. Click on Start to activate the service or Pause to pause it and on Stop to Stop it.
   5. Click on the Clock Icon
In the pop up window, you can select to schedule your backup By Date, By Intervals, Daily, Weekly or Monthly. Select the required option and click on Ok.
   1. Click on the Wheelwork Icon to open the General Settings window.
         1. Select a destination for your backup file.
Note that your backup will be compressed in the Temp folder. Once the file is saved into your Backup directory, it will be removed from your Temp file.
   1. Define the pathes to the Directory and the Temp files and click on OK.
Click on the Server Icon and select your server.
   1. Click on the Database Icon.
In the pop up window, you will get the list of all your databases.
   1. Select the databases you would like to backup or clear the check boxes of the databases you do not want to back up and click on OK.
I am afraid it is not paralel but serialized. So, try to create different backup schedule for both.
Rgds,

CcBPM - How to use 1 Message Interface for 2 different Business System

Hi,
I have this bpm scenario below :
JDBC QUERY (ASYN) ---> RFC (SYNC) -
> JDBC INSERT (ASYN) -
> MAIL (ASYN).
So Both JDBC INSERT and MAIL using the same data input from RFC response for instance i will named as MI_RFC_RES_ASYN_ABS. I have problem to configure in the integration directory, how make the xi smart enough to routing in the correct business system.
JDBC -
> BS_JDBC and MAIL -
> BS_MAIL base on the send step in BPM because the interface is the same.
Cheers
Fernand

Hi,
If you want to send the same mesg to diff systems and also need to have the control on seq,
then define 2 diff abstract interfaces for messages going out of BPM (with same message type so that structure is same).
One will be used to define send step for JDBC and other for BPM.
Define 2 send steps in BPM one for JDBC and other for mail using these abstract interfaces.
Now you will have 2 receiver determinations.
Since recr is determined based on sender system interface name and name space,
system name ( BPM ) and name space will be same for both the messages going out of BPM.
for JDBC abstract interface BS_JDBC will be recvr.
and for Mail abstract interface BS_MAIL will be your receiver.
hope it answers your qn.
Regards
Pushkar

How do I scroll down compose mail screen in aol. I just increase size

How do I scroll down in aol compose mail? I just keep enlarging screen when I try

Hi Happybude1,
If you can't see the scroll bars you can enable them in the General System Preferences.
OS X Mountain Lion: Change how scroll bars work
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH10895
Use General Preferences to customize scroll bars in windows.
Choose Apple menu > System Preferences, and then click General.
Set the scrolling options. For more information about the scrolling options, click the Help button.
Some apps let you scroll through a document in other ways, such as by dragging in the document, using arrow keys, or pressing the Space bar.
I like to have mine set for Show scroll bars: Always.
Thank you for thinking of Apple Support Communities for your support needs.
Nubz

Apple Mail App won't work for Yahoo Mail

About two months ago I switched from using the Yahoo web interface for my Yahoo mail to using the Apple Mail App. (Yahoo changed their web interface and I didn't like the new one). The Apple mail app worked fine until 2 days ago. I couldn't get new mail or send mail. It appeared that mail could not connect to the Yahoo mail server. I killed mail and started it up, that didn't work. I took the account offline and then back online and that didn't work. When I tried to do things like delete mail that I had received before the problem started Mail appeared to hang and I had to Force Quit Mail. Finally I deleted the email account from mail and then tried to recreate it. Now I can't recreate the account via the normal mail process of creating an account.
I have a MacBook Pro which I bought about 4 months ago. I'm on OSX 10.9.1. I'm using Mail version 7.1 that came with the MacBook Pro.
So I am back to using the Yahoo web interface, that I really don't like. BTW my mail works fine on my iPhone.

Well, Mail crashed. Then the WiFi I was using went down (I'm at a Texas State park and the power failed) and I switched to using my iPhone as a hot spot and it suddenly connected. Could the problem have been the Texas State Park router?

"Cc/Bcc, From:" when composing mail messed up!

Hi-
I just got a 2G 16GB iPhone (new/sealed from eBay). I have setup all my email accounts and everything is fine. However when I go to compose a new email, things look a bit off to me.
The first line field is the "To:' field...that is fine!
The second line field is where things get weird. Instead of it showing only "From" it shows "Cc/Bcc, From:" instead. I don't recall seeing this happening on previous phones that I've had (running previous version of the OS prior to 2.2). Is it suppose to do this now with 2.2 or is something wrong with my phone/settings?
When I go to "settings", "mail, contacts and calendars" I have the show "To/Cc:" label set to off. I also have "always Bcc myself" turned off as well. Why are these things showing in my mail when I go to compose new mail? Especially the field where everything is on one line (The second line field is where things get weird. Instead of it showing only "From" it shows "Cc/Bcc, From:").
Is there a fix for this, it's really confusing. I've tested sending outgoing mail and when I go back to the sent folder and look at what I just sent everything looks fine (non confusing) and when I read the new mail in my inbox again, everything looks fine. It's just when composing mail, where everything looks confusing.
Any help to fix this or has Apple updated it's software to work like this? If so I fail to see why as it makes no sense to me. Let's not forget those settings in the mail settings don't even work whether you turn them on or off. Why are they even there then? Although I must admit, when turning on "always Bcc myself" when you go back to compose a mail, all the labels are shown correct (each line for To, From, Cc, Bcc, etc). Yet if I go back and turn off the "always Bcc myself" option, everything is mixed up again with 3 different labels on one line. I just can't figure it out.

When composing a message, there is a To: field with a "Cc/Bcc, From" combined field below the To: field along with the Subject field for the message.
Selecting the combined "Cc/Bcc, From" field expands the single field to a separate Cc:, Bcc:, and From fields.
This provides for adding additional recipients to the Cc: and/or Bcc: field, and changing the account the message is sent from if you have more than one active account available.
If you don't plan on entering additional recipients in either the Cc: or Bcc: fields, or you don't need to change the account the message will be sent from, use the To: field when addressing the message and ignore/don't select the combined "Cc/Bcc, From" field.
The show "To/Cc" label - on or off setting has no affect on this when composing a message. The "To/Cc" label off turns this off for received messages when viewing received messages in an account's Inbox mailbox.
Although I must admit, when turning on "always Bcc myself" when you go back to compose a mail, all the labels are shown correct (each line for To, From, Cc, Bcc, etc). Yet if I go back and turn off the "always Bcc myself" option, everything is mixed up again with 3 different labels on one line. I just can't figure it out.
This is because there is an entry in the Bcc: field for the new message, so all all fields are expanded in case you want to add additional recipients in the Cc: or Bcc: fields.

Interface for Composing Mail

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for