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widescreen plugin for Mail(Mac OS X)

43folders.com — View mail in a wide screen format kinda cool

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  • 4g3nt_Smith, on 10/12/2007, -28/+6Tried it on a 1600x1200 display, and without making Mail.app take most of the screen real-estate it looks horribly squished and hides valuable things in the center pane
    • SpringBoy, on 10/12/2007, -2/+33Could that be because 1600x1200 isn't a widescreen aspect ratio? (It's 4:3.)
  • real, on 10/12/2007, -12/+4yeah not at home it look prretty cool thanks for the heads up
  • eleven, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8Been using it for a few days now. I wasn't sold on the widescreen layout at first, but it's now quite comfortable.
    • lo0ol, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Yeah, I've seen it floating around the various Mac blogs I've subscribed to but haven't really checked it out until now. Looking good so far on my 20" iMac... really didn't think it would matter as much, but then once I started playing around with it I can see it being pretty useful. We'll see over the next few days if it's worth keeping around. The only thing I'm unsure about is the location of the buttons now... I'll have to fiddle with that so I don't have to keep moving my mouse all over the screen as much.
  • geekonastick, on 10/12/2007, -5/+3gonna have to try this on my new widescreen macbook. woohoo!
  • oOLiquidNightOo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6i tried it out, i didn't prefer it over the standard default layout but i appreciate the slick mode. nice digg.
  • kkapoor, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Works beautifully!
  • GamingTrend, on 10/12/2007, -16/+2Uh...you need a plugin to do this? That is pretty weak.
  • boredzo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9Direct link: http://harnly.net/downloads/MailWidescreen.html
  • willynilly, on 10/12/2007, -26/+4That is a terrible layout. Look at the incredible waste of the center of the screen. It makes much more sense to have the message list in a small area UNDER or OVER the display area for the message itself.

    Think about it: Your messages are most likely sorted by date, and you're most likely dealing with only one or two days' worth at a time. So put the message list in a reasonably sized pane and do something more useful with the remaining space.

    Of course, this layout does make perfect sense on the Mac, where stupid UI ideas flourish. Doesn't the list of mailboxes come out of the RIGHT side of the window by default? Since when, in Western countries, do we read from right to left? The Mac Help viewer does the same stupid thing: The index or contents are to the RIGHT of the text for the selected item. It's as if they work hard to invent stupefying new ways to defy common sense.
    • rylin, on 10/12/2007, -8/+5You don't get it.
      The way most oldschool people want their email, they want replies at the bottom, or as part of the previous email - not at the top.

      When I get a new email, I love being able to see most of it covering one third or slightly more of my screen at 1920x1200.
      If Outlook hadn't pioneered the whole "Automatically put replies at the top", you'd agree.
    • scratt, on 10/12/2007, -8/+7PeeCee Fanboi. Urghh.
    • lo0ol, on 10/12/2007, -7/+7"That is a terrible layout. Look at the incredible waste of the center of the screen. It makes much more sense to have the message list in a small area UNDER or OVER the display area for the message itself."

      So don't download it. This is for people who want to use it, not for people that don't.

      "Think about it: Your messages are most likely sorted by date, and you're most likely dealing with only one or two days' worth at a time. So put the message list in a reasonably sized pane and do something more useful with the remaining space."

      That's a good idea. Good thing that's what Mail.app does by default. But, using your logic, since it's done by default then your argument is a stupid UI idea.

      "Of course, this layout does make perfect sense on the Mac, where stupid UI ideas flourish. Doesn't the list of mailboxes come out of the RIGHT side of the window by default?"

      No, it doesn't.
    • willynilly, on 10/12/2007, -11/+1"You don't get it. The way most oldschool people want their email, they want replies at the bottom, or as part of the previous email - not at the top.

      When I get a new email, I love being able to see most of it covering one third or slightly more of my screen at 1920x1200. If Outlook hadn't pioneered the whole "Automatically put replies at the top", you'd agree."

      What on earth does this have to do with replies? You must be responding to the wrong post. My point is that if you have your inbox above OR below the message-viewing pane, you can adjust the ratio between the two by just dragging the divider up or down. Most people want plenty of room to read the currently selected message; you can still have a decent section of your inbox showing AND have a nice big message pane.

      I don't know which post was talking about where to insert reply text inside a message, but I totally agree with you here: Putting new text ABOVE the stuff you're responding to is called "top-posting" and it's not only goddamned stupid but also really poor form. It also encourages people to continually re-send ***** of previous text that everyone has seen before; especially offensive in a mailing-list situation.

      "That's a good idea. Good thing that's what Mail.app does by default. But, using your logic, since it's done by default then your argument is a stupid UI idea."

      And you, what the hell are you talking about? I never said that things done by default are automatically stupid. Can you read? And no ***** that's what Mail does by default. Thanks, Mr. Wizard.

      And YES, several Apple apps open lists on the RIGHT side. If yours didn't, it's because the main window happened to open too far to the right of the screen and the program found that there wouldn't be room for the drawer on the right. In fact, that's the only way to force the thing to open on the correct side if it doesn't: say "hide drawer", move the app window to the right side of the screen, the re-enable the drawer. Check your facts.

      Until then, yeah, mod down what you obviously couldn't digest intellectually.
    • lo0ol, on 10/12/2007, -4/+5"And you, what the hell are you talking about? I never said that things done by default are automatically stupid. Can you read? And no ***** that's what Mail does by default. Thanks, Mr. Wizard."

      Calm down. You're getting upset over default viewing of email.

      I was responding to your claim that Mail.app automatically opens on the right side: "Doesn't the list of mailboxes come out of the RIGHT side of the window by default?" It doesn't. By default, Mail.app opens those on the left hand side, like every other email client out there I would presume. You then went on to criticize Apple for its UI decisions, when Apple is doing exactly what you want it to do *by default*.
    • t3hX, on 10/12/2007, -4/+4What are you complaining about? The mac does none of these things by default.
    • shmatt, on 10/12/2007, -5/+1woops
  • HobbesDoo, on 10/12/2007, -5/+4I agree 100% with WillyMilly. Outlook does that, but apart from the novelty of it I don't really find it that useful. I rather stick to the tried and true bottom reading pane with the message list on top. Not even feel tempted to see how this looks on my Mac.
    • willynilly, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2Hey Hobbes,

      I've never seen this in Outlook either. By default, as far as I've seen, the message list is above the preview pane. Just like Eudora.
    • IcanFLY, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Outlook 2007 by default shows messages beside the list of messages.
  • SystemError, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4All of my subjects got trunked on my 20" cinema, 1680x1050
    Also reading all mail to the far right of the screen was not so easy on the eyes.
    Cool hack but not practical in my opinion
    • danielwsmithee, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Just resize the middle pane so your subjects don't get truncated. It is not that difficult.
    • bradleyland, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Outlook rearranges the layout of the message list so that the subject goes to a second line. You get fewer messages in a given vertical space, but the benefit of seeing more of the message subject is greater than that small drawback.

      For all the Outlook hate I hear, I really do like it's three-column view. The grouping of email addresses by sort type, and multi-line message listing trump most other implementations that simply rearrange the panes.
  • KAMI_no_kodomo, on 10/12/2007, -8/+5Why linking to your blog and not the real site directly?

    No digg!
    • davdav, on 10/12/2007, -1/+443Folders is the blog of Merlin Mann

      Not this guy.
  • zackery, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1Sigh. Why do people want to maximize everything? I blame Windows culture for this misguidedness. It does make some sense when you have two displays.

    I love my dual widescreens that much but not my email. Dugg anyway.
    • Orbatos, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I think you've misplaced the blame, but aside from that I totally agree. As a side note, why didn't the app have flexibility for this sort of thing to begin with? In all just more desktop clutter I won't be using I guess.
    • pauldonnelly, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Why would you want to waste your screen space? If I've got a lot of pixels I want to use the damn things! Which is why Ratpoison ( www.nongnu.org/ratpoison ) is a god among window managers.
  • sxtxixtxcxh, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1:) i considered adding this to digg about 10 minutes ago, but i figured it had a) shown up already, or b) will show up real soon. kinda a.5) shown up already, but has yet to show up on the front page. meh... i'm lazy.

    digg. (but.. sheesh, couldn't link the actual page? no click! HA!)
  • Rickler, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3Interesting... does OSX not have sizeable windows? :
    • mtvkilledusall, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4It does.
    • noneloud, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4It's mainly a different layout, not a different window size.
  • anon1729, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Actually this is really useful. In general, I want to see the headers for last 15 or so emails and 50ish or more rows of the current email and this plug-in lets me do exactly that. Great job!
    It would be even more useful to have header information for a single email be split over two rows. Somewhat like in outlook 2003 and later (http://www.winsupersite.com/images/showcase/outlook2003_preview_01.png) but without looking so ugly.
  • judgeFire, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2It's a nice alternative,

    but I'm most comfortable with the Mac way - opening messages in their own, individual windows. Sprinkle some Exposé on top and it rocks.

    Having the preview pane open is silly anyway, because when you select a junk mail to tag/delete it, it's html contents get loaded, informing the poster that I actually 'read' the mail. If you minimize it in Mail, it deactivates - or so I'm told.

    Just hit return to open the messages and cmd-w to close them.

    J
  • carebearwarrior, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Wow. Wow. All I can say is wow. Just amazing. Very simple, but on a 1680x1050, you get more info at once, and that's great.
  • ThirdPrize, on 10/12/2007, -6/+3WoW! Its enough to make me want to go out and buy a Mac.
  • PJBonoVox, on 10/12/2007, -8/+1OMFG! This is the most important news ever. Really. No sarcasm or anything.

    In other news, scientists create a patch that makes a Mac 'not *****'.
  • modsuperstar, on 10/12/2007, -6/+1I've had this for months. It's called Thunderbird with a Mail skin applied.
  • vtequine, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I've been watching this story for a couple days on Hawk Wings and TUAW and this little piece of software looks very cool. I did see a follow-up inwhich someone created more to it which allowed you to tweak more settings for it. I'm going to have to try it out when I can find some time.
  • iCaffeine, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1great app, i really like that feature in outlook. thanks for bringing it to the mac!
  • snugsoho, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Tried it but i think i'll just keep mail the way it is, having mail.app stretched out all the across the screen so that the new layout is actually useable is a little uncomfortable, i guess it would work out better if my screen was a little bigger though since mine is only 1440 x 900 (iMac G5 17").
  • mrhaines, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1Outlook has been able to do this since 2002.
    • Hotkey, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0MrHaines says Outlook 2002 does this - as in does the vertical 3 pane? If so how? I sure can't figure it out! Help???

  • ronaldpoi, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1Ok, this is for Mail.app on Mac. I use Mac, and i also use Mail.app, but even when i'm an Apple fanboy i wont install this plugin. I have a beautiful 20" widescreen display perfect for this, but this is no perfect for me, it just looks so Outlook i'm gonna hate it. I love the current layout, i'll stick with it...
  • pchi, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1when can i do this with thunderbird? my mom uses apple's mail program.
    • samsara1981, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Write an extension for it or go to mozillazine.org to request one. Alternatively, file a feature request for Thunderbird at bugs.mozilla.org
    • philgmo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I've been using it this way in Thunderbird for months on machines where I can't use Mail.app.

      View -> Layout -> Vertical View
  • ApplePenguin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Ah, I saw this on another blog.

    It's good for when you have lots of realestate for Mail.app, but I went back to the "old" way of displaying Mail.

    It is, as that blog described, "bling bling bill gates mode" though.
  • samsara1981, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0So this change is reversible?
  •  

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