Filed under: Internet Tools, TUAW Tips
TUAW Tip: keep a Mail.app message open when replying
Fortunately, Rob Griffiths over at Macworld has discovered a simple way around this: hold the option key when hitting Reply, Reply All or Forward, and the original message will stay put while a new, separate composition window opens. This makes it a little easier to refer back to the original message, especially if it's lengthy.
This works on Tiger's Mail.app, but I don't have any older versions of Mac OS X to verify this on. Feel free to sound off in the comments if you've tested this on Panther or even Jaguar. My one complaint about this trick: it doesn't seem to work if you use the keyboard shortcut for Reply. Holding option when hitting cmd - r results in that Funk/hault sound, informing me that the shortcut is a no-go. Either way, this should still be a handy trick for you chronic Repliers using Mail.app.
[via Hawk Wings]


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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
steve mazich said 11:49AM on 2-02-2006
People still open email messages? Isn't it easier to read the message in the lower preview window and if you want to reply, just hit the reply button?
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Alex M said 12:07PM on 2-02-2006
Can confirm this does not work on 10.3 Panther using Mail 1.3.11
Shame.
Reply
ToeKnee said 12:19PM on 2-02-2006
Yes, that's what I do, but I tested this in Panther anyway, and it does not work. Instead, it seems to apply that "other" function of Option that applies when closing a window holding Option closes all windows-- holding Option while clicking reply closes all Mail windows, including the main viewer.
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XIV said 12:24PM on 2-02-2006
In any case, I activated the quote option. Mail > Preferences > Redaction > and the quote option, just check it and you'll always have the previous message.
That's what I do.
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Mars said 2:02PM on 2-02-2006
Anybody have any ideas why the .Mac webmail sometimes attaches the original message and sometimes leaves it quoted as plain text? It's annoying to try and reply to a mail when you can't see exactly what you're replying to.
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