Filed under: Software, Tips and tricks, Internet Tools, TUAW Tips
TUAW Tip: open a second Mail window to stay productive
This whole 'electronic mail' really seems to have taken off with the internets, and we need to rely on it for an increasing amount of communication with email lists, coworkers, friends and more. While many Mail.app users have at least some sort of Rules system for filing messages into folders (or tagging them with Scott Morrison's spectacular MailTags plugin), I have recently been getting cozy with a lesser-known feature that can save a lot of time with hopping between folders. Under Mail.app's File menu is a New Viewer Window option (opt-cmd-n) that opens - drum roll please - a second window in which you can browse through your messages. This is particularly useful if you have a folder (or perhaps a Smart Folder) which you keep checking throughout the day; this way, you can simply keep one viewer open to your inbox (or whatever default location that suits you), with the second viewer set on that other folder. Go up to View > Hide Mailboxes (cmd-shift-m) for either window to give you some extra room to stretch out those From or Subject headings, and you just took another step up the ladder of email zen. Finally: have no fear if you need to quit Mail or restart - Mail remembers your multi-viewer setup and will put everything right back where it belongs the next time your get your email on.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Ben said 12:20PM on 3-19-2007
The keyboard shortcut is actually Option + Command + N
Reply
smingram said 12:51PM on 3-19-2007
thanks for the correction, this is super useful. is there a command like this for itunes?
Reply
Dave Chartier said 1:10PM on 3-19-2007
Thanks for the fix Ben! Post edited.
Reply
Macskeeball said 2:00PM on 3-19-2007
Smingram, double click on an item in the source list other than the "Music" item. That's been in there since iTunes was SoundJam.
Reply
andre_sala said 2:35PM on 3-19-2007
Cool tip!
I wish mail app crashed less. Everytime I view an email sent from a PC mail client that has an attachment, I get an immediate crash, and when I relaunch mail app, all my viewer settings are gone and open drafts are no longer open.
Reply
excitedVulcan said 4:02PM on 3-19-2007
this is great! soo simple, too. I always hated navigating the folders w/ my cursor! Great work. ( I feel so,,,, zen-like,,, or is that indigestion?)
Reply
karl said 7:58PM on 3-19-2007
Read again your first sentence "This whole 'electronic mail' really seems to have taken off with the internets, and we need to rely on it for an increasing amount of communication with email lists, coworkers, friends and more."
And try to see what is absurd into it ;) Or maybe you can explain what is "electronic mail" without internet. Ray Tomlinson has created email with the @ sign in 1971. Or maybe you want to talk about… its first creation… in 1961… the CTSS? :)))
Reply
Dave Chartier said 10:02AM on 3-20-2007
#7: It was meant to be a goofy joke. I hope you didn't get the wrong impression that I though AOL invented email in the mid-90's or anything. I totally know Compuserve was there first.
:)
Reply
Dave Chartier said 10:26AM on 3-20-2007
#5: andre_sala - I can think of two things that could be causing these issues. 1) It could be a permissions error, which means you could go to Applications/Utilities, open Disk Utility and run a 'Repair Permissions' on your main Macintosh Hard Drive to see if it helps matters.
2) You might need to rebuild your mailboxes, but that can *sometimes* be a little tricky. I'll list out the steps, but proceed at your own risk here (sometimes a rebuild can lose messages, but it's rare. I recommend backing Mail up before doing this): First, you should probably go to ~/Library/Mail and backup the Mail folder. Clicking on Mail and pressing cmd-d to Duplicate the folder should be fine, though it might take a while depending on how big your Mail folder is. Then, in the Mail app, click on the Inbox that you're having troubles with, and go up to Mailbox > Rebuild. This might take a while as well, and you can monitor the status with Window > Activity (cmd-0).
I hope this helps!
Reply
Jamie J. said 11:07AM on 3-20-2007
Nice, thanks!
Reply