Turn off Data Detectors in Mail.app
Among the new features Apple touted in Leopard was data detectors in Mail.app. The idea is that if somebody sends you an email with a street address in it, for example, Mail.app can detect that it's a street address and add it an Address Book contact with just a couple of clicks. Unfortunately, while the basic idea isn't bad, sometimes you just want to copy something and the data detectors simply get in the way (and leads, in my case at least, to some gratuitous cursing).Well, Michael Tsai has found the solution with a hidden preference. All you have to do is type in (or copy and paste in) one line to the Terminal and the data detectors will be banished from Mail.app. Head on over to Tsai's post for full details and kiss the cursing goodbye.
[via Daring Fireball]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Kelmon said 9:14AM on 8-01-2008
Bugger that - data detectors are probably one of the best additions to Leopard and it's often spooky how accurate they are.
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Harris said 9:51AM on 8-01-2008
So.... maybe I'm doing something wrong but this is totally unnecessary. If you start copying away from the address, maybe the line underneath it or even a few spaces after it, anywhere near it that doesn't popup the detection interface dropdown, and drag across the address, it will select the text and you can copy it to the clipboard. Seems like your fixing something that doesn't need fixing.
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Mark said 10:48AM on 8-01-2008
Data detectors might work fine in English messages, but in foreign languages they are really, really bad. Forget about detecting appointments (it doesn't detect the date properly), and address detection is very flaky as well (streets consisting of multiple words get detected only partially, etc.)
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motech said 10:53AM on 8-01-2008
truly one of my favorite features in leopard,
use it all the time!!
(being that i depend on ical and address book!)
i really wish they had it in the iphone . .
one way they could improve it is adding a copy option in the drop down menu, but otherwise i havent really had an issues . .
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Todd Sieling said 11:00AM on 8-01-2008
I'm also in the data-detector lovin' camp. They sometimes get in the way of selecting something, but they've become one of my favorite Leopard features as well - they just work!
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John Russell said 3:13AM on 8-06-2008
I love data detectors in Mail. I wish other apps had them as well. Is this some secret preference to turn them on in Safari and other apps?
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