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Mail in Leopard was one of the features I was thoroughly looking forward to from day one when Steve and his team stood up on stage an announced it. Due to the fact that I receive so many emails day in day out, it was only normal that I was excited about the forthcoming changes in Mail.app

Before I installed Leopard, the organizational factor of my tasks, emails, and notes was lacking in structure. Although all three somewhat related to each other, I was managing them from within three different applications. Mail for email, Yojimbo for notes, and Ta Da List for tasks.

Now running Leopard and Mail 3.0, I have these three main aspects (tasks, emails, and notes) sorted in one location, from within one window.

Tidbits

The new refined user interface of Mail is attractive to say the least. Im enjoying the new icons in both the toolbar and in the sidebar. Folder icons look very slick.

I feel like the sidebar of Mail has taken a sharp turn in the right direction, now with headers for main areas such as Smart Mailboxes. These all fall under one heading where they can be seen plain and clear.

The Mail Activity window in the lower left corner of the main window is a nice touch. I frequently has to check activity in Tiger by using the key command, now all that data is right in front of me and is just one glance away at any time of the day. The second I hit send on an email, the activity window updates and shows me the percentage sent, and the data transfer rate.

Notes

My notes were previously stored in a data organizational application by the name of Yojimbo, I’ve now migrated everything to the Mail notes section.

One of the first things I did upon moving my notes to Mail was change the ugly Marker Felt font to something more bearable, 12-point Helvetica.

Don’t get me started on the background of the main notes window. Basic home users who come home from work, check their email, and do a little light web browsing should enjoy the bright yellow legal notepad like design - but me - I find it severely tacky looking.

Apple, why can’t we have an option to change the background just like we can in the Finder?

Tasks

I’ve been playing around with a few different applications used for keeping hold of my tasks over the past 6 months. I can think of at least half a dozen I’ve tried off the top of my head, probably more. None have really fit the bill of what I’m looking for in a task manager, I can safely say that Mail hasn’t either, but it’s a step closer to how my ideal application would work.

The ease of creating to-dos from existing emails is a real plus as this is where many of my tasks originate. Unlike the notes, I don’t need to complain about the background design of the tasks section as it’s solid white. Much cleaner. Far better.

All Synced Up

Without diving into the core of .Mac sync and the changes made with Leopard (in this post), I’d like to somewhat highlight how handy the syncing capabilities within Mail are to me.

My current Mac inventory is a Mac Pro, however I’ll be adding a notebook to that in the next few weeks. As stated above when referring to my tasks, notes, and emails, “I feel much more in control of these things now.” .Mac Mail sync is perfect for this. The three aspects of my life I like to have complete control over are able to be taken with me, anywhere I go, with the changes replicated on the .Mac server, and in turn, on each of my machines.

If I’m at a cafe with a notebook computer and I make a change to a note, and reply to three emails in my inbox, when I sit back down in my office and open Mail, these changes are automatically synced to the office Mac Pro. Convenience at its best.