Mailplane

Mailplane 2.0.13 released

Monday, August 31, 2009

Release Notes:

• INFO: Mailplane fully supports Snow Leopard.
• FIX: Disabled the "Click To Flash" inside of Mailplane.
• FIX: Crash when checking for unread messages.

Snow Leopard Tip: Turn on “Text Substitutions”

Saturday, August 29, 2009

Snow Leopard has a great new feature: "Text Substitutions". When turned on, it helps you type your messages:

• Text Replacements: Define short text snippets which are automatically expanded when entered.
• Smart Links: Enter an URL and it automatically is turned into a clickable link.
• Smart Dashes: Replaces the a double dash to a long dash character, which looks better.
• Smart Quotes: Enter book-like quotes.

Here's how you can turn on the feature inside Mailplane:

1. Compose a new message
2. Control-Click the body text
3. Click Substitutions > Show Substitutions to open the "Substitution" utility window.
4. Turn on the substitutions you need, I find the Text Replacement feature most useful.
5. Press the "Text Preferences..." button to define your own text replacements
6. Now test it: Enter (c) or TM followed by space to replace the text with a copyright/trademark sign.

Tip: You can also access the text replacement settings by going to System Preferences > Text/Languages/Text:

One more thing: If you need to manage more text replacements, try Mailplane's text snippet feature. Define text snippets in Preferences > Accounts > Text Snippets and insert into your email by using the ⌘-Option-I keyboard shortcut.

Mailplane is ready for Snow Leopard

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Tomorrow is "Snow Leopard" day! Both Mailplane versions (stable and beta) are ready for the new and shiny OS release.

Mailplane has been tested on the most recent Snow Leopard developer preview version. However, tomorrow's final release may still have a few "surprises" for Maiplane. In case you get stuck, here are a few troubleshooting tips:

• Make sure you have the very latest Mailplane version. (Important: Mailplane 1.x isn't supported anymore and won't work with Snow Leopard).
• If you have Google Gears and you get a blank main screen instead of your inbox, please upgrade Google Gears or uninstall Google Gears. Update (08/29): So far Google hasn't upgraded Google Gears for Safari - please uninstall Google Gears for now and watch this page for the version.
• Maybe an incompatible InputManager is the culprit? To find out: Disable all InputManagers by renaming this folder: /Library/InputManagers. Restart Mailplane to apply the change. When your done testing, rename the folder back to /Library/InputManagers.
• To find out if it is a general problem or Mailplane bug, please open https://mail.google.com/mail inside Safari (not Firefox).

For more information visit the support section or send me a message.

Gmail: Composing a message? Try the contact chooser

Contact auto-completion is great, but the new contact chooser makes much sense when you need more control. I just found this news on the Gmail blog:

When composing messages, you probably rely pretty heavily on auto-complete to add recipients. Auto-complete is convenient and fast, and usually does the trick. But sometimes seeing your list of contacts can help you remember all the people you want to include on your email. So, we've added a contact chooser to Gmail. Click the "To:" link (or Cc:/Bcc:) when composing a message and you'll see something like this:

You can click on the contacts you want to add or search for others.

Gmail: Email a task list

Google has improved Gmail Tasks again. You can now email a task list:

Here's a tip I just found on Twitter:

<blockquote>New KB shortcuts: alt (cmd) + enter to complete a task, alt (cmd) + shift + enter to clear completed.</blockquote>

Read official Gmail blog post.

Gmail: Mail and contact import for everyone

Do you old email accounts? Move them over to your beloved Gmail account and use/search them inside Mailplane: The Accounts & Contacts import is now available to everyone. It can import Gmail, AOL, Hotmail, and POP3 accounts.

Read official Gmail blog entry

New Gmail Lab Feature: Remove Labels from Subjects

Do you have a small screen and like to conserve some space? Try the new Gmail lab feature "Remove Labels from Subjects":

Before:

After:

Read official Gmail blog post

Mailplane 2.0.12 released

Friday, August 21, 2009

Release notes:

• CHANGED: The "offline indicator" is now disabled when installing Mailplane. Tip: The setting can be changed on the Preferences > Advanced preference page.
• FIX: OSX 10.5.8 only: License installation didn't work correctly
• FIX: Keyboard shortcut check at startup didn't work
• FIX: Authentication SSL certificate error when using some USB wireless modems
• FIX: Authentication didn't work with some proxy servers

MacNewsWorld Review: “Mailplane Gives Gmail a Landing Pad on the Mac Desktop”

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

John P. Mello Jr. published a thorough and nice review at the Mac News World site:

One aspect of Web mail that's always bothered me is not knowing when new messages arrive in my in-box. Mailplane addresses that problem with an excellent notification system. It alerts you to a new message within seconds of its arrival in your in-box. Better yet, it will alert you to new emails even if the program is minimized to the OS X dock.

What's more, the program supports Growl. Growl is a free notification system for OS X that gives a user more control over notifications from applications compatible with it.

Because Web mail can be used from any computer that runs a Web browser, it's a very attractive application for users on the go. However, with Mailplane, users who spend most of their time pecking at the same keyboard day after day can now enjoy the benefits of the cloud app without having to forgo many of the features that make resident email programs so popular.

Read the full review

Mailplane at the Bodega app store

Tuesday, August 04, 2009

Mailplane is now listed at the "Bodega" app store! Like the iTunes App Store for iPhone Bodega is a free application you install on your Mac. You can use Bodega to browse, download, update and buy Mac applications.

To find Mailplane in the app store, please download Bodega and then click the "Email & Chat" software category. Or just search for Mailplane.

Learn more about the Bodega app store.

Tip: Send mail from another address without “on behalf of”

Monday, August 03, 2009

Google now offers a way to remove the "on behalf of" message your messages.

Here's the problem:

Quite a few of you use Gmail's custom "From:" to send messages with one of your other email addresses listed in place of your Gmail address. Since these messages are sent by Gmail's servers but "from" a non-Gmail address, we have to include your original Gmail username in the "Sender" field of the message header to comply with mail delivery protocols and help prevent your mail from being marked as spam. Most email programs just display the "From" address and not the "Sender" field, but some (including versions of Microsoft Outlook) show these messages as coming "From username@gmail.com On Behalf Of customaddress@mydomain.com" which really annoyed people.

We heard your request for another option that wouldn't show the "on behalf of" text loud and clear, and now there's a new option that does just that. Instead of using Gmail's servers to send the message, we'll use the servers where your other email address lives. Since Gmail isn't the originating domain, we don't have to include "Sender" info in the header. No more "on behalf of."

All custom "From:" addresses used to work like this:

The solution:

<p>Now, if your other email provider supports <strike>POP and/or IMAP access</strike> authenticated SMTP, you can choose to send your message like this instead:</p>
<img src="http://mailplaneapp.com/files/blog/ZZ2F4DEF86.png" width="525" height="138" alt="The new way." />

To switch to this new method, go to the Accounts page under Settings, and click "edit info" from the "Send mail as" section. Then choose the option to "Use your other email provider's SMTP servers."

Read full blog post at the official Gmail blog.

Gmail makes unsubscribing newsletters easy

Here's a useful new Gmail feature:

Unsubscribing from mailing lists and newsletters you subscribed to a while back but no longer want to receive should be just as easy. Searching through individual messages for little unsubscribe links is too big a pain —you should be able to unsubscribe with a single click.

So we just launched something that makes this all work better, both for Gmail users and big email senders. Now, when you report spam on a legitimate newsletter or mailing list, we'll help you unsubscribe. After clicking report spam, you'll see a little dialog like this:

Read full blog post at the official Gmail blog.

Gmail now displays images in messages from your contacts

But often the messages you get with images are from friends or family and there's no reason to worry about your privacy — you just want to see the photo of your newborn niece or the invitation design they're sending you. So, in these cases, we've decided to start displaying images by default. Now, whenever someone you've emailed at least twice sends you a message containing images, you'll see them right away. Note that we picked this threshold of two messages to start with, but we may tweak it if it doesn't seem right going forward. And we only display images by default for authenticated messages (using SPF or DKIM). Gmail and other big mail providers usually authenticate their mail, but other services might not, so it's possible you'll get an email from one of your contacts where images aren't displayed by default.

If you prefer to go back to the way things were, you can choose not to display images from certain senders or from anyone. To disable images from an individual sender, click "Don't display from now on" under the "Show details" link of an email from them with images. To disable images from everybody, select "Ask before displaying external content" under "External content" on the general Settings tab.

Read full blog post at the official Gmail blog.

Tasks graduates from Gmail Labs

You already noticed the "Tasks" link in your Gmail sidebar? This feature used to be lab feature and is now available to all Gmail users. You may find this video useful:

Read full blog post at the Gmail blog.

New Gmail Lab Feature: The super-trustworthy, anti-phishing key

In July, Google added a new lab feature: Authentication icon for verified senders:

Now, unless you are a regular reader of this blog with a photographic memory, you may not be aware of this extra protection. So, we thought we'd add a little something to remind you. Turn on "Authentication icon for verified senders" from the Labs tab under Settings, and you'll see a key icon next to verified emails that are super-trustworthy.

Click here to read official Gmail blog post.