[Macpartners] AppleMail complaint

[Albert Willis]

On Jan 31, 2007, at 10:06 AM, Gurukarm Khalsa wrote:

> This question actually addresses something I've been complaining  
> about all along since I switched from Eudora - not the font size,  
> but the ability to edit an incoming message, either its subject, or  
> its body text.
>
> My reasons for wanting to do so are these: not infrequently I get  
> emails from people who've replied to an old message from me to  
> bring up a new topic, but not changed the subject line. I need to  
> keep that new email for reference, but want to change the subject  
> to match the actual topic, both for visual searching and for search  
> engine purposes. Also, sometimes I want to edit an email I may get  
> from my supervisor, for instance, to make notes to myself about  
> tasks completed or things needed to do, etc.

Mail's Organize by Thread feature (in the View menu) groups messages  
together that are part of the same conversation--even if the subject  
changes. So you don't need to manually change the subject to keep the  
messages grouped together. And because every word of every message is  
indexed by Spotlight, it's not hard to find a message even if the  
subject changes using Mail's search features.

You may recall that Apple has publicly demonstrated that Mail 3.0 in  
Leopard will support notes and to-do items. You can see these  
features demonstrated at http://www.apple.com/macosx/leopard/mail.html.


> I know there are very valid security and privacy reasons to not  
> allow a user to edit emails they've received, but I was spoiled by  
> being able to do it in Eudora! And it's really a work-flow issue  
> for me.
>
> So, can someone suggest where I can send this request to Apple?  
> They may never listen, but at least I'll have the satisfaction of  
> sending it!
>
> thanks,
> Gurukarm

Unfortunately, Eudora allowed users to do things that other email  
clients don't allow, usually for the reasons you mentioned--security  
and privacy. If it's truly a workflow issue, that's something we  
should look at more in-depth, especially if there are other users in  
a similar situation.

With Mail 3.0 now being developed, now would be a good time to make a  
suggestion. Here's the info from a message I sent to IT Partners  
recently. Although it's called a bugreporter, you can also make  
feature requests as well.

> Apple provides the details on how to file a bug report in Radar  
> (Apple's bug tracking tool) at http://developer.apple.com/ 
> bugreporter/. If you don't already have an Apple Developer  
> Connection membership, you'll need one to file a bug report; Apple  
> offers a free online membership.
>
> If you've never filed a bug with Apple before, please read "Bug  
> Reporting Best Practices" at http://developer.apple.com/bugreporter/ 
> bugbestpractices.html.


   -- Al


______________________________
Albert Willis
Macintosh Platform Coordinator - Software Release Team
Client Support Services
Information Services and Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
awillis at mit.edu