Adam Tow has just released MsgFiler, an absolute must have add-on for Mail.app users that file messages. Trust me, this puppy will save you serious time every day. Go download it now, then come back here and read more of the back story.
Back in 2004, I was so fed up with Mail.app that I tried switching to Thunderbird. The switch didn’t last too long, but I was told about QuickFile, an extension for Thunderbird. Even though it didn’t do everything I wanted, when I went back to Mail.app I really missed QuickFile.
Luckily, I have some smart friends. Adam had recently learned pretty much everything there is to know about Mail.app and AppleScript while writing Soybo, so I asked him if he could cobble something together that could simulate QuickFile. He could and did.
I’ve been using MsgFiler for over a year now – I hinted about it nearly a year ago – and I can’t imagine using Mail.app without it. When I first got my MacBook, Intel incompatibility with MsgFiler rendered me unable to file e-mail on the MacBook for several days. It was just too painful without MsgFiler.
In a nutshell, this is how it works:
- Have an e-mail open or have one or more e-mails selected in the message list in Mail.app
- Hit Cmd-9
- Type a few letters – for example to bring up my ‘Tasks Pro Support’ folder I type ‘pro su’
- Hit the down arrow to select the folder in the list
- Hit enter
So much faster than dragging the mail into a nest of collapsed folders and trying to get them to open in a way that I can reach the one I want.
Adam has some screenshots and a little intro video on the web page, so you can see how it works there too. Now go forth, spend a few PayPal dollars on this little gem, and learn to love (or at least not resent) Mail.app again. 🙂