Comments on: MsgFiler – Must Have for Mail.app Users

By: MsgFiler Available in Mac AppStore | alexking.org

MsgFiler Available in Mac AppStore | alexking.org — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 18:40:28 +0000

[...] a huge fan of MsgFiler and have been using it since 2006. I honestly can’t imagine using Mail without it. It allows you to quickly and easily file [...]

By: Must-Have Software | alexking.org

Must-Have Software | alexking.org — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 17:41:17 +0000

[...] Keyboard-only message filing in Mail.app. My review. [...]

By: Alex

Alex — Sat, 18 Nov 2006 15:28:02 +0000

The reason why Google got web search to work again was because it takes lots of input (links) for search terms. So if you search for a synonym, you find what you’re looking for. Unfortunately, that doesn’t work when searching through e-mail. You have to search on exactly the right term to find what you’re looking for. I find my mail search tools woefully inadequate and find it is often faster to browse my filed messages.

Another benefit, on IMAP, is that many smaller folders are much faster than a few big ones.

By: Geof F. Morris

Geof F. Morris — Sat, 18 Nov 2006 12:21:35 +0000

Well, I’m with Merlin on this one: what benefits do you get from having 100+ folders?

Trust me, I used to be there myself, back in the days when I ran Eudora on a PC in college.

[That said, this question is best answered at the link above.] Undoubtedly, what Adam’s done here is excellent if that’s how you’re managing email. Two thumbs up.

By: Jason

Jason — Sat, 18 Nov 2006 04:07:14 +0000

Yeah, Kerim and Geof, Mail Act-On is great for the occasional rule, but when you’re talking about filing mail into 100+ folders, it just isn’t the right tool; when I once tried it, I actually thought to myself, “I’m trying to use a screwdriver as a saw here!” MsgFiler has now changed my life — I’m actually jealous that Alex has had access to this for over a year and never let anyone else in on it.

By: Adam

Adam — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 16:56:55 +0000

Doug – MsgFiler currently works on Tiger only. If there’s enough interest, I might look into supporting Panther.

By: Geof F. Morris

Geof F. Morris — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 13:46:49 +0000

Fair enough. Again, it goes back to mail filing policy: I have a very small number of collection points to file to [four], so this isn’t going to work for me. But it sounds like you segregate far more hardcore than that and also add collection points as necessary, so I can see why something that intuitively adds collectionability [yeah, it's early] is preferable.

By: Doug C.

Doug C. — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 13:21:07 +0000

I see that this is for 10.4.8. Can it work with earlier versions i.e. 10.3.x?

By: Alex

Alex — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 04:03:45 +0000

Anything that requires setting up rules/maintenence/etc. is losing or has lost a place in my toolbox. Tools like MsgFiler and LaunchBar (or QuickSilver) don’t require me to set anything up to work well – I much prefer that. Especially since I use multiple machines.

I’ve tried all the Mail.app add-ons, this and Mail Template are the only ones I’ve found to be good enough to keep.

By: Geof F. Morris

Geof F. Morris — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 03:57:00 +0000

I’m right behind Kerim … I use Mail Act-On for this functionality. But I also don’t nest folders, and nesting folders would keep MA-O from scaling well [since all the rules are, as best as I know, one-character-only, so ... you have limitations].

By: Kerim Friedman

Kerim Friedman — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 02:06:19 +0000

Have you tried Mail Act-On?

http://www.indev.ca/MailActOn.html

It is free. It requires a little setup, but it is very powerful and easy to use. You can do more than file, you can apply rules or applescripts, etc. I also like MailTags (be sure to try the beta) which works with IMAP.