Malcolm Coad's dashboard

Malcolm Coad replied on December 03, 2009 21:26 to the question "How do you create mailing lists?" in Postbox, Inc.:

Hi Scott -

Oh, that really is very cool! Apologies for not working it out. I thought that window was simply giving me a different view of my Apple Address Book. Should have delved more before pressing the panic button and wasting your time. But at least it’s on the forum now.

Also very sweet is the “Add contact” action when you right-click on a name, and the intelligence with which Postbox detects whether a contact entry already exists or not. And the Write feature directly from the address book. Etc.

Any criticism in the original message is wholeheartedly withdrawn! But I do think you’re underselling such features. Maybe it’s the lack of Help in the app. These are great features and need to be shouted from the rooftops!

Malcolm Coad asked a question in Postbox, Inc. on December 03, 2009 13:37:

How do you create mailing lists?

How do you create a mailing list in Postbox? This has been raised in other threads, but I can't find a clear explanation anywhere, especially now that some past functionality seems to have gone. There is no longer an option to do this in the "File/New" menu, as there was several months ago, according to one thread. I've tried the options in the Window menu, but while the Address Book book option is fine if the list and addresses already exist there, there seems to be no way of creating a new group from within Postbox without laboriously making individual cards in AB. The "Mail and Newsgroups" option comes up dead - I select it and nothing happens, so I don't know what this is supposed to allow. I can't find any options in Preferences for these.

Is there no way of creating lists from Postbox's own contact list? If not, this is a serious weakness, I fear. Or am I just missing something?

Cheers,

Malcolm

Malcolm Coad replied on December 02, 2009 12:39 to the problem "Postbox won’t save selected messages." in Postbox, Inc.:

Hi Scott -

Eureka, of a sort - though I should have realised this before. The problem is with ImportExport Tools. It’s this that adds the “Save selected messages” item to the menus. I hadn’t grasped this, as the rest of its functions are in its own menu item under Tools. Everything else about the add-on seems to work okay, it’s just this menu option that’s dead. Postbox’s own “Save as...” option works fine.

The problem is still there in Postbox 1.1.

The “Save selected messages” option is useful, as it allows you to do this with one click rather than several, but I can live without it. It would be good to clear the issue up, though. Do you let the dev know about such bugs, or should I contact him directly?

Cheers - and thanks for your help,

Malcolm

Malcolm Coad replied on December 01, 2009 13:09 to the problem "Postbox won’t save selected messages." in Postbox, Inc.:

I seem to be the only one with this problem, so I guess the chances of a reply are small. I’ll persevere, just in case. I’m now finding that it’s just the “Save selected messages” menu option that is dead. Saving from the “Save as” item, whether from the menu bar or contextual menus, works fine. It just involves more mousing, choosing the format separately in the finder window that opens, etc.

Could this have anything to do with ImportExport Tools? It’s working ok, but I wondered.

Really would appreciate a response, though I understand the pressure you’re under.

Malcolm Coad replied on November 27, 2009 12:58 to the problem "Postbox won’t save selected messages." in Postbox, Inc.:

I don’t know if this has anything to do with the problem above, but I’m also getting a strange message every time I first launch Postbox and start work in it. I window opens asking me where “postbox-bin“ is (I attach a screenshot). This happens once, when I first start working on the messages themselves, and only after a reboot of the Mac. I click cancel and carry on, and there’s no repetition until the next reboot.

Malcolm Coad replied on November 25, 2009 17:45 to the problem "Postbox won’t save selected messages." in Postbox, Inc.:

Hi Scott -

Thanks for the quick response. It’s happening with both the regular and beta versions. I installed the beta to try to clear it, to no avail. As the problem is pre-beta it seemed to make more sense to post here.

Yes. There is an error log. Sorry, I wasn’t aware of this menu item (which is an excellent feature, by the way.) The entries are the same for each attempt to save, whether to EML, HTML or Text, and read:

Error: uncaught exception: [Exception... "Component returned failure code: 0x8000ffff (NS_ERROR_UNEXPECTED) [nsIPrefBranch.getComplexValue]" nsresult: "0x8000ffff (NS_ERROR_UNEXPECTED)" location: "JS frame :: chrome://mboximport/content/utils.js :: getPredefinedFolder :: line 19" data: no]

Hope this helps,

Cheers,

Malcolm

Malcolm Coad reported a problem in Postbox, Inc. on November 25, 2009 14:11:

Postbox won’t save selected messages.

Postbox has stopped saving messages as EML, HTML and text files. I invoke this from the contextual or File menus (“Save selected messages”) and nothing happens. This has happened since the last upgrade. It doesn’t appear to be due to a corrupt download of the installer as I’ve upgraded to the latest beta (1.1.0b3) and the same thing is happening (or not happening...). I’m having no trouble saving in any other apps.

My machine is a Mac G5 PPC running OS 10.5.8. Grateful for any help, as this is seriously affecting my workflow.

Cheers,

Malcolm

Malcolm Coad replied on July 29, 2009 19:20 to the question "How exactly to mboxes work in Postbox for export?" in Postbox, Inc.:

Following Scott’s explanation, I’ve also just succeeded in creating a new MailSteward archive for my POP account. It was simple: just check “Import email from this folder” in the MailSteward Accounts setting - making sure that the accounts you may have set up for Apple Mail above are unselected (this is important!) - navigate to the folder via the Choose button and hit Archive in the other little floating gizmo.

You can only select high-level folders, as the plain-text .mbox folder/files described by Scott inside will not be recognized in this form and will be greyed out in the Finder window. MS will go through the folder and sift everything out in due order.

So, great news - for all those wondering, Mail Steward works seamlessly with Postbox. Thanks to everyone. One step closer to buying the beta...

Malcolm Coad replied on July 29, 2009 18:13 to the question "How exactly to mboxes work in Postbox for export?" in Postbox, Inc.:

Got it. Thanks for the clarification - we (or me at least) were getting our files and folders confused...

Malcolm Coad replied on July 29, 2009 16:32 to the question "How exactly to mboxes work in Postbox for export?" in Postbox, Inc.:

Hi Scott. Thanks, but that’s not how things are working in my set-up - hence the confusion. In my Profiles folder there are no folders without file extensions. The only files without extensions are blank icons which turn out to be plain text files.

To explain, I have two email accounts, one POP for my IP server, which is called vtr.net, and one IMAP for MobileMe. If I go to Application Support/Postbox/Profiles, the only folder there is called agbx3hvm.default. In there is a bunch of stuff including two folders called ImapMail and Mail. In the first is a folder called mail.mac.com, which contains no folders, just plain text icons with names such as INBOX, INBOX.msf, Drafts.msf, etc. In the Mail folder is a Local Folders folder as well as one called mail.vtr.net. In the Local Folders folder are folders as set up in the Postbox Folders sidebar, but they all have .sbd extensions, and in them subfolders appear as plain text docs without extensions and with the same name plus a .msf extension. Where there are no subfolders in the folder, there is no folder at all, simply the two plain text files named for what in the sidebar is a folder.

I hope you can see why I am confused. In short, there are no mbox folders without file extensions to grab. Plain text files, yes, but no folders.

I attach a screenshot so you can see part of what I’ve been describing.

Cheers,

Malcolm

Malcolm Coad asked a question in Postbox, Inc. on July 29, 2009 14:45:

How exactly to mboxes work in Postbox for export?

Could somebody give a clear explanation of just how Postbox uses the mbox format, to help those of us who need to export in this? I understand from other posts that its folders are in some version of this format, but it’s very unclear to the non-techie exactly how this works, as in the Profiles folder in Application Support (I’m talking Mac OS X here, obviously) all local folders appear as .msf or .sbd. There is nothing calling itself .mbox.

To be completely specific, how exactly do I export a Postbox folder as .mbox? The reason for asking is that I want to be able to archive my mail in the excellent Mail Steward app, which works automatically with Apple Mail but requires .mbox folders to be moved into it manually from other mail apps.

Incidentally, I’ve tried using kaosmos’s ImportExportTools add-on, but this seems to export folders as .txt or .eml files, not as .mbox.

Postbox is shaping up superbly, btw - thanks a million for it. I’ve transferred to it from Apple Mail, and intend to buy after a bit longer trying it out.

Malcolm Coad started following the question "Split mailboxes into multiple files?" in Postbox, Inc..

Malcolm Coad started following the question "Backup/restore/export?" in Postbox, Inc..

Malcolm Coad replied on July 10, 2009 14:38 to the idea "Backup option" in Postbox, Inc.:

I agree - it is a serious omission. Meanwhile, for Mac users anyway, the workround is to use your normal backup method or app to backup the Postbox folder in Library/Application Support. This will be done automatically if you’re using Time Machine.

Malcolm Coad started following the idea "Backup option" in Postbox, Inc..

Malcolm Coad marked one of Robio's replies in Postbox, Inc. as useful. Robio replied to the idea "there should be a unified inbox".

A comment on the idea "there should be a unified inbox" in Postbox, Inc.:

Why on earth would Brian just assert this without any argument? Apple Mail does indeed allow a single unified Inbox for IMAP and POP accounts, and it’s vital to me. As Nielsk says, it allows you to have both a single Inbox and “unfold” the individual accounts - the best of both worlds. In fact, this is the single greatest thing holding me back from switching completely. – Malcolm Coad, on July 09, 2009 22:46

Malcolm Coad marked one of nielsk's replies in Postbox, Inc. as useful. nielsk replied to the idea "there should be a unified inbox". Malcolm Coad and 2 other people think it's one of the best replies.

Malcolm Coad replied on July 09, 2009 22:41 to the idea "Inbox for all accounts" in Postbox, Inc.:

There needs to be a global Inbox for all accounts, POP and IMAP. At the moment this only works for POP accounts. Mail allows you to do this, which is a big obstacle to switching, at least for me.

Malcolm Coad replied on July 09, 2009 22:36 to the idea "Global Inbox for IMAP folders" in Postbox, Inc.:

Also agree this is a must-have, but for POP accounts too, not just IMAP. It’s the biggest feature preventing me switching completely from Mail.