(
The Bottom Line
Pros
- Mac OS X Mail lets you manage mail, RSS news feeds, to-do items and notes
- Mail cans spam with a highly effective learning junk mail filter
- Mac OS X Mail includes fast search, smart folders and enticing stationery
Cons
- Mac OS X Mail does not offer filters and smart folders that learn from example
- Flexible message templates and free-form labels are missing from Mac OS X Mail
- Mac OS X Mail's smart folders could use more criteria (message categories, for example)
Description
- Mac OS X Mail lets you manage multiple POP, IMAP, Exchange and .Mac email accounts and RSS news feeds.
- You can send plain or rich text messages and use stationery for stylish emails.
- Spotlight-powered search finds mail fast, and smart folders automatically collect relevant messages.
- Incoming mail filters to organize and color-code messages, send automatic replies, and more.
- Mac OS X Mail includes adaptive (Bayesian) spam filtering that moves spam out of the way effectively.
- Parental controls allow you to restrict who a Mac OS X Mail user can correspond with.
- You can turn emails into to-do items easily and keep notes in Mail (even using an IMAP account).
- Support for S/MIME email security lets you sign and encrypt messages in Mail.
- Using a .Mac account, Mail settings, notes, rules and smart folders can be synchronized across computers.
- Mac OS X Mail supports Mac OS X 10.5.
Guide Review - Mac OS X Mail 3.6 - Email Program
Email has become so important that most operating systems come with at least one email client. So does Mac OS X, and Apple has done a great job.Mac OS X Mail sports a clean, easy to use interface to its powerful features. With great support for multiple POP, IMAP, Exchange and .Mac accounts, versatile mail filters and message threading Mail is flexible enough for most needs. Since it makes sense to read your RSS news feed subscriptions where your email newsletters arrive, Mail supports these as well and shows them in the Inbox like emails, too.
Additionally, Mail comes with an email client's two killer features: a smart spam filter that learns from your decisions and fast search that allows you to locate any email in seconds, no matter which folder it is in.
Virtual folders that automatically show you all mail matching certain criteria or searches make life with Mac OS X Mail even more comfortable and streamlined. It would be great if more criteria were available for these smart folders, though, or if they could learn from example like the junk mail filter.
Of course, you can read HTML emails properly and securely in Mail, and compose with comfort and style, too. For graphically rich messages, choose from enticing stationery or create your own. Unfortunately, you cannot use stationery for replies or create templates that adapt to the original message.
Since emails are (or contain) frequently to-do items, Mail lets you turn message content into actionable items that synchronize with iCal. You can also write stylish notes instead of sending yourself emails.
Together with Keychain Access, which offers quite flexible and comfortable certificate management, Mac OS X Mail makes it easy to digitally sign and encrypt email messages using S/MIME, and OpenPGP support can be added with an add-on.
