Hi Dan; I agree entirely with Michael when he says that this is really a matter of opinion, and everyone should choose the application that's right for them. I dip into Mail every time they bring out a major new version (ie. I looked at it when Panther came out and I'll no doubt reassess it when Tiger lopes into view) but it never quite cut it for me.
A couple of points in your message prompted me to reply, however, because some of the problems that you are having seem to me like they might just be a preferences issue, and you might want to just check out these points before committing to the effort of switching between mail clients. Let me elaborate: Display speed: I've never known PM to display messages or message lists at anything less than lightning speed. Admittedly I'm on a G5, but even so it makes me wonder if this is something more to do with your set up rather than a problem intrinsic to PM itself. It's just text sifted from a database after all, and shouldn't be slow to display. Address book: My copy of PM stays in sync with my Apple address book just fine. I have them set so that PMAB updates itself from the Apple AB, but *not* the other way around (ie. PM doesn't pass info back to the AAB). I had a little trouble when I first set it up (both tried to sync with each other, and since the PM address book was empty at that point it wiped out half my Apple AB, hence my decision to use one as a 'master' and one as a 'slave'). If yours refuses to stay in synch then perhaps there is a corrupt preference. Same goes for the not opening in AAB properly; my prefs are set to open addresses in Apple AB, and if I double click an address in a PM message it opens up in AAB as expected. If the address is in my PM address book but not in the AAB (as some are, like this group for example) then it opens up in PM's address book instead. If your address books are not synching then perhaps this is the reason that things are not opening up in the AAB? Network absence: You can get rid of the dialogue boxes by going to preferences > Notifications and deselecting the 'Display Alert' checkbox under 'Error notification'. I just have a sound played when there is difficulty accessing an email account, so there is no dialogue box to dismiss (IIRC, those dialogue boxes would suspend other PM activity until dismissed, which I always thought was rather odd, OS9-like behaviour). Well, maybe this helps, maybe not. In the final analysis we all must use whatever works best for us. As I said, I tried Mail; I actually wanted to like it, and in many respects did, but its less than comprehensive filtering capabilities sent me scurrying back to PM. That and PM's awesome searching features. Whichever way you decide to jump, Dan, I wish you the best of luck. Cheerio; Rick -- G5 2GHz x2 :: 2GB RAM :: 10.3.8 :: PM 5.1 :: 3 pane mode -- Original message: Received from Dan Webb on 17/3/05 at 6:51 am >I've been a PowerMail and SpamSieve user for 3 years now, ever since I >moved from OS 9 and Claris Emailer. When I switched to OS X, the Mail >program was woefully inadequate. It has improved tremendously since >then, and I recently decided to make the switch. Here's why. > >OS X Mail advantages, in rough order of importance to me: >1. Display speed. PowerMail is very slow when displaying a list of >messages. Even on my new 1.5GHz Powerbook. >2. Keyboard navigation of messages. PowerMail's algorithm of which >message to select after deleting messages is bizarre and annoying. >3. Much better Apple Address Book integration. PowerMail doesn't stay >in sync, and it doesn't open addresses in AAB like it's supposed to. >4. Handling of network absence. If the network is down, it behaves >gracefully, instead of putting up a dialog box per account every time >it checks for new mail. >5. Better IMAP support. I started using an IMAP server for the first >time, and PowerMail wouldn't remain connected. >6. Threaded messages. Very cool. >7. Spotlight, when it ships. I'm guessing it will be several months >before PowerMail is Spotlight searchable. >8. I'm already paying for OS X Mail, so I no longer have to pay for >PowerMail and SpamSieve. > >PowerMail advantages: >1. Different signature for each account. >2. Different column preferences for each view. >3. Message priorities. Mail has message colors, but they're not easy >to use. >4. Faster searching. Mail is slower, but still very usable. I have >about 7000 messages. > >I've enjoyed using PowerMail, but because Mail has caught up with >PowerMail (and exceeded it in some cases) it's time to move on.
