51 replies to this topic

[Uplift]

I'm looking for a new mail client for mac, i just can't use Mail.app anymore because:

1. It doesn't style text, emails looks great when sending composing but when sending, and most people don't know this, it doesn't style your text. Your emails are sent in Times New Roman. If you want to style the text you must select it and choose a font. It's the app thats styling your text but it is not applied to the body of the email.

2. Attachments, i appreciate they tried to make things a little bit nicer but it's so inconsistent it's a mess. Sending images is one of the worst implementations i've seen, it attaches the full image to the body and regularly scales it down, sometimes people will reply and say it's not attached, sometimes they receive a little image icon thats so small they can't even see what it is.

As a designer both of these points make for a very unprofessional email process.

I'm looking for something else and the obvious choice would be Sparrow.. however it has recently been acquired by Google so development has stopped. The latest update is reported to be a memory hog.

Outlook, i don't have any major issues with this, but i would prefer something a little more independent, that will be regularly updated with new features.. Outlook has a very specific use and it's unlikely to change.. i like the dropbox feature of Sparrow.

So, what other options do i have? what are you using? any suggestions?

[sagum]

As someone who has to read and manage a lot of email in my inbox, i'd like to suggest;

1. don't do it. please send in nice clean text that I can view as I like. I constantly get people sending me emails in weird and wacky ways with things like HTML that is totally broken to the point I can't strip it out or rtf.. I had one company that sent everything as a PDF attachment wtf is that about?!. I'd just like a plain text email that I can assign my own fonts to , not size 8px red on orange background or size 120px klingon superscript. I know this propbalby doens't apply to you, but I do prefer my emails to be clean.
2. Yeah, don't do that either. I hate it when I have to wait several minutes for new mail to finish downloading because someone decided it'd be great to send screenshots of issues, lots of screen shot and attachthem to the email... or the actual email as a PDF file.. please use links to anything you want the recepiant to view where possible, please.

As for email clients. Can't really suggest one for Mac, sorry. Not sure what you're actually looking for with updated features. Email is, or rather should be pretty basic and feature set by now.

Anyway, I hope you find a decent email client for your needs..

[Uplift]

Thanks for the reply

sagum, on 26 January 2013 - 09:51, said:

As someone who has to read and manage a lot of email in my inbox, i'd like to suggest;

1. don't do it. please send in nice clean text that I can view as I like. I constantly get people sending me emails in weird and wacky ways with things like HTML that is totally broken to the point I can't strip it out or rtf.. I had one company that sent everything as a PDF attachment wtf is that about?!. I'd just like a plain text email that I can assign my own fonts to , not size 8px red on orange background or size 120px klingon superscript. I know this propbalby doens't apply to you, but I do prefer my emails to be clean.

I guess thats just an acquired taste, i love clean emails but i need the ability to make things bold for headings, and make important parts stand out.. I'm tired of highlighting my entire email just to give it a more readable font such as Arial, imo is more readable that times and plain text, i know mail clients can style text to the users requirements but is not always the case, the severity is noticable when i get a reply and i can see my email in the quote, looking awful.

Quote

2. Yeah, don't do that either. I hate it when I have to wait several minutes for new mail to finish downloading because someone decided it'd be great to send screenshots of issues, lots of screen shot and attachthem to the email... or the actual email as a PDF file.. please use links to anything you want the recepiant to view where possible, please.

Unfortunately it's the way the mac mail app handles things, if you add an image it's automatically embedded in the email, you do have the option to right click and choose 'view as icon' but depending who i'm sending to it doesn't always work.

Quote

Not sure what you're actually looking for with updated features. Email is, or rather should be pretty basic and feature set by now.

Fair comment and not much in particular, but i do like the dropbox feature of Sparrow, and the ability to click a button and view all attachments and be searchable without digging through emails.. just little things make the user experience a little better, this is something we wont see with Outlook as it has a very specific use.

[+Maximum Error]

Outlook in office for mac 2011 is the best mail app ive found. Would do everything you are looking for.

[+cooky560]

I've been using Sparrow for a little while and I quite like it.

[Long Dong Silver]

Sparrow, Mon ...... you need it

[Scorbing]

There is nothing wrong with Apple Mail. If you want to get "colorful" and fancy then you will have to get a 3rd grade mail client such as Incredimail - which I don't think its available for Mac.

[szo]

Maybe Thunderbird, or http://dotmailapp.com/

I personally prefer Sparrow. It's clean, fast, great ui and so far it's been working well. Once dotmailapp comes, I'll use that!

[Stetson]

Postbox is another one, not sure if it suits your needs or not: http://www.postbox-inc.com/

Personally I just use the Gmail web interface for 99% of my email.

[tiagosilva29]

GNUMail was cool... but I am not aware if it is still actively developed.

[Lunfai]

+1 for Sparrow.

[Rohdekill]

Based on the reviews (via App Store) for the current version of Sparrow, I would avoid it like the plague.

[tim_s]

This is a good question,

For me I must have some odd setting which is conflicting with my home network. Adding a new account takes 5 minutes, sending an email is 1 minute. This is true on my imac / mac book pro / iphone but not on my windows machines / linux machines or andriod phone.

[Shadrack]

I've heard Sparrow eats through battery on laptops. A mail client shouldn't do that I don't care how fancy it is.

If you don't like Mail, probably the best alternative is Outlook 2011.

[Exosphere]

Outlook for sure, Apple Mail is easily the worst and most incompatible email client when sending to PC users.
Adding an image is not attached but embedded most the time, fonts are not sent correctly and many more issues.

Whereas, any other client works!