Fusion Posted February 12, 2004 Share Posted February 12, 2004 I have totally eliminated the dock, finally! The only thing that I miss however is the small red circle notifying me of how many new mail messages I have. I have looked at a few other options such as using a konfab widget and such, but nothing that strikes me as a good solution. I would like a simple pop-up to notify me when I have new mail. This could be a menu bar app I suppose, I am trying to see all available alternatives, but it would be great as just a simple pop-up window that says... "You've got mail." Could I write this in applescript and how would I tell it to check mail for new messages? Obviously it is possible somehow if it already has the icon notification and makes a sound when new mail is received. Oh, and PS... what would also be absolutely insanely awesome is if the menu extra on iChat had an extra section on the bottom that said how many new mail messages. If you clicked on it, it would open up mail. I have a .mac account so my .mac and ichat account are the same.... of that would be so nice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the evn show Posted February 12, 2004 Share Posted February 12, 2004 write an apple script as follows: display dialog "You've got mail" Save the script somewhere. Open mail.app. Preferences Rules Add rule (make the selections in bold) if any of the following conditions are met: every message Perform the following actions: Run applescript click choose, and then browse for your script. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fusion Posted February 12, 2004 Author Share Posted February 12, 2004 Ok, this is what we have so far. display dialog "You've got mail." buttons {"Ignore", "Read"} if button returned of result = "Read" then tell application "Mail" to activate end if The problems: If Mail.app is hidden, because the rule is from Mail, it hides the dialog, only playing the sound. Instead of hidden, if Mail.app is simply closed, the script works but brings the menu bar to the front but does not send a new instance, opening the inbox. I haven't checked this yet, but if Mail does the rule by message and not by mail check, I believe this will pop up a notification for every message recieved. Fine for one, but for 2 or more, annoying. I feel and application coming on soon. So here is what we could do to improve it. Have the script open the specific message instead of the inbox, making it ok to have more than one dialog, maybe? Figure out how to simply bring the inbox forward by sending a new insance or allowing the dialog to show if the app is hidden. This could be good... Anyone with some more ideas? This is all credit the evn show. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the evn show Posted February 12, 2004 Share Posted February 12, 2004 display dialog "You've Got Mail." buttons {"Read", "Ignore"} if button returned of result = "Read" then tell application "Mail" activate if (count every message viewer) is 0 then set theViewer to make new message viewer end if end tell end if The only thing left is to find a way to fire the script only after the mail is done getting new messages. I think the best method is to look into using the scripts menu in mail.app rather than a message rule. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mdc Posted February 14, 2004 Share Posted February 14, 2004 what about the way i have it set up. add a rule if any of the following... every message perform the... bounce icon in the dock it won't be as obtrusive as an alert popup, but the icon does not stop bouncing until you click on it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the evn show Posted February 14, 2004 Share Posted February 14, 2004 he totally killed the dock. as for the 'every message' rule idea. Mail.app rules are applied one at a time as messages are received which isn't suitable for the popup-window method he suggested. I poked around a little more with applescript - the only idea I can come up with is to write an applescript that counts the number of messages in the inbox(s) now and compares them with the number of messages from the last time it ran. if the number goes up - then display "you've got mail". you could then set it up to run as a cron job every couple minutes. worst case you'd have a 5 minute delay between receiving the message and getting the window. At this point I'm pretty sure applescript isn't the best way to do exactly what he wants and I have no plans to write something more substantial because I still use the dock and the default functionality works great for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elliott Posted February 14, 2004 Share Posted February 14, 2004 http://www.bronsonbeta.com/ This is currently being developed. It's not the most usable thing right now (you have to hide your main Mail.app window instead of closing it), but if you can get into the habit of doing that, this is pretty nice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fusion Posted February 14, 2004 Author Share Posted February 14, 2004 http://www.bronsonbeta.com/This is currently being developed. It's not the most usable thing right now (you have to hide your main Mail.app window instead of closing it), but if you can get into the habit of doing that, this is pretty nice. Thank you for the link jaged. That app sounds perfect. I already hide stuff instead of close it so that works great. I haven't tried it yet, but it's great that it is at least being developed. Colin, I am also pretty sure that applescript is just too limited right now for this sort of thing. And the dock does have some great functionality. Killing it gets rid of the apple+tab application switched which was fine because I could just replace it with liteswitch but I found out expose is also tied to the dock, and that is something I am not willing to loose. So I have reinstated the dock for the time being. I came up with another perfect solution (I'm full of em') for this. The problem being that the dock takes up too much screen space and some people don't like hiding. What if there was a way to pin the dock to the desktop. So applications would still go over it and utilize the full screen but the dock would still be visible for the most part for mail notifications and other things. I have asked around and so far no one knows of any app or haxie that enables such a thing if it is even possible. When I used windows, I used a program called Yz dock. It allowed this feature with some even added functionality. When you moved your mouse to the bottom of the screen the dock came forward. This would be cool, but even just pinning it in the first place would be grand. Any ideas? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elliott Posted February 14, 2004 Share Posted February 14, 2004 I came up with another perfect solution (I'm full of em') for this. The problem being that the dock takes up too much screen space and some people don't like hiding. What if there was a way to pin the dock to the desktop. So applications would still go over it and utilize the full screen but the dock would still be visible for the most part for mail notifications and other things.I have asked around and so far no one knows of any app or haxie that enables such a thing if it is even possible. I just found something to do that (pinning to the desktop). http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/11295 Download that and start it up. Under the Dock Setup tab is a check box that says "Float Dock Above Other Applications". Disable that and bam, to the desktop it goes. Hope this helps. :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fusion Posted February 14, 2004 Author Share Posted February 14, 2004 I just found something to do that (pinning to the desktop).http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/11295 Download that and start it up. Under the Dock Setup tab is a check box that says "Float Dock Above Other Applications". Disable that and bam, to the desktop it goes. Hope this helps. :D Ya unfortunately that does not work. Programs still go smaller to fit the dock in the screen if it is no auto hidden. BTW, I am fellow2000 on MacNN if that is where you got it from. If you remember, I used to be fellow2000 on here too. They wouldn't switch my name. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts