MacHouse

   Last updated: July 31, 2011

1. Installing and uninstalling Switchies

Please read the README file that comes with the application.

2. Introduction

What is Switchies For Mail?  Switchies For Mail will let you switch from one set of Mail accounts to another.  The idea of developing Switchies For Mail comes from the fact that we wanted to have a separate set of Mail accounts just for Apple Mailing Lists.  We subscribe to one of AppleScript groups.  And every time somebody posted a question or a reply, we were false-alarmed that we received a new sales notice from PayPal.  So, initially, we wanted to have two different sets of Mail accounts.

Yes, you can have a new set of Mail accounts by creating a new user.  But we don't want to switch to another user account just in order to check mail.  Besides, we would end up installing a new set of applications under that account.  By using Swichies for Mail, we don't have to log out and switch to another user.  We can create a business-related set of Mail accounts, personal Mail accounts...  under the same user.

So how do you create a new Mail set?  We will cover this topic in defail soon, but you can create a new set by choosing New Mail Set under File.

Version 1.1 will give you a couple of new features.  If you choose Account Status > Enable Account Status under Mail, Switchies For Mail will display the number of E-mail accounts for the selected mail set.  It will access Mail's data file every 3 seconds.  If the selected mail set contains no account yet, you probably want to disable it.  So choose Disable Account Status.  Otherwise, Mail will keeping on displaying the welcome window.

Mail is a lot more useful and reliable than it was several years ago.  But it can fail to read its data file and retrieve E-mail account passwords from time to time.  Fortunately, Switchies For Mail can remember your E-mail account passwords.  (Open Preferences and set the tab to Mail to save passwords.)  If Mail forgets some of them, simply choose Tell Passwords to Mail.  Of course, if it's Keychain Access that forgets your mail passwords, then Tell Passwords to Mail won't help.

3. Preferences

When you first launch any new application, it's always a good idea to open Preferences.  Okay, why not?  Let's choose Preferences under Switchies For Mail.  (See Screenshot 3-1.)

Well, Switchies For Mail is, again, a simple application.  So there isn't much to see in Preferences.  Anyway, if you enable Run update notification (See Screenshot 3-2), Switchies For Mail will automatically access our website to see if there are any software updates available every time you launch it.  We strongly recommend that you enable Confirm deletion.  If you enable this option, Switchies For Mail will open a confirmation window every time you attempt to delete an existing Mail category set.  In other words, Switchies For Mail will delete one without confirmation if this checkbox is disabled.  By the way, you cannot trash the original set of Mail accounts through this application.

When you create a new Mail set without opening Preferences, you will know that part of the window is flashing in red.  That's the default flashing color.  The flashing color will tell you which Mail set is currently active.  If you want to change the default flashing color, first, enable Change flashing colors.  Then click on the button right below to pick a color.  And the Color Picker window will open.  (See Screenshot 3-3.)  If the checkbox is disabled, the flashing color will simply revert to the default one (red) whatever the selected color is.

By default, the width of the horizontal category bar is set to 200 pixels.  If you want to stretch it (up to 300 pixels), enable Change window width.  You can use the horizontal slider right below to change width.  Or manually enter a value between 200 and 300 in the edit field to the right.

The last checkbox under the Settings tab lets you decide how to sort Mail sets.  If you leave Sort Mail Sets disabled, Switchies For Mail will simply sort Mail categories by creation date.  Or enable it and then choose By name, ascending (A to Z) or By name, descending (Z to A).

Next, let's switch to the Default tab.  Under this tab, you can set default values that are used when you create a new Mail set.  If you click on the color button, again, the Color Picker window will open.  The default color is black.