#198 new
Alexander Kucera

Composer - rearrange input fields

Reported by Alexander Kucera | December 6th, 2011 @ 11:40 AM

Hi Benny,

I just had a weird thought while composing an e-mail to a client.

When I am composing e-mails where wording is crucial to not offend anyone, I like to keep the address fields empty until I send the mail to avoid sending an unfinished mail by accident. However, the way the compose window is laid out in MailMate (and every other e-mail program I am aware of) dictates a workflow from top to bottom. Fill in To:, CC:, BC:, Subject and then write your mail. So out of habit I fill in the address fields first and then later realize that I didn't want to fill in the addresses just yet.

So I was thinking of adjusting the layout to fit that addresses last workflow better. I know I could theoretically make my own layout and put the body input field at the top, but could I also split it up and put the subject, then the body and then the address fields?

Comments and changes to this ticket

  • Alexander Kucera

    Alexander Kucera December 6th, 2011 @ 01:27 PM

    I tried to set this up on my own just now, but for some reason the address are not shown.

    Would you mind having a quick look at my plist (which I have to put into the apps Layouts folder to show up btw.)?

  • benny

    benny December 6th, 2011 @ 01:46 PM

    • State changed from “new” to “bluesky”

    Argh, I really dislike lighthouseapp at times. Somehow it has ignored my email reply almost 2 hours ago. This is what I wrote:


    Some observations:

    • When you reply to messages, the address fields are never going to be empty (and thus you still risk sending an unfinished mail by accident).
    • There is a (currently hidden) option to delay sending messages. See the release notes.
    • Seems what you want is to have the initial focus in the Subject header (for new messages) and then some easy way to go from text view to recipient headers (where ⇧⇥ is not good enough). I've considered making ⌥⇥ do this.

    And no, you cannot split the headers. Too much hardcoded logic around this part of the layout. I guess swapping the views would work, but I think the initial focus would still be wrong.


    So, it is not going to work, sorry. For the record, you could place the file at:

    ~/Library/Application Support/MailMate/Resources/Layouts/
    

    Btw, I'm not sure why the layout looks as bad as it does. Apparently it has issues with being placed at the bottom which means you may also not be able to swap the editor and headers view.

    Sorry to mark another one as bluesky :-)

  • Alexander Kucera

    Alexander Kucera December 6th, 2011 @ 05:03 PM

    I also tried to swatch the editor and the headers, but the layout gets messed up as well, so that is not an option.

    Pity really. I wanted to visually restructure the workflow. Since I use the mouse a lot for drag & drop stuff, I wouldn't mind the focus being in the wrong spot (I think), since the focus is just a simple click away.

    Oh well, not a big problem. I survived years without it. It is just now that I had the idea, it is hard to unthink it. :)

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