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From Mac vs. Windows
Like the telephone, e-mail has become an essential part of many computer user's daily lives. While e-mail was simply a novelty in the beginning, it has taken on a much greater importance in recent years. Both Mac OS X and Windows Vista offer e-mail clients. Mac OS X has Mail and Windows Vista has Windows Mail. Both applications can manage multiple IMAP and POP e-mail accounts, filter spam, and search through hundreds or thousands of archived e-mail messages quickly.
Contents |
Browsing Email
Today's computer users expect robust tools to simplify the task of managing dozens to hundreds of e-mails each day. It is not uncommon for users to have two, three or even more email accounts. As many people consider it important to have a single, consistent interface for managing and searching through multiple accounts, these tools have become an important addition to a platform's included software. Many users will not delete messages that they are done reading, which can lead to a massive amount of stored e-mails. Locating an older, but sill quite important, e-mail in such an environment can be an onerous task. For those with such large collections, there are several important features. Clients should support fast and easy searching of e-mails, as well as the filtering and sorting of e-mails. Stored e-mails have become a key component of many user's online lives. So much so that the thought of switching e-mail programs can cause a great deal of anxiety for some non-savvy users.
Mac OS X Leopard
Mail offers users the following ways to browse the e-mail messages stored in their mailboxes:
1. Conversation threads - Choosing View > Organize by Thread from the OS X menu bar groups e-mail messages with the same subject together as if they were one message. Clicking the arrow to the side of a message thread will expand it and display all the messages inside in a nested list. Clicking the arrow again will collapse the thread back into one message. Message threads can be highlighted in a color specified by the user to stand out from regular messages.
2. Quick Search - The search box in the upper right-hand corner of the toolbar lets users quickly find messages from a specific individual or that contain a particular keyword. Mail starts searching the instant a user begins typing. Results are updated in real-time as the user continues typing. A search bar offering additional options for filtering results will appear under the toolbar once a search is in progress. The search bar lets users filter their results by location (all folders or only the current one being viewed) or by message contents (entire message, TO, FROM, or SUBJECT).
3. Smart Mailboxes - Searches in Mail can be saved as a special type of folder called a smart mailbox. Smart mailboxes appear in the source column on the left along side other mailbox folders. Viewing a smart mailbox initiates the saved search displaying updated results of messages that match the conditions specified by the user. Smart mailboxes can be created by clicking the save button on the search bar or by choosing Mailbox > New Smart Mailbox. The smart mailbox dialog offers additional options for searching a user's messages. Clicking the plus and minus buttons allows users to add/remove conditions for their search.
4. Rules - Rules are actions that can be applied to messages when it meets specific conditions. Rules can be configured to process e-mail automatically as it is received or be run manually by the user. To setup rules in Mail, go to Mail > Preferences > Rules. Rules are setup in a very similar fashion to smart mailboxes using plus and minus buttons to add/remove conditions.
Windows Vista
Windows Mail allows messages to be sorted by criteria such as the date received, the sender, the account it came through in, and the size of the email, among others. Messages can also be grouped by conversation.
To organize messages by conversation, click the View menu, point to Current View, and then click Group Messages by Conversation. Conversations, when collapsed, appear only as the first message in the conversation. Next to the message sender field is a blue plus sign. Clicking the plus sign expands out the conversation. Messages are organized into a hierarchy based on which of the other messages in the conversation a given message is in reply to.
Searching in Windows Mail involves two locations within the application. Messages can only be searched by type in the Quick Search box present in the top right of the application window. To search by other criteria, click Edit, point to Find, and click Message. The Find Message dialog allows searching for nearly all of the criteria Windows Mail is capable of sorting messages by.
To organize messages as they arrive, Windows Mail allows the creation of message rules. To create a message rule, click Tools, point to Message Rules, and click Mail…. Filters can either be run manually or when mail is received.
Reading Email
Both operating systems support plain text, rich text, and HTML formatted e-mail messages. By default, the default clients of both will block remote images in HTML messages from being displayed, these images being a popular method used by spammers to track a user opening said e-mail. Both clients provide an easy method by which these blocked images can be restored, often by simply clicking on a button.
Mac OS X Leopard
Mail can natively view many file types inline. In addition to the expected file types (.jpg and .gif), Mail can also view some others, such as .png, .pdf and .psd. If you receive an email that contains photos, a Quick Look button appears at the top of the message that lets you view them in manual or automatic slideshow format right in Mail.
Navigation controls to manually move through the images are also available as wells as buttons to start and stop an automatic slideshow, scale the photo up or down to a full screen or windowed version, and view in index sheets button (aka. contact sheets) are also present. An option to import the image into iPhoto will be available if iPhoto is installed on the user's machine.
Windows Vista
Windows Mail warns users of e-mails that may contain suspicious attachments that may harm their computer such as files with a ".exe", extension.
Composing Email
Both OS X's Mail and Vista's Windows Mail clients provide options for resizing images that have been attached to the bottom of a message that is being composed. This can help to reduce the file size, which allows for for faster delivery. Both platform's default clients also support the sending and receiving of encrypted email messages.
Mac OS X Leopard
In addition to adding e-mail addresses of recipients directly to new e-mail messages, Mail offers the following timesavers:
1. Previous Recipients panel - Mail remembers all e-mail addresses of previous recipients. These e-mail addresses are accessible by going to Window > Previous Recipients. This list is searchable.
2. Address Panel - Window > Address Panel opens a dialog listing all the e-mail addresses of contacts a user has saved in their address book. Just like the Previous Recipients panel, this list is also searchable.
Users can compose rich-text e-mails. However, all the formatting controls are located outside the actual message window. Users will need to open the font panel to bold text, change font type, or increase font size. To change the font color being used, the color panel will need to be opened. While the font and color panels do offer advanced funcionality, having to open both panels leads to screen clutter and increases the time necessary to format text in a message.
When it comes to messages with HTML formatting, Mail is a two-headed beast. Mail lets users view messages with HTML formatting, but it doesn't let them compose any that contain it.
Options for resizing images appear at the bottom of a message being composed when a user attaches an image file. Resizing an image reduces file size resulting in a faster delivery.
Windows Vista
In addition to adding e-mail addresses of recipients directly to new e-mail messages, clicking the TO: button will open a dialog to choose e-mail addresses from a list of the user's contacts in the system.
Searching for a contact to add to a message is cumbersome. Typing a name in the text box and clicking the find button doesn't search a user's contacts for this name. It opens up a new dialog with a search box. Requiring the user to search their contacts in a completely separate dialog seems redundant.
Users can compose both rich-text and HTML e-mail messages. A nice touch in Windows Mail is that a toolbar of common formatting options (such as font color, font style, etc.) appear directly in the compose window. This makes composing messages with styled text much faster.
Users can customize the message background with a color or image. Windows Mail comes bundled with some presets for users to choose from.
Junk Mail
Junk mail, often called "spam", has become a serious issue for many users. These users will sometimes report that they spend more time clearing out spam than they do reading legitimate e-mail messages. To assist with the problem of spam, both OS X's Mail and Vista's Windows Mail come with junk e-mail (spam) filters. Both OS X's Mail and Vista's Windows Mail have simple methods of flagging specific e-mail messages as junk mail.
Mac OS X Leopard
Configure Mail's junk filters under Mail > Preferences > Junk Mail. By default, Mail's junk filter is set to training mode where it will attempt to flag messages it thinks are junk. Users can help tune Mail's accuracy by either selecting a message and choosing Message > Mark > As Junk Mail for messages it misses, and Message > Mark > As Not Junk Mail for message it incorrectly flags.
Clicking the Advanced button in the preferences for Junk Mail lets the user add custom rules to the junk mail filter for extra protection.
One useful feature in Mail to combat junk mail and other unwanted message is Message > Bounce. Mail will attempt to send back a non-delivery error message to the original sender (provided the e-mail address in the original message is real). This can be helpful in tricking spammers into thinking an e-mail address is invalid so they remove it from future mailings.
Windows Vista
Windows Mail lacks a training mode for users to help tune the filter's accuracy, however it does recieve monthly updates through Windows Update, called "Update for Windows Mail Junk E-mail Filter." Instead, users can select the low setting, the high setting, and a setting where the only e-mail you recive is from a known senders to tune their protection immediately. Additionally, users can customize the filter through the Block/Don't block tabs in the options for Junk Mail.
While most spam is simply irritating, there are often scams conducted using this technique. Use of e-mail in such a manner is known as "phishing", and it involves sending official-looking mail to unsuspecting users, in order to trick them into releasing confidential information. Windows Mail has a phishing filter, designed to help protect the user from these sorts of scams. The phishing filter uses a known blacklist of phishing e-mail senders and a smart real time scanner to offer an added level of protection.
Managing Email Addresses
OS X and Vista both come with programs to manage email addresses: OS X's is called Address Book while Vista's is called Windows Contacts. Both provide a search box in the top right corner for searching contacts. Both integrate with thier respective email programs: If you have a contact's name and email address in your address book, their name will be displayed in the appropriate field in email correspondence instead of just their email address (this feature may be overridden if the email address is in the syntax of "Name <email address>").
Mac OS X Leopard
Upon launching Address Book, focus is placed on the search box in the upper right corner, making the most common task—looking up a contact— a matter of simply typing some of the person's name (or company name, or any content stored in their entry). If I want to look up my friend Mike Moriarty, I click the Address Book icon in my Dock (it is there by default), and start typing his last name. Address Book returns results as-you-type, so by the time I have typed M-O-R, his contact is in full view.
Address Book's interface is somewhat reminiscent of iTunes: icons are provided in a left-hand pane for All, Directories, Groups, and Smart Groups. A left-hand pane stores groupings of contacts. Select an icon in this pane and the middle pane displays its contents (namely, a list of contacts). Select a contact in the middle pane, and the contact's details appear in the rightmost pane. Icons underneath each pane assist in adding or editing contents of that pane. A search box in the top right corner searches contacts.
Smart Groups are analogous to iTunes Smart Playlists. Enter criteria you want to match, and that group shows all contacts that match your criteria.
Address Book uses formats such as vCard which make it easier to share contact information over the Internet. This is an especially useful (but underused) feature for developers.
Windows Vista:
Windows Contacts is more of a special shell folder than it is its own application. Contacts are stored as files in a folder of the same name within your user account folder. As such, the left-hand pane, top navigation bar and bottom status area are the same as your other Explorer windows. Windows Contacts gets its own second tool bar immediately below the Explorer navigation bar.
Newsgroups
Mac OS X
Mail does not support the ability to subscribe, read, or post to newsgroups.
Windows Vista:
Windows Mail supports the ability to subscribe, read, and post to newsgroups. Newsgroups accounts are added through the same Accounts dialog as email accounts. To subscribe to a newsgroup, add the account contained by it, then click Tools and click Newsgroups.... From this dialog, newsgroups can be subscribed to, either by finding it in the list, or by searching for it by name or description. Subscribing to a newsgroup places it in the sidebar, as a subitem to the account it can be found under.
Messages in the newsgroup work similarly to emails. When replying to a message, you are first prompted for the name and email address you wish to have displayed with your message. Subsequent replies or posts remember your details. To sign out, just click the icon on the toolbar.
By default, Windows Mail is subscribed to the Microsoft Communities newsgroup account, giving access to all newsgroups available through Microsoft's website.
Odds & Ends
Mac OS X Leopard
- Mail lets users create setup signatures for their messages and can customize which ones are available for each mail account.
- If iChat is open, Mail notifies the user if a recipient who from their buddy list is online.
- Users can set their signatures to randomly rotate.
- Mail includes 30 professional looking stationary templates. Users can also create their own custom stationary.
- RSS feds can be viewed directly in Mail. Mail can also be set to send articles from a feed to one's email inbox. Safari can be used to add new RSS feeds to Mail.
- Mail detects text fragments like appointments and addresses and lets perform smart actions on them create a new contact, ad event to iCal, or map and address.
- Mail can set up email accounts for a number of leading email providers such as Yahoo!, Gmail, AOL, AT&T, Comcast, Verizon, and British Telecom.
- Users can create to do lists directly from email messages by simply highlighting text in email and clicking the To Do button. To Do items appear in the "Reminders"->"To Do" box in the mailbox pane.
- Includes a notes features where clicking on the Notes button brings up a yellow notepad like interface. Notes can emailed to others or saved to the "Reminders"->"Notes" box in the mailbox pane.
- Users mailboxes can be archived for backup purposes or to transfer a mailbox to another computer running OS X 10.5.
Windows Vista
- Users can encrypt their messages.
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