Working with Lion’s Mail.app

Shortly after installing Lion, I made the switch back to Apple’s own Mail.app from Sparrow. While I’ve liked Sparrow for the most part, the new, streamlined interface within Mail wooed me back. Alan Hogan wrote a really nice review and comparison between Lion’s Mail.app and Sparrow, and I agree with his points overall.

A few things to note about the new version of Mail. It finally sports a three-pane view as its default configuration. Following message threads is much easier. You can easily hide or unhide your Mailbox column, thereby streamlining the UI. Just as in previous versions of Mail.app, I can also easily Undo a command after accidentally deleting an e-mail (Sparrow does not have this feature yet).

What I discovered about Mail.app is that my Smart Mailboxes (initially set up when I was running Snow Leopard) had to be removed and re-configured to work properly in Lion. No biggie, but I spent the better part of Saturday wondering why I hadn’t received any e-mail (I average between 15 – 30 messages a day.)

Searching is where Mail.app really shines – it’s fast and accurate. The full-screen option, on the other hand, won’t get any use from me. (I have Mail.app running full-screen on a second monitor already.)

Mail.app finally sports a functional and attractive UI, which compliments its quick launch times and overall responsiveness. It works great with G-mail accounts (which I use exclusively). If you’re using Sparrow or another Mail client, Lion’s Mail.app deserves a second look.

-Krishna

Krishna July 24, 2011 Lion, Mail.app, Sparrow