Letterbox beta 4 for Snow Leopard
This is an updated beta that should un-mangle things after the somewhat wonky beta 3.
This version “probably works” under 64-bit Mail, but until I get a 64-bit machine myself, I can’t really stand by that claim. It also “hopefully” fixes crashes and hangs, but with all the changes for 64-bit, it could very well have introduced some new ones 
Click through for the link and instructions.
Because MailPluginManager is not yet 64-bit savvy, this remains a manual install. Installation steps are present in the included Readme.
Download beta 4 for Snow Leopard: Letterbox-v0.24b4.zip.
As always, your posts, feedback, and donations are hugely appreciated.
Letterbox 0.24b4
Released September 14, 2009
Updated for 64-bit Mail on a strictly beta basis.
Details:
First beta that I’m willing to claim should work under 64-bit Mail.
Fixed dumb mistake that prevented preview pane from working.
The MailPluginManager pretty installer still has issues with 64-bit Mail, so this is a manual install.
Still incompatible with some Mail plugins that also use Sparkle for auto-updating.
Changing the preview pane position with the menu item or keyboard shortcut does not visibly change the value in the preference pane.
September 14th, 2009 at 1:17 pm
Testing it now. Preference pane works.
Question for Aaron: will you add a dual line setup in the message list option? This will allow for more information on the message to be easier read.
September 14th, 2009 at 1:17 pm
[...] UPDATE: Latest beta is Beta 4 for Snow Leopard. [...]
September 14th, 2009 at 1:18 pm
[...] UPDATE: Latest beta is Beta 4 for Snow Leopard. [...]
September 14th, 2009 at 1:18 pm
[...] UPDATE: Latest beta is Beta 4 for Snow Leopard. [...]
September 14th, 2009 at 1:44 pm
Thanks Aaron u are the best…. love this little tweak could not work without it cheers from Denmark
September 14th, 2009 at 2:03 pm
Works fine for me in 64 bit mode. Thanks!
September 14th, 2009 at 2:07 pm
Works for me! Thanks!
September 14th, 2009 at 2:12 pm
awesome–have been waiting for this since i switched from entourage to mail with 10.6
one problem i\’ve found when using this with mailtags (which is also in beta, so i\’m not sure which plugin is the culprit), but with the preview pane and mailtages panel displaying on the right side of the window, the mailtags panel becomes wider when switching between messages and squashes the preview pane.
September 14th, 2009 at 2:13 pm
Gijs: Yes, my backlog now consists of:
September 14th, 2009 at 2:15 pm
beta 4 with Mailtags doesn’t work properly. Every time a mail is selected the preview is shifted to the left whilst the left side remains, thus leaving blank space at the right
September 14th, 2009 at 2:26 pm
Works with german mail under 10.6.1 You’ve beaten widemail.
Great to have the 3panes back. Thanks for the hard work.
September 14th, 2009 at 2:38 pm
BEAUTIFUL !!!!!
How I was missing the dude, thanks !!!
September 14th, 2009 at 2:42 pm
I also can comfirm the Mailtags panel issue reported several times above; have screen shot if you want.
cheers!
September 14th, 2009 at 2:43 pm
Thanks for your efforts, it\’s great to have the widescreen layout back in 10.6. I can confirm the Mailtags issue reported by arno (#10). The same problem existed in Beta 3 as well.
The issue is triggered by showing or hiding the Mailtags panel. The panel never hides properly and subsequent attempts to show the panel consume the preview pane from the right side.
My workaround is to turn off automatic display of the Mailtags panel and use Mail Act-On to manipulate tags via keystroke as much as possible. Any time I end up needing the panel I end up having to quit and relaunch Mail.app.
September 14th, 2009 at 3:00 pm
It’s working very well for me. I second the request for a two-line message list. That would be perfect. Keep up the good work, and look for a contribution for your efforts upon the final release!
September 14th, 2009 at 3:07 pm
i agree it’s working perfectly for me in 64-bit as the sole plugin, thanks aaron!
September 14th, 2009 at 3:17 pm
Keeps crashing Mail.
Run´s for 10 seconds and then crashes. Both as 32 and 64 bits.
Any ideas?
September 14th, 2009 at 3:37 pm
Works for me. Yay and thanks.
September 14th, 2009 at 3:47 pm
Just installed letterbox 0.24 beta4 on my 15” 2,6GHz Early 2009 MBP. As I use SpamSieve, there was no need to create a folder or enable bundles via terminal. Just did a drag-n-drop to the bundles-folder, restarted mail and IT WORKS! No problems until now, no crashing after quitting and re-opening mail. Everything works fine!
THANX, Aaron!
(I really will NEVER understand why Apple does not provide three-column-view as a absolutely basic feature. I think I wouldn’t use Apple mail without).
Keep up the good work, I made a small donation (everyone should!) to help you to a 64-bit-machine asap. Cheers! torsten
September 14th, 2009 at 3:50 pm
… and a dual line setup in the message list option would be really GREAT!
September 14th, 2009 at 4:01 pm
Installed on my 2009 17″ MacBook Pro - works fine so far. Unless I’m badly mistaken, this is 64 bit under Snow Leopard.
September 14th, 2009 at 4:22 pm
Works perfectly on my 2009 iMac with all updates applied, through all I can throw at it, system crashes, reboots and application restores. No problems and all in 64 bit. Totally love it! Amazing, and thanks for putting the donate button in, its well worth it!
September 14th, 2009 at 4:24 pm
Bravissimo! Working nice here; in 64 bit mode.
There is reason to live! My sublime mac experience continues…;-)
September 14th, 2009 at 4:35 pm
Working here on 10.6.1! Brilliant! Thanks! Couldn’t live without this!
September 14th, 2009 at 4:41 pm
Thank you very much. I was waiting for this update. 64-bit on Snow Leo on Macbook Pro mid 2009 works perfect. Hope that my small donation will help you to develop this extension. Greetings from Polish macuser magazine - MojeJabluszko.pl
September 14th, 2009 at 4:56 pm
Hi ,
I just want to thank your for your effort and time spent on making this piece of software. I can’t use mail without it.
I appreciate the good job.
Jorge
September 14th, 2009 at 4:59 pm
Took a little detective work but I now have Letterbox 0.24b4 working:
I am running a OS X 10.6.1 64-bit kernel on a MacBook5,1 (Requires a small modification to boot.efi, works great). I am also running GrowlMail (and Growl) 1.2b3 with the signature mod to run.
The problem turned out to be GrowlMail installed in /Library/Mail/Bundles (i.e. “All Users”) and Letterbox installed in ~/Library/Mail/Bunles (i.e. “My User only”). The symptoms were that neither add-on would work and Mail would close windows on quit, but had to be Force Quit.
Solution was to have both installed in /Library/Mail/Bundles.
So far no issues. So this is a 64-bit stack top to bottom, and it works. Yay!
James
September 14th, 2009 at 5:01 pm
“Bunles” == “Bundles” above. Fat fingered it.
Can I add a “me too” or a ” 1″ to the “2 lines” request?
James
September 14th, 2009 at 5:18 pm
Working. I put the bundle in both user library and library and that f**** things up. Now wotking as it should.
Cheers!
September 14th, 2009 at 5:19 pm
Working lovely on my Mac mini in 64bit - many thanks aaron.
September 14th, 2009 at 6:27 pm
Once again, you’ve saved Mail. Well played, Sir.
Works flawlessly.
-Mike.
September 14th, 2009 at 7:30 pm
It works! I never realized just how much I depend on this plugin, and how unwieldy Mail.app is to use without it. I am submitting my donation right away — please keep up the good work!
September 14th, 2009 at 8:48 pm
I 1 on the multi-header too.
Have Mail running in 64 bit with Letterbox and Growl Mail beta 4. All seems to be well in the world.
September 14th, 2009 at 9:54 pm
Aaron,
Working fine for me. I really appreciate your hard work. How can we donate?
m
September 14th, 2009 at 9:56 pm
Aaron, you rock! Thank so much for all you work on this.
September 14th, 2009 at 11:39 pm
Have installed Growl 1.2b3 to test, and it works just fine. Growl and plugins are installed for all users; Letterbox is installed my user only. Both work and so far no problems with either.
September 14th, 2009 at 11:58 pm
Aaron! Still didn’t installed the beta on snow but I just Loved it on Leopard and Tiger …. Great add on !!! Mademy work with mail much much better … cheers from Israel
September 15th, 2009 at 2:39 am
Donated a few bucks yesterday as I use the plugin since I’m on a Mac. Will try the plugin later today on Snow Leopard. Thx in advance!
September 15th, 2009 at 4:14 am
Fantastic work as always Aaron. I hope you’ll get back to having a life after this Snow Leopard flurry of enforced activity. Everybody else, I hope you’re all donating? Little story: I donated twice to another wonderful duo over a two-year period and soon after that, they published a list of their donors – me & me and nobody else! I was horrified because I had been told about the software bu quite a few people who obviously were happy to use but not share the good times. So, please don’t think that our hero Aaron will be fine – do it now and throw him a few quid for a wonderful job done!!! Cheers, ronan
September 15th, 2009 at 5:25 am
[...] plugin tinha deixado de funcionar com o upgrade… mas felizmente foi ontem lançada uma versão (ainda experimental), do LetterBox a 64-bit que funciona bem com a Mail.app do [...]
September 15th, 2009 at 6:06 am
You’re star man, thank you! So glad to be able to work with three panes again!
September 15th, 2009 at 6:27 am
Works for me. Thanks for all you work with this.
September 15th, 2009 at 7:23 am
Thanks for this man! Couldn’t live without this app.
September 15th, 2009 at 8:15 am
Thank you! Great job! Works out of the box, no issues yet
September 15th, 2009 at 8:23 am
Just installed the latest version on a MacPro in 64 Bit mode. Seems to be running fine. Many thanks.
September 15th, 2009 at 8:37 am
Working great in 64bit mode on a 2.33GHz 17 MBP in 64bit mode, probably better than it did in 32bit. I am not getting any hangs or crashes so far, knock on wood. Good job Aaron, thanks!
September 15th, 2009 at 8:41 am
Thanks!! From Colombia.
September 15th, 2009 at 10:06 am
THANKS so much Aaron!!! Works brilliant also preference on: iMac early 2009 - 2,66 SnowLeo 10.6.1 - Mail 4.1(1076) 64bit and PowerBookPro 2,66 SnowLeo 10.6.1 - Mail 4.1(1076) 64bit BIG Thank U from Germany
September 15th, 2009 at 10:29 am
Your a P-I-M-P Aaron. Thanks! California Love…
September 15th, 2009 at 10:51 am
Bon travail. Merci C’était trop dur de s’en passer!
September 15th, 2009 at 12:12 pm
Works perfectly. Thank God. Know I can get some work done again. Thanks Aaron.
BTW, I am by no means a programmer or technical person. Opening Terminal makes me nervous but this install couldn’t have been easier.
September 15th, 2009 at 12:27 pm
Now seems to be functioning very smoothly, except for the already-reported MailTags issue. And even that’s not as bad as I first thought. Contrary to Ryan’s post #14, in this version you don’t need to quit and relaunch to fix the squishing of the preview pane–simply closing and reopening the viewer window refreshes and fixes the squish. And I will cheerfully live with that for now to have this 3-pane view back! Thanks, Aaron.
September 15th, 2009 at 12:38 pm
Aaron, thank you. Letterbox is working well. I deeply appreciate your contribution to the Mac community (never understood Apple’s stubbornness on this issue). But I want to echo the suggestion offered by others: join forces with WideMail. Call it WideBox or something.
Really need the two line option in the message list. I’m donating $10 now. Happy to do another $10 if I can get two lines.
Thanks again.
September 15th, 2009 at 2:16 pm
Aaron, perfect. Everything is working fine. Thnks for the effort.
September 15th, 2009 at 2:54 pm
It works perfectly for me… thanks
September 15th, 2009 at 3:06 pm
Aaron,
Great job with the 64-bit beta. It works perfect with Snow Leopard on my Intel MacBook Pro. I didn’t even have to set the preferences, it read them from the preferences file already on my Mac from the previous version.
Awesome app! Thanks.
Assad
September 15th, 2009 at 4:11 pm
works flawless! thanks you so much!
September 15th, 2009 at 5:06 pm
This update fixes an issue with Xing out of Mail that cause 100% CPU and RAM usage.
Big thumbs up to Aaron.
September 15th, 2009 at 5:30 pm
This is working great for me so far!
MacBook Pro 2.33 GHz (32-bit EFI) Snow Leopard 10.6.1
September 15th, 2009 at 8:14 pm
Fantastic! Thanks very much for this.
September 16th, 2009 at 1:33 am
thanks aaron! this works for me - Macbook pro 2.16ghz 10.6.1 64bit Mail (says activity monitor.app)
September 16th, 2009 at 1:37 am
Works great on SL at 64bit. Fantastic! I’ve been missing this plugin MUCH
ps. anyone where know anything about mail plugins? The developer of the GPGMail plugin announced there will be no version for Snow Leopard - would be good to get some interested parties and see if ic could be kept going.
September 16th, 2009 at 4:21 am
Thank you!! This was the only reason for me not to move to Snow Leopard but now it works!!
Thanks again!
September 16th, 2009 at 4:26 am
Hi Aaron,
I just installed the last version of LB and it seems to work fine under 64 bits.
SL version : 10.6.1 Mail version : 4.1
Thanks again Francois
September 16th, 2009 at 5:49 am
The wait wasn’t long, especially when it results in something that works out of the box. Brilliant. But a column layout should be part of Apple’s offering (even Thunderbird can switch between layouts as a menu item, not even a preference!), and I second/third/fourth… etc the request, if you could, for double lines.
Not one glitch since loaded on a 2007 iMac and a 2006 iMac both on SL 10.6.1 / Mail 4.1 in 64-bit mode. Keep up the good work man.
Ivor
September 16th, 2009 at 8:58 am
Works just fine in 64 bit mode here!
September 16th, 2009 at 9:02 am
Excellent work, Aaron. Allow me to move a motion on behalf of everyone who is so vocally pleased here that they join me in making a contribution to the tip jar for your hard work.
September 16th, 2009 at 10:37 am
[...] vertical view for mail in snow leopard, the wait is finally over, and this time with no hacks. Go download Letterbox beta 4 for Snow Leopard, it works in 64bit mode and functions great as far as I can see. Thanks so much for your work [...]
September 16th, 2009 at 10:45 am
Great Working perfectly, Im looking forward to the additions and the Final Version. Keep up the great work and I definately will be donating to your for this.
Thanks again.
September 16th, 2009 at 10:55 am
Works fine, thanks !!!
September 16th, 2009 at 11:55 am
Works without issue in 64 bit. Good job.
September 16th, 2009 at 12:33 pm
works fine for me. thanks aaron - 5$ your way…
September 16th, 2009 at 2:55 pm
I’m also coming over from Entourage on 10.6, and I love the plugin. The beta seems to work fine for me in 10.6 on a recent Mac Pro.
I really like the striping - why isn’t this there by default?
I’m nitpicking now, but I would also like to see a snippet of the message displayed under the subject line ala Entourage.
September 16th, 2009 at 3:17 pm
Looks like the beta release gets a bit confused when MailTags simultaneously used.
September 16th, 2009 at 5:46 pm
Excellent plugin and 64bit snow leopard support is an absolute life saver.
Thanks for your hardwork
September 16th, 2009 at 6:17 pm
GREAT to have the plugin back! Had not realised how much I relied on it. It is SOOO much better than the default Mail view and now I am used to it it was such a pain with Mail looking all wrong. Thanks for your work! Greg
September 16th, 2009 at 7:55 pm
Tells me that its not available for 4.1 I am on a uni-body macbook pro on 10.6.1 After I double click it installs but when it relaunches it kicks the error.
September 16th, 2009 at 8:02 pm
Sorry, it works… I still had a version of .22 in my downloads folder I was trying to install from and not .24
Off with my head….
September 17th, 2009 at 5:59 am
hey aaron - works perfectly for me too! thanks so much, i can;t live without this plugin. i can only hope the macintosh gods smile down on you and give you buckets of cash to roll this into their official releases
September 17th, 2009 at 11:02 am
New to mail, really looking for to trying this.
Question - do you know of, or could you add the ability to no have a message marked as read when viewed in preview pane. Outlook and Entourage have it and its a great feature, you only have a message marked as read by opening it (or not, its a setting). Any thoughts / interest in adding it?
September 17th, 2009 at 1:33 pm
Just one more thanks to you! Mail now seems normal and functional and I’m very grateful.
September 17th, 2009 at 1:35 pm
Nice to see the “to do” list, Aaron. Can’t wait for two-line view!
Thanks!
September 17th, 2009 at 1:53 pm
Thank you very much Aaron! Letterbox 0.24b4 works perfectly fine on my 64 bit macbook pro
September 17th, 2009 at 2:07 pm
Also having compatibility issues with MailTags.
September 17th, 2009 at 6:59 pm
Thanx Much!!
I was waiting for this before I would upgrade. This is one of the few programs that I would pay for.
September 18th, 2009 at 6:34 am
Just Installed it, works great!
September 18th, 2009 at 8:45 am
Just wanted to say thank you for the Beta release of Letterbox. When I can I will certainly make a donation to the site.
September 18th, 2009 at 10:53 am
Thank you very much! Installed and is working fine so far! Your work is highly appreciated! Greetings from Germany
September 18th, 2009 at 2:30 pm
There seems to be a conflict with MailTags from indev software in 10.6.1. Each time I click on an email, the preview pane gets smaller and smaller. when I uninstall letterbox, problem goes away.
September 18th, 2009 at 7:19 pm
Dear Aaron,
Sorry to be so dense, but what is meant by your instruction “2. Open Terminal, and type:”.
I found the folder but wasn’t sure what to do!
Thanks, Ron Warnick (Cincinnati, OH, USA)
September 18th, 2009 at 8:30 pm
Thanks, Aaron! Your hard work and dedication are genuinely appreciated. You’ve got some major karma coming your way
September 18th, 2009 at 10:52 pm
Your latest version is working very well on my 64 bit iMac under Japanese language system. Thanks a lot from Tokyo!
September 18th, 2009 at 11:50 pm
Ron Warnick: Look for “Terminal” in Applications/Utilities, open the application and paste the line of text.
September 18th, 2009 at 11:53 pm
Fantastic, thank you. Initially I haven’t seen any issues with b4 on my bare-bones install of 64-bit Mail. I’m happy to have made a donation for a plugin I’ve been using for just about as long as you’ve made it available.
September 18th, 2009 at 11:56 pm
Although, if you don’t feel at ease using the Terminal (it’s a very powerful application) I would recommend you to wait for the final release that will come with an easier installation method.
September 19th, 2009 at 3:36 am
works fine so far
suggestion: is it possible to add some padding to the email text (on the left), that way the text wouldnt be displayed that close to the scrollbar…
September 19th, 2009 at 8:31 am
The conflict with MailTags is real — I have the same problem. Had to uninstall Letterbox since the mail is unusable and MailTags is a more integral part of my workflow. Hopefully this is at the top of the “todo” list since it makes Letterbox unusable.
September 19th, 2009 at 9:23 am
Aaron, any idea on when we can expect dual line support in Letterbox? To me, this is more important than fancy installers or other features.
September 19th, 2009 at 9:27 am
works perfectly. Thanks so much, I’ll be donating as much as i can as I realised how desperately I need this plugin while going without it for those few weeks.
September 19th, 2009 at 11:21 am
I have Mail Tags issue as noted by Tamer above. Had to un-install Letterbox. Please update ASAP; Love Letterbox!
September 20th, 2009 at 10:20 am
You have once again saved mail thanks a bunch
September 20th, 2009 at 11:25 am
Thanks! Works perfectly & sent over a donation to say thanks… (looking forward to two lines as well!)
September 20th, 2009 at 12:07 pm
Excellent — thanks a ton. Missed this plugin.
September 21st, 2009 at 10:20 am
Does this help at all with the technical issues of getting Letterbox working with 64bit Mail? I’m out of my technical depth here….
http://kevin.sb.org/2009/09/02/1password-extension-loading-in-snow-leopard/
September 21st, 2009 at 11:49 am
Works great, including preference pane. Thank you Aaron.
September 21st, 2009 at 3:59 pm
Fannnnntastic. Works like gangbusters. Aaron rocks!
September 21st, 2009 at 6:44 pm
Doesn’t work here on Mail 64 Bit and Kernel 64 Bit. Mail freezes continuously.
September 22nd, 2009 at 1:12 am
Seems that the beta removes mail.apps ability to create Priority flags.
September 22nd, 2009 at 1:28 am
revert my last comment… seems to be a mail.app 4.1 and exchange issue
September 22nd, 2009 at 9:29 am
[...] Check out the app. here. [...]
September 22nd, 2009 at 9:33 am
Aaron - any updates on your progress? Beta 4 is stable for me and many others - great work! But realy hoping for 2-line and a final release???
September 22nd, 2009 at 1:12 pm
Hi Aaron; Your hard work and dedication are genuinely appreciated. One quick suggestion for some sort of very simple footer (padding) at base of the list/message windows — just feels odd that messages feel like they are falling off the window…
September 22nd, 2009 at 4:51 pm
Sorry if this is a dumb reaction, but for me, Mail 4.1 summarily ditches to a disabled folder every version since the first 32 bit one that ran under Mail 4.0.
September 22nd, 2009 at 6:01 pm
Cheers for the very functional beta update, Aaron. No issues to report from my Mac - all works perfect once again under SnowLeo. Five stars, mate!
September 23rd, 2009 at 7:53 am
omg … there was a minute I was afraid of not getting letterbox again … thx for your great work. works just fine.
September 23rd, 2009 at 10:08 am
HI, I have been running the latest Beta since the release date. Running 10.6.1 with all the latest updates. What is working: 3 panels in mail are working as long as I don’t close Mail using the ‘x’. Using the ‘x’ to close the window renders Mail unresponsive and I have to Force Quit Mail and restart. What is not working: Preferences - I have an entry for LetterBox in the preference pane but clicking on it only changes the value of either having it checked or unchecked without bringing up any choices.
Even with that, I rather have your LetterBox than the vanilla Mail layout!
September 23rd, 2009 at 1:23 pm
Gerhard, are you sure you have the latest installed, cause your symptoms are exactly those of Beta3 and were fixed in Beta4.
I suggest you remove Letterbox completely, check there are no caches laying around, verify mail works as intended by Apple and reinstall Beta4 from a fresh download.
September 23rd, 2009 at 3:31 pm
Just installed said beta - it’s so nice to be back to how I like to work. Why hasn’t taken care of this for their WIDESCREEN monitors is beyond me. Expect a donation when you get this thing out of beta. Thanks for your hard work!
September 23rd, 2009 at 3:48 pm
Works great! One question, in the readme it shows “Left, Right, Bottom” as options for the preview pane. On my install it only shows Right and Bottom. Anyone else notice this?
Thanks Aaron!
September 23rd, 2009 at 6:04 pm
[...] Hanley’s Letterbox plugin for Apple Mail works again with Snow [...]
September 23rd, 2009 at 6:16 pm
Thank you, Aaron. Works great.
September 23rd, 2009 at 6:24 pm
Great stuff,
What is Apple’s problem?
Delighted to bung you 10 dollars and strongly recommend that others do likewise, or better.
Best
Michael
September 23rd, 2009 at 7:54 pm
Yes, donated here too, as this was the first working widescreen mod for SL’s Mail.
Looking forward to two-line preview too, if it manages to make it into the final release.
September 24th, 2009 at 5:56 am
Hi Aaron, Thanks for your great work. Your Letterbox plugin for Apple Mail is an essential part of my Mac OS experience. I just sent you a $10 donation. I am also looking forward to two-line preview. I hope it comes soon! Best of luck.
September 24th, 2009 at 3:26 pm
Thanx a lot Aron! Works GREAT with my Snow Leopard!
September 24th, 2009 at 5:41 pm
Just perfect, why Apple don’t send you a cheque and say thank you is beyond me. I too have made a modest donation and urge others to do likewise.
Thanks Aron
September 24th, 2009 at 9:23 pm
When will you have self-loading beta or non-beta program for SL?
September 25th, 2009 at 9:29 am
Hi, I tried to follow your instructions for installing the Beta 4 version since I have the latest version of Snow Leopard. It didn’t work and I hope I haven’t screwed up my machine. I would need more detailed instructions before trying this again.
September 25th, 2009 at 3:25 pm
Can’t use, because of the issue with Mail Tags…. which is a shame. Can’t wait until release with fix to this bug.
September 26th, 2009 at 4:26 am
Hi Aaron
This works flawlessly - thanks so much for your hard work.
best wishes
September 26th, 2009 at 6:55 am
[...] Letterbox beta 4 for Snow Leopard [...]
September 26th, 2009 at 9:35 am
Hi- Thank you for productizing a create add-on to Mail. It has been an issue for me for quite some time to see only half of a message and the list. I will donate for this feature. It did not like Growl’s mailbundle installed, between the two, bye growl. Thanks again.
Drew
September 26th, 2009 at 5:40 pm
Thank you!!! Heading to paypal now for a donation!!!
September 27th, 2009 at 10:20 am
Great plugin. Thanks for all your efforts on this.
September 27th, 2009 at 10:24 am
Thank you, thank you, thank you. Donated. Please keep up your great work in making Mail work for us!
September 27th, 2009 at 11:33 am
Thank you. Works great!
Best wishes.
September 27th, 2009 at 1:50 pm
Can’t not use because of using MailTags… there is an ugly bug….
September 28th, 2009 at 4:29 am
Yoohoow! It works on my 64-bit machine! Thanks Aaron
September 28th, 2009 at 5:05 pm
Any chance you can make it an option to have the Subject on the line below. eg:
At the moment it just feels like it uses up heaps of space on the screen…
Keep up the good work! chakkerz
September 28th, 2009 at 5:44 pm
This is working great for me. One problem I have though is this. When I recieve an email, none of the hyperlinks work at all. They are highlighted blue and underlined as normal. When I move the cursor over the link the cursor changes to the little hand. I click and nothing happens. The only way I can get them to work is by ctrl click and open URL. I have an Oct 2007 Macbook.
Thanks for all your hard work!
September 28th, 2009 at 5:52 pm
any timeline for the final version?
September 29th, 2009 at 5:23 am
I had some issues and eventually binned as I had to move on.
Some messages I sent did not appear in the ‘Sent’ box unless quit and restarted.
Some messages I sent were in the “sent’ box but were completely blank.
I am utilising Exchange 2007, so not sure if compatibility issues could be around that.
Jon
September 30th, 2009 at 5:45 am
Hi Aaron Have installed Snow Leopard but the immediate update says Letterbox should be compatible with Mail 4.1!!! Any thoughts??
September 30th, 2009 at 9:47 am
Good Morning, Tried to install LetterBox. Got stuck on first instruction: Where do I create the new folder?
September 30th, 2009 at 10:15 am
I’m using 0.24b4 on snow leopard. I was having problems with the preview pane while using mailtags. I uninstalled mailtags and the preview pane disappeared all together. I uninstalled letterbox and the Mail.app default preview pane would not work. I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling letterbox but to no avail.
October 3rd, 2009 at 4:13 am
@James
You can place Mail bundles in one of two places: ~/Library/Mail/Bundles (for the current user only) or /Library/Mail/Bundles (for all users). Simply create any of these folders that don’t already exist. Most Mail plugins with installers install to the home folder location. You’ll then have to enable bundles via the terminal command included in the Letterbox instructions. Some apps that tweak hidden preferences, like MacPilot or iTweax, can also enable bundles.
October 3rd, 2009 at 11:08 am
Excellent! Was waiting for Wide Mail, but this is just as good or better! Many thanks from The Netherlands!
October 3rd, 2009 at 3:11 pm
I’ve just installed on my old MacBook (64-bit) and it seems to be working flawlessly. Thanks for a great piece of software!
October 4th, 2009 at 4:31 am
Works on my Mac. Thanks!
October 4th, 2009 at 9:55 am
Any word on when a final release may be coming, and if the two line message list will be included?
October 4th, 2009 at 10:17 pm
Thanks robotank and others for helping your comment-mates.
Rob, I’ve now got my hands on a 64-bit Mac (thanks donators!), and will be working on a final Snow Leopard release next weekend.
As I mentioned above, I want to fix the installer and the self-updating mechanism, and that will constitute a non-beta 0.24 release for Snow Leopard. After that, I’ll work on the two-line message list. I’m using a Mac full-time at work now, so I have plenty of incentive (beyond interest and encouragement from y’all) to keep improving Letterbox
October 7th, 2009 at 9:48 am
Aaron,
Your product filled a gap left by widemail for me, but I am finding some strange behaviour when using MailTags, which is another piece of my mail workflow. Letterbox displays well until I click on the MailTags button to display the tag and then the display itself gets corrupted by squeezing to the left, making the panel unreadable. I had to uninstall Letterbox, as I can’t get by without tagging mail. I think that a lot of Letterbox users are also MailTags and MailActOn users (Indev.ca) so I am confident that by linking up with Scott Morrison at Indev.ca the two of you could really benefit your customers. Keep up the great work!
October 7th, 2009 at 7:21 pm
Amazing product that does exactly what I needed! Dual line message list support is the final piece to the puzzle at which point this will fall into the category of perfect! Thank you very much Aaron!
October 8th, 2009 at 12:52 pm
Can’t wait for that 2-line support. Well done, Aaron!
October 8th, 2009 at 6:28 pm
[...] LetterBox est un plugin gratuit pour Mail sous Mac, qui permet d’afficher sa boite aux lettres sous forme de colonne. Idéal pour ceux qui possède de grands écrans ou de grosses résolutions pour avoir un aperçu sur la liste des messages dans sa boite et en même temps de visionner les longs messages dans la partie de droite. J’utilise ce plugin depuis pas mal de temps et celui-ci vient de se voir mis à jour pour Snow Léopard et je suis content de pouvoir vous en parler. [...]
October 8th, 2009 at 8:44 pm
new release of Mail Tags solves the problem with Letterbox… so all working a.ok here.
October 9th, 2009 at 7:16 pm
I downloaded this most recent beta. When I try to install it I get this message:
There is no default application specified to open the document “Letterbox.mailbundle”.
Any suggestions?
JB
October 9th, 2009 at 7:24 pm
I get the same thing. It asks for an application. This version doesn’t install like normal freeware. You have to create a folder with a specific name and you have to make an addition through Terminal. I know the directions are on this site somewhere because I read them yesterday. I wont try it myself. I hope he makes the correction so we can all use this great app again. I miss it.
October 10th, 2009 at 7:58 am
Manually installing Letterbox is actually quite simple:
1.) Locate the following directory: ~/Library/Mail
2.) Create a subfolder named ‘Bundles’
3.) Copy Letterbox.mailbundle into the created folder
4.) Restart Mail
Thats it, have fun.
ps.: In case you are not familiar with ~/, it basically indicates your home folder. Originating from the root directory the full path would look like this: /Users/yourUserName/Library/Mail
October 10th, 2009 at 1:03 pm
Uh, totally forgot about the terminal command, sorry for that.
Before restarting Mail, make sure to fire up your Terminal Application and enter the following command:
defaults write com.apple.mail EnableBundles 1
Now, that was it.
October 10th, 2009 at 2:47 pm
JB & Craig, do you READ before you try anything? The detailed instructions are included in the zip file and explained in the Readme-Betas.rtfd file. Had you bothered to read it, you would have had zero problems.
shakes head
October 10th, 2009 at 3:15 pm
Excuse me? Don’t you read? If you did Gijs you would know I said I read the instructions and choose not to do it. Fuqn-a-man. =)
October 10th, 2009 at 4:17 pm
[...] is still in progress trying to get it to work with 64 bit Mail. There is one working though - Letterbox - make sure you open the read me file, it is a manual install - no extra features, but it does get [...]
October 10th, 2009 at 6:40 pm
Someone do a screencast and post the link on this already. Where is the directory Lukas? When I have it I’ll post a Youtube HowTo screencast.
October 11th, 2009 at 6:48 am
Hey there Craig,
within your home folder, navigate to Library/Mail/ and create a subfolder named Bundles. This is where one will copy the letterbox.mailbundle into.
Hope this was your question. Or are you looking for a different directory?
October 11th, 2009 at 12:10 pm
Aaron, anyway you can upload this beta to a filehosting site like rapidshare? For some reason i can’t download from the link provided. Thanks.
October 11th, 2009 at 1:34 pm
Thank you Lukas! Simply terrific. I have my wide mail. Thanks a lot.
October 11th, 2009 at 2:06 pm
Hey guys I’m uploading a How To install Letterbox for Snow Leopard. It’s really easy to do. The screencast video will make it really easy. I’ll post the link when it’s done uploading. subscribe to this sites RSS feed to get a notification.
October 11th, 2009 at 2:28 pm
HOW TO INSTALL LETTERBOX FOR SNOW LEOPARD YOUTUBE VIDEO.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjQZMq-JKqs
Sorry about the caps. I want people to spot it. =)
October 11th, 2009 at 2:30 pm
Repost this link: HOW TO INSTALL LETTERBOX FOR SNOWLEOPARD SCREENCAST VIDEO.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjQZMq-JKqs
October 11th, 2009 at 2:31 pm
Thanks, Craig!
October 11th, 2009 at 3:08 pm
You’re welcome Aaron. I have a edited version processing on YouTube. I’ll post the new link. Feel free to use it in your blog if you want.
October 11th, 2009 at 3:10 pm
Aaron Here’s the edited HOW TO INSTALL LETTERBOX FOR SNOW LEOPARD VIDEO.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ng4OzfBg47A
October 11th, 2009 at 3:15 pm
Aaron If you don’t mind please delete the two previous YouTube links to the unedited video and then let me know when you’re done. I’m going to delete the unedited video and leave up the new good one. Again, Here’s the Link: HOW TO INSTALL LETTERBOX FOR SNOW LEOPARD VIDEO http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ng4OzfBg47A
October 11th, 2009 at 4:12 pm
@Craig
Wow… that was fast. Nice one, well done!
Should you consider recording take 4, you might want to mention executing the following Terminal command:
defaults write com.apple.mail EnableBundles 1
(As mentioned above, just fire up your Terminal app, copy and paste the command and hit enter. It does not matter if this is done before or after copying Letterbox.mailbundle but should be done before restarting Mail)
In your case this was not necessary due to other plugin installations. However, this step would be required for users after clean-installing Snow Leopard or for users to which Letterbox would be the first Mail plugin to be installed.
October 11th, 2009 at 6:12 pm
The YouTube video was extremely useful to me. Thanks so much to Aaron for the Application and to Craig for the video.
The program works great. Nice to have the 3-panes back, which I was missing after installing Snow Leopard.
I just donated $15.00 in appreciation of the program.
October 13th, 2009 at 6:31 am
Thank you very much . i am new to mac and hated the below reading pane. you made it easy cheers,
October 14th, 2009 at 6:00 pm
Thanks so much - this is my first experience with widescreen Mail on the Mac and I like it a lot better than the standard view!
-j
October 14th, 2009 at 9:48 pm
Any possibility that you’ll add a feature to move the subjects to the right side of the screen and have the actual messages in the middle?
October 16th, 2009 at 3:55 pm
works great. thanks!
October 17th, 2009 at 4:20 am
Thanks for this app. Couldn’t live without this app. Great works.
October 17th, 2009 at 9:38 am
Hi Aaron,
Just installed 10.6.2 10c527f and the new version of mail rejects letterbox beta 4. Fix coming?
Thanks, Tom
October 17th, 2009 at 4:11 pm
Thank you very much. It works perfectly under 64 bit
October 18th, 2009 at 12:27 pm
What’s the word on this working with the new Snow Leopard update 10.6.2 coming out soon?
October 18th, 2009 at 10:00 pm
thank you…great program (Y)
October 20th, 2009 at 7:46 am
Works great! Thanks so much.
Could you add the ability to change the style of each of the two line subject column? It works great, but it’s hard to see the subjects versus who it is from. If it’s easier, make the from name gray to allow the subject to stand out?
October 20th, 2009 at 7:27 pm
Now that I upgraded to Snow Leopard I missed Widemail. Your solution works great. Thanks very much!
October 24th, 2009 at 6:37 pm
I’ve heard there are some wildlife groups trying to get Apple to do more stuff with the actual S.L.’s lol. I don’t know- people are saying it’s good PR for Apple- they should jump on that.
October 30th, 2009 at 10:59 am
0.24b5 worked great until I installed Magic Mouse software - seems this may break it unless I’m missing something!
October 30th, 2009 at 10:14 pm
[...] can customize Apple’s Mail program with plugins and add-ons. One plugin we took a look at was Letterbox, a plugin that allows mail to display in three horizontal panes, taking advantage of wide-screen [...]
November 7th, 2009 at 5:44 pm
Thank you!!! I am so glad to have this back. Made a donation. Keep up the great work. Only thing else if you can in the next version is a choice on row colors. Thanks Again
November 8th, 2009 at 5:10 pm
Hi Aaaron, I was holding out installing Snow Leopard until I knew your plugin worked. I haven’t even tried yet, but I’m confident that your plugin will work perfectly. Made a wee donation - hope you get enough for a new Mac and more. Cheers, Casp
November 9th, 2009 at 3:15 pm
I cna not seem to open the bundle
November 9th, 2009 at 5:47 pm
The plugin appears to not work with 10.6.2, just updated and received error message.
November 9th, 2009 at 6:29 pm
Same here, does not work with Snow Leopard 10.6.2.
November 9th, 2009 at 6:51 pm
same here with 10.6.2
November 9th, 2009 at 6:57 pm
It does work on Snow Leopard.
November 9th, 2009 at 8:32 pm
http://harnly.net/2009/software/letterbox/letterbox-beta-5-for-snow-leopard/
That one works with 10.6.2
November 9th, 2009 at 8:40 pm
Upgraded to 10.6.2 and when start Mail it says incompatible plug-in and disables Letterbox.
November 10th, 2009 at 1:04 am
Beta 5 works fine with 10.6.2
November 10th, 2009 at 2:12 am
Hi, unfortunately letterbox beta, does not work with 10.6.2 anymore
I hope you are able to fix this at some point in time. I love letterbox and i miss it ;-).
Greetings From Germany
Ronny
November 10th, 2009 at 2:41 am
Hi Aaron, sorry i am blind proably an age issue
just saw that beta 5 is out, downloaded it and it works. Sorry for the confusion
cheers
Ronny
November 11th, 2009 at 5:13 pm
not sure if many folks have updated to 10.6.2, but i think that update has boned the plugin… has any else found this?
November 11th, 2009 at 5:14 pm
will read other posts before making own post!!
sorry
November 11th, 2009 at 6:40 pm
[...] l’aspetto dobbiamo scaricare e installare manualmente un piccolo plugin di Mail, chiamato Letterbox, che seppure in versione beta sembra davvero funzionare [...]
November 11th, 2009 at 9:32 pm
Update release of Nov 11 renders letter box plug in unusable.. Please provide a beta 5 update so we can have our columns back
November 11th, 2009 at 10:25 pm
[...] l’aspetto dobbiamo scaricare e installare manualmente un piccolo plugin di Mail, chiamato Letterbox, che seppure in versione beta sembra davvero funzionare [...]
November 12th, 2009 at 12:49 pm
Damn you 10.6.2!!! Aaron please come to the rescue!
November 12th, 2009 at 3:43 pm
10.6.2 disables letter box. Please I hate 2 columns. I have taken you for granted, please send fix or update ASAP.
John
November 12th, 2009 at 5:47 pm
It works perfectly for me under 10.6.2.
November 12th, 2009 at 8:03 pm
Works on 10.6.2 for me….except changing the window size with the divider bar between windows won’t stick anymore. I can change it, but when I open mail again….it’s reverted back. Hope it’s fixed soon…I don’t like having the left side wider than the right side.
November 14th, 2009 at 7:06 am
I published a post on your plugin, really useful.. but it doesn’t work with Snow Leopard 10.6.2..
It tells me that is not compatible with Mail 4.2 and Messages 4.2
November 16th, 2009 at 10:51 am
Aaron -
On conversion to 10.6.2, Mail rejects letterbox 0.24b4 with “Incompatible Plug-ins Disabled”.
On a semi-related topic, you could make the donations button more visible. Yes, I did manage to find it.
Many thanks for a fine piece of work - letterbox immensely improves my ability to handle large volumes of mail.
Best,
Steve
November 17th, 2009 at 1:01 am
I too lost my beta version with the 10.6.2 up date. Mail 4.2 keeps disabling the plug-in.
For those who are successfully using the beta on 10.6.2, are you using Mail4.2?
I also love the plug-in and hate losing it again! Many thanks for all your hard work, it is
much appreciated.
Mary
November 19th, 2009 at 3:34 pm
I updated to Snow Leopard and it disabled the plugin for me too. I think we established Letterbob is not compatible with Snow Leopard. Do we know if our creative friend, Aaron, is going to continue with updates?
November 21st, 2009 at 2:35 am
I’m having Mail freeze up a lot, more and more. Trying to open emails with big attachments, even html-formatted emails. Same problem with the window size as Don reports, and can’t resize the columns individually–only can move the divider to the left to eliminate the “Mailbox” column, but then the others are minimized.
Reading the posts above, it looks like 10.6.2 messed up LetterBox’s function.
But it seems to have fixed a bothersome problem–something downloaded the last week’s emails repeatedly, giving me up to 10 copies.
Aaron, help–I even sent you some money when I downloaded the beta….
November 27th, 2009 at 8:16 pm
first, thank you for writing this!!
now the issue — before the SL upgrade, i could hit cmd- and increase the font size of the message i am viewing. that was super convenient! i can’t do it any more. any ideas anybody on how to bring that back?
btw, if i open a separate window for the message, i can use cmd- to increase font size. but no more can i use it in the preview window.
December 2nd, 2009 at 1:36 am
Hello
Thanks a lot for your wonderful work, but it doesn’t work with iMac 27 core7 SL 10.6.2 mail 4.2.
Impossible to install it. It allways goes to Disabled folder.
Thanks in advance for a new release.
December 3rd, 2009 at 9:53 am
Thanks! This is awesome! Just one thing, is there a reason the website is so hideous?! I mean, dang!
December 12th, 2009 at 6:09 pm
I too love this plugin. But I just, by trying, found out that it doesn’t work in 10.6.2 with mail 4.2 and Messages.
Longing for a new beta. Thanks for all the great work thus far.
December 18th, 2009 at 4:09 pm
Hi,
I just installed this beta on my macbook with 10.6.2 and it works awesome. I like 3 pane windows and helps me sorting mail efficiently. Only problem i found with this beta is if i change the size of pane windows (inbox or message windows) i.e if i move the pane left to make message windows little bigger and after closing and opening, it reverts back to original position. As i use macbook, so i have less real estate and i want to see my message without scrolling left or right; so i have to drag the pane to the left everytime i open mail app. It never remember its last position. Hope that would fix in next release; otherwise its really great plugin.
Thanks,
Ash
December 21st, 2009 at 7:27 pm
Will not work with Mail.app 4.2. It says incompatible bundle and disables it. Any chance of another update?
December 27th, 2009 at 9:55 am
Amazing. Works like a charm, I’ve missed this plugin so much!
I can’t wait for the two line features to be refined! Please keep up the fantastic work!
EVERYONE SHOULD DONATE! EVEN IF IT JUST A DOLLAR! WHATEVER YOU CAN! Keep projects like this alive, this man deserves more than praise!
December 27th, 2009 at 12:56 pm
Now on 10.6.2 and letterbox running Ok even tho i am still on 0.22. Have the same niggle as Ash does in reply 221 but no biggie with a 24 screen.
December 30th, 2009 at 1:54 pm
hi, i was try it, and it didnt work, writing this problem:
incompatible plug-ins disabled mail has disabled the following plug-ins LETTERBOX contact the markers of these plug-ins for versions that are compatible with mail 4.2 and message 4.2
i have snow leopard 10.6.2, macbookpro 2.8GHz and it doesnt work.
i was try manual install and double click install too and nothing work.
December 31st, 2009 at 11:05 am
Hello,
I don’t undestand, it doesn’t work. Letter box is send to desactived bundles. I wrote in terminal as you say but… impossible, it doesn’t work. Is it my fault ? Best regards Roland
December 31st, 2009 at 11:08 am
Hello,
For me, it happpens the same as foxino. Best regards Roland.
January 6th, 2010 at 11:59 am
Good morning and a Happy New Year to you!
I would like to be informed when the version compatible with OS 10.6.2 is available.
I’m sure it’s no picnic trying to line up all the canaries, as the expression goes.
Should you need beta testing with any of your versions, let me know and I’ll gladly contribute if I can.
Norm. 01.12.10
January 9th, 2010 at 10:11 pm
I’m experiencing similar problems as others. I too have SL 10.6.2 AND new Magic Mouse (no idea if this is adding to the problem as I’m no techie).
Anyway, looking forward to an update and opportunity to donate then.
January 11th, 2010 at 2:26 am
I am running Letterbox v0.24b5, SL 10.6.2 AND a Magic Mouse AND an Apple Wireless Keyboard on a Macbook, a Macbook Pro, a Mac Pro and old and new iMacs and I have NO PROBLEMS at all!
Just to let you know Aaron.
Thanks mate,
Michael
January 17th, 2010 at 12:58 pm
After upgrading to Snow Leopard 10.6.2, the Letterbox plugin would not work. I removed every instance of Letterbox (searched on Letterbox from Spotlight and trashed every Letterbox file). I reinstalled Letterbox and everything seems to be working.
January 23rd, 2010 at 1:47 am
i running 10.6.2 on a 2.5gig mac book pro and getting the incompatible with mail 4.2 message. i’ve tried deleting any instance of letterbox as suggested bove but to no avail.
at work i have an imac that is a couple of years old and there is no problem.
hmm any suggestions?
February 1st, 2010 at 12:26 am
Thanks it works well and also is compatible with Mail-tags.
February 4th, 2010 at 5:41 pm
Cant see what Im doing wrong, I followed the simple steps
On relaunch I get the following message
Mail has disabled the following plug-ins:
Contact the makers of these plug-ins for versions that are compatible with Mail 4.2 and Message 4.2.
The file is then moved to a folder called Bundles Disabled and it simply doesnt work.
Help?? PLease!
February 8th, 2010 at 2:09 am
After upgrading to Snow Leopard, I have attempted to upgrade to the newest version of Letterbox. Upon downloading the latest beta I receive an error stating:
There is no default application specified to open document “Letterbox.mailbundle”.
Please advise.
Warmest regards,
Paul
February 8th, 2010 at 4:02 pm
It doesn’t work with Snow and Aaron has gone silent on us.
February 16th, 2010 at 11:34 pm
Yes I had the same issue as comment 234 on a reinstallation of one of my laptops. I had it working fine on my other laptop with mail 4.2 in 64 bit so I just copied the bundle from that machine and it worked.
So I’d say that the current download file isn’t working for whatever reason. Unfortunately I only have the bundle on the other machine not the full folder with what version it is.
March 8th, 2010 at 4:35 pm
Yes, unfortunate. Receiving the message that it is incompatible with Mail 4.2, removes the file from Bundles folder.
Tried making dir and copying via terminal, in the hopes that manual installation really meant manual. No luck.
Alas.
March 8th, 2010 at 4:45 pm
OK. Found that there’s a beta5 http://www.vanillahd.com/mac-apple/snow-leopard-10-6-2-mail-letterbox-fix/
March 9th, 2010 at 11:00 pm
Yes! I waited and waited for this fix to work with 10.6.2. Thank you! Now if only I could get Growl to work too.
March 10th, 2010 at 7:13 pm
This new update has a glitch. The subject box expands when you reopen mail so you have to adjust the size of the subject and date box every time you open mail.