Letterbox BETA for 32-bit Snow Leopard
UPDATE: Latest beta is Beta 4 for Snow Leopard.
Hi folks,
Thanks for your patience (and for your impatient nudges which keep me moving along :P). I’m still at work at a 64-bit Letterbox for Snow Leopard. I’ve made significant progress, but we’re not out of the woods yet.
For you anxious early adopters, I’m posting below a PREVIEW, BETA, EXPERTS-ONLY, NOT YET FULLY FUNCTIONAL version of Letterbox which can be used with Mail in 32-bit mode.
I’m keeping this a manual install to emphasize that it’s only for those who are comfortable mucking with things. Plus, this zipped file doesn’t have pretty icon, to further emphasize that it’s only for the truly ruthless 
Steps to install this PREVIEW, BETA, EXPERTS-ONLY, NOT YET FULLY FUNCTIONAL (did I say that already?) version in Snow Leopard:
- Download Letterbox-0.24b2.mailbundle.zip and unzip.
- Create, if necessary, the folder ~/Library/Mail/Bundles.
- Copy or move Letterbox.mailbundle into that folder.
- Quit Mail.
- Open Terminal, and type:
defaults write com.apple.mail EnableBundles 1and press return. (This step isn’t strictly necessary if you’ve installed Mail plugins before, but maybe you’re at a clean slate in Snow Leopard.) - Command-click on Mail to show it in the Finder.
- CRUCIAL: Select File: Get Info, or press command-I. Check the “Open in 32-bit mode” checkbox. (If you don’t have that checkbox, you may be on a 32-bit machine, like me.)
- Re-open Mail, and cross your fingers.
Note that this version will NOT yet work in 64-bit mode. We’re getting there.
This version of Letterbox includes a “Send Feedback” button in the About tab of the preferences. Feel free to send feedback as we work towards a fully functional Letterbox in Snow Leopard!
Much thanks to Alexis Andrews for help with this release.
cheers,
~aaron
September 9th, 2009 at 11:37 am
Ah, excellent. Will get that running soonest
Chris
September 9th, 2009 at 11:38 am
Super! I’ll try to use it, but really waiting for native 64-bit code, because Apple’s Mail is 64-bit by default. I know that’s hard to rewrite everything, but IMHO it’s worth to do it!
September 9th, 2009 at 11:43 am
And working well here; thanks Aaron.
Chris
September 9th, 2009 at 11:44 am
Perfect (temporary) solution. Looking forward to the 64bit version as soon as you have it ready.
Thanks for the hard work!
September 9th, 2009 at 12:03 pm
Awesome; it’s like I can breathe again or something. Everything seems to be working fine here.
Thank you!
September 9th, 2009 at 12:05 pm
well I was very happy to help Aaron with this project…as it is one of my favorite plugins and was devastated without it…
we are still working on getting the 64 bit version ready…well he is working on it and I am testing it for him
it just seems the 64 bit is a bit tougher to work out the kinks
but I have been using Letterbox with Snow Leopard for a week now…and in 32 bit mode it works just fine…
just remember that those that are not full time developers for mac and don\’t have income coming in from any software for the mac…it makes it more difficult to develop without spending the money for the developer package…so with these economic times we should all understand that some developers had to wait to work on Snow Leopard compatibility until it was released to the public…
I know for a fact that Aaron is working diligently to get you a stable and perfect version of this for your use
Be patient and it will come…
and thank you Aaron for allowing me to be a part of this project that I love so much
I just can\’t use Mail.app without Letterbox…and I\’m sure there are many others that feel the same way
and please use the feedback link in the Application prefs (About Tab) to send your issues and love for Letterbox feel free to send him Screen Captures of things that seem strange and be patient for him to make them better…because he will
thanks again for your support of Letterbox and all it has to offer now and in the future…and if you want to help Aaron out with a little green please use the Donate link in the About tab of the Letterbox preferences in Mail.app
and check back on the site when you can for updates and commentary that Aaron has to give you
Alexis Andrews
September 9th, 2009 at 12:41 pm
It looks excellent on first launch!!!!
September 9th, 2009 at 1:03 pm
Thank you, thank you, thank you! It was brutal to go these many days without your fantastic product. Yes it works perfectly. As far as 64-bit, I’m having to run in 32 bit anyway because I need to use Spell Catcher which isn’t working properly (with input menu’s) in 64-bit so you’re not alone. And under Snow Leopard, Mail seems pretty darn zippy even in 32 bit. Not trying to talk you out of a 64-bit build but what you’ve done here is nothing short of amazing.
September 9th, 2009 at 1:13 pm
Hmm - no working on 10.6.1 B504 - mail 4.1 - do you check somewhere on the version?
September 9th, 2009 at 1:19 pm
Thanks! Seems to be working fine for me. I encourage everyone to hit that Donate button.
September 9th, 2009 at 1:23 pm
Works perfectly on my Core Duo MacBook which can only handle 32-bit. I look forward to the 64-bit version for my other mac. Kudos to you and Alexis for saving us from the default Mail view.
September 9th, 2009 at 1:52 pm
Hi I have followed the instructions but Mail complains that it is not compatible with Mail and Message 4.0 and deletes the bundle.
It seems to work for others so probably an issue with my system but I thought I would post the issue.
September 9th, 2009 at 2:06 pm
Thank you for the update! There seems to be an issue with closing the Mail window (using the red jewel) that causes Mail to not show up again and you have to Force Quit it. My current workaround is to just leave the window open behind other windows/apps.
September 9th, 2009 at 2:16 pm
Working great here in 32-bit! Many thanks for providing this stop-gap, looking forward to 64-bit when it’s good and ready!
September 9th, 2009 at 2:31 pm
somehow not workin on my end.
no ide why, mail doesnt sa ynothing. seems like it doesnt find the bundle at all
September 9th, 2009 at 2:39 pm
I can’t get this to work on my end either. Intel iMac 2 GHz, Mac OS 10.6, Mail Version 4.0 (1075/1075.2).
Screenshot of the installation path: http://img.skitch.com/20090909-drr9fpkhywtefjrj1xjkg9pg3p.jpg
In Apple Mail, there is no change. It does not show up in the Apple Mail Preferences either, like it did previously.
September 9th, 2009 at 2:46 pm
Folks, I’m definitely getting reports of intermittent pegging of the CPU with this version, sometimes during normal operation, or at quit. I haven’t encountered it yet myself, but if you see this, if you can open Activity Monitor, select Mail, and click “Sample Process” to give a sense of what might be going on, I’d much appreciate it.
Chris and Brady, looks like Mail still needs to have plugins enabled with:
defaults write com.apple.mail EnabledBundles
in Terminal. Give that I try and I’ll add it to the instructions.
September 9th, 2009 at 3:14 pm
I tried that command in terminal, but received the following error: “Macintosh:~ bsewall$ defaults write com.apple.mail EnabledBundles 2009-09-09 13:14:08.998 defaults[866:903] Rep argument is not a dictionary Defaults have not been changed.”
September 9th, 2009 at 3:16 pm
Sorry, I wrote the wrong command in the comment (the amended instructions above are correct). It should be
defaults write com.apple.mail EnableBundles 1
September 9th, 2009 at 3:28 pm
BRILLIANT! Works flawlessly now. Thank you so much!
September 9th, 2009 at 4:12 pm
WOW! It Works! thanx a lot! 5 days without letterbox after setup Snow Leo (i use it from 1st day on mac’s mail) was really terrible
September 9th, 2009 at 4:18 pm
Aaron (and Alexis): I have nothing to add or insightful to impart, but I would like to say thanks for all your hard work and for writing Letterbox, which I love.
September 9th, 2009 at 4:58 pm
Oh man, so happy. I have been using letterbox for a long as I can remember, glad to have it on snow leopard now, it’s been a long couple of days.
September 9th, 2009 at 5:01 pm
All the thanks should go to Aaron…for his phenomenal product
he is the master…and all this while he continues to work at his HIGH stress and HEAVY Workload regular job
give him some time…those that have issues will have them sorted out…that is why I suggest to use the submit feedback link in the Letterbox prefs About tab…and make sure you leave your system specs in the email so he can compare what systems are having what problems
trust me he wants you to have the best working product
and feel free to donate…he deserves it…
and as soon as there is a great 64 bit option available he will bring it…
I am happy that most people have had great responses to this version…and as long as you are patient you can have any issues you are having fixed as soon as possible
September 9th, 2009 at 5:19 pm
Thank you for this release… I’m waiting for a non-for-geeks release because I cannot afford Mail bugs (using it all day long).
Keep on Aaron : LetterBox is so a useful plug-in !
I’ll try this BETA release and let you know
F
September 9th, 2009 at 6:13 pm
Thanks, Aaron and Alexis, for all your hard work. It’s so very much appreciated!
Sending warm wishes from South Florida, Will
September 9th, 2009 at 6:37 pm
Works great! Thanks so much, you’re a lifesaver!
September 9th, 2009 at 7:27 pm
Belle : 1
September 9th, 2009 at 7:33 pm
you are welcome Will…
I’m in south florida too…Boca Raton now and moving to South Beach in a week or so…can’t wait
September 9th, 2009 at 8:30 pm
Total life saver! It’s been a hard couple days working witout my three pane view.
THANK YOU!
where is the donate link?
September 9th, 2009 at 9:20 pm
Just tried the 32 bit version — works great — let me know when 64 bit is available
I agree with others — cannot work without it
September 9th, 2009 at 9:32 pm
Working well here. Installed with no issues. Sweet mercy, I’ve missed this format for looking at e-mail over the last couple of days!
September 9th, 2009 at 10:05 pm
Thank you from Palo Alto, CA!
September 9th, 2009 at 10:12 pm
Thank you! Works fine so far on MacBook Pro (4,1), Intel Core 2 Duo 2.6 GHz, Mail 4.0 (1075/1075.2).
Apple really should just pay you for this and build it in to Mail … god it’s good to have my mail program back!
September 9th, 2009 at 10:18 pm
BTW, for those who didn’t spot it, the donate button is on the mail pref panel for letterbox.
September 9th, 2009 at 11:34 pm
Installed and donated: thank you!
I thought the plugin wasn’t working at first, until it occurred to me to drag the right hand border of the Mail window, which opened up the preview pane. Other than that, all is fine.
September 10th, 2009 at 12:00 am
[...] a couple hours ago! There is a BETA version of Letterbox. You can go and download it from the letterbox [...]
September 10th, 2009 at 1:07 am
thanks for the shout out…feel free to make this known on your favorite social web site
mac users are everywhere now…yeah
I can’t speak for Aaron…but I will anyway…thank you to all those that are clicking “DONATE”
I’m sure it means the world to him…I would think after a piece of software has been released for such a long time as this one is…it feels great to him to know that it is loved and appreciated…
and the DONATE button is in the Mail.app preferences…click the Letterbox tab (which could be hidden so you will have to click on the arrow on the top right side) and then click on the About tab…thank you again
September 10th, 2009 at 1:09 am
and I am by no means saying that those that don’t donate are not appreciated…
I think I will just shut up now…use with love
Alexis
September 10th, 2009 at 2:37 am
Not being able to use Letterbox was my only disappointment in 10.6 Snow Leopard. Thanks a lot for bringing this wonderful tool to 10.6 with 64 bit compatibility.
September 10th, 2009 at 3:03 am
Thanks … just a short notice (for beta purposes) that this does not work for me, since Mail keeps deactivating the bundle on and on, no matter how hard i try or carefully following your instructions above.
September 10th, 2009 at 3:55 am
It works! I´m really happy, you´we made my day! Thanks very Much from Berlin!!!
September 10th, 2009 at 4:50 am
Many thanks, it works! You were the first to put a functional 3-vertical-pane mail.app plugin on the street for Snow Leopard, so you got my $10 donation. From the wailing and gnashing of teeth I read in the aftermath of the SL update over the disabling of Letterbox and that other plugin (I was among the loudest), I’m sure the faithful will be willing to click that “donate” button and contribute as a way of saying “thanks” (and to encourage an awesome final product).
September 10th, 2009 at 5:54 am
Thanks for this release! It works perfect!
September 10th, 2009 at 5:59 am
What i am doing wrong? Mail says
“Mail hat folgende Plug-Ins deaktiviert:
Wenden Sie sich an die Hersteller dieser Plug-Ins, um Versionen zu erhalten, die mit Mail 4.0 and Message 4.0 kompatibel sind.”
This means, “Mai has deactivated the plug-in Letterbox. Please contact the vendor to obtain a version that is compatible with Mail 4.0 and Message 4.0″
September 10th, 2009 at 7:49 am
Despite a convoluted install, process the Snow Leopark Beta 32 plug-in seems to work well so far. The only thing that didn’t work is the feedback button
Thanks for your diligent work on this.
September 10th, 2009 at 9:22 am
Your instructions worked well, and so does Letterbox except as noted above - no feedback to be found, hence this message. Mid 2007 Mac Pro dual Quad-core. Thanks!
September 10th, 2009 at 9:53 am
Tout fonctionne à merveille : bravo et merci Aaron!
September 10th, 2009 at 10:30 am
iMac (7,1), Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHz
Hi, Aaron. I’d been using Widemail & decided to give your Beta a go since W hasn’t been updated. Letterbox installed fine. Love the look–tho would love a 2 line option–but I can only get one mail “check” before the beta causes the program to lock up. I have to Force Quit Mail & relaunch every time I want to refresh my mailbox.
Thanks for all your hard work. Like others, I’m lost w/o 3 panel mail.
–Candace
September 10th, 2009 at 11:07 am
YAY!!! Thank you so much!!
September 10th, 2009 at 11:16 am
The installation worked perfectly, and I haven’t seen any issues.
I’m eager for the 64-bit version, but I’m satisfied I at least am able to use Letterbox now.
Now off to plow through my 1,000 messages in my inbox
~David
September 10th, 2009 at 11:20 am
Great job ! Works perfectly on my 32-bit machine. I am so relieved to have the letterbox feature back. Thanks a lot !!
September 10th, 2009 at 12:11 pm
Found a bug: If you close the main Mail window with Letterbox enabled, you won’t be able to open the window again. Mail will hang. You can hide and reveal the window though.
September 10th, 2009 at 1:39 pm
I have the same bug as Peter (post 53). When I close the Mail window (red circle, CMD W), Mail will hang when trying to reopen. I have to Force Quit and then restart.
I ended up switching back to 64-bit (and no Letterbox) since I couldn’t keep myself from closing the window.
Macbook Pro 15″ Unibody Mid-2009, running retail Snow Leopard fully updated on a 2.6 C2D. No other plugins installed in Mail.
September 10th, 2009 at 3:59 pm
You are correct - I have the same problem here IF I close the Mail window. Question is who does that??? I have been using Macs for 20 years and have never made a practice of closing the Mail window - I just quit the Mail app when I’m through. Having said that - I would rather Aaron focus on getting Letterbox to 64 bit and then take care of nuisance bugs. In fact I do Mac tech support and most users never close the Mail window when the app is open so that is probably why Aaron didn’t catch it.
September 10th, 2009 at 4:02 pm
Just did a software update to get iTunes 9, and something else (system update), and that appears to have broken this Letterbox. Starting up mail after the restart, it says that the plugin is incompatible and that it has been disabled.
September 10th, 2009 at 4:35 pm
Broken by the 10.6.1 update.
September 10th, 2009 at 5:05 pm
Like a dummy I forged ahead with the 10.6.1 update and ruined my newly reinstated Letterbox (AND Dockstar)! Remind me again why Snow Leopard is a great update…and while you’re at it, please tell me how I can downgrade back to 10.5 (just run the install disk?)!
September 10th, 2009 at 6:03 pm
Aaron, 10.6.1 update disables the beta, and won’t let you reinstall it. I tried moving the bundle back into the proper folder, quit Mail, did a Cmd-I to make sure “32 bit” was selected, but when I started Mail, it kicked the beta out to a Disabled Bundle.
September 10th, 2009 at 6:24 pm
10.6.1 disables it!
September 10th, 2009 at 7:21 pm
I can confirm this too. Didn’t try the reinstall but considering what OG says, I’ll wait for the time being.
September 10th, 2009 at 8:04 pm
either broken by 10.6.1 or by reboot. will try the terminal command and see what happens. Thanks for the work on this.
September 10th, 2009 at 8:28 pm
Terminal commands did not help. It also disabled DockStar.
Bummed.
September 10th, 2009 at 8:35 pm
calling all cars…calling all cars…
DO NOT UPDATE TO 10.6.1 FOR THE MOMENT UNTIL AARON CAN FIGURE OUT WHAT IS GOING ON
but that is completely up to you…but I’m not about to go without Letterbox…PERIOD
so I will be keeping 10.6 for good if I have to
September 10th, 2009 at 9:07 pm
DockStar 2.1.4 (released 9/10) now works with 10.6.1. Looking forward to Letterbox working 10.6.1 and 64-bit.
thanx!
September 10th, 2009 at 10:08 pm
10.6.1 breaks the beta work around! And It will NOT let you reinstall as is described above. 10.6.1 continues to put it into a disabled folder. RATS!! Aaron I wish you and the rest of us user Luck. I hope you can figure this one out soon and we get the 64bit one soon. I am almost ready to reinstall 10.6 and wait.
September 10th, 2009 at 10:28 pm
you guys should be able to restore the plugin in 10.6.1 by adding the following strings to the plist in the package contents
99BB3782-6C16-4C6F-B910-25ED1C1CB38B 2610F061-32C6-4C6B-B90A-7A3102F9B9C8
September 10th, 2009 at 10:32 pm
that’s little hard to read, but that is 2 separate strings, inside string tags, just copy the format of the 2 entries already in the plist.
September 10th, 2009 at 10:39 pm
Changing to these SupportedPluginCompatibilityUUIDs works, letterbox is back.
September 10th, 2009 at 11:06 pm
Thanks to cmassa for that tip. It got Letterbox working again!
September 10th, 2009 at 11:39 pm
hey aaron works perfect for me! thanks so much for helping everyone out with this annoying problem. Can’t wait for the 64 bit even though im not sure what the con is of opening mail.app in 32bit is lol, works the same for me.
Thanks again, Nick
September 10th, 2009 at 11:58 pm
Hi Aaron, 10.6.1 update is out with Mail 4.1 and your lovely Letterbox is no longer compatible. Mail moves Letterbox to Bundles (Disabled). Even after the update Mail stays in 32-bit mode.
September 11th, 2009 at 12:06 am
hey–yep 4.1 killed it. Back to the old, and awful, horizontal layout. Please keep us posted on any updates. Thanks!
September 11th, 2009 at 1:37 am
@sean and @adam
Do you even bother reading? The solution to your 10.6.1 problem is only a few posts above. RTFP@67
September 11th, 2009 at 2:32 am
To clarify for those not completely clear on how to get Letterbox working in 10.6.1…
The Letterbox.mailbundle includes a file called Info.plist. Inside this file at the bottom is a key with the 2 string lines in it which looks like this:
SupportedPluginCompatibilityUUIDs B3F3FC72-315D-4323-BE85-7AB76090224D 225E0A48-2CDB-44A6-8D99-A9BB8AF6BA04
Add the two new UUIDs so it should look like this:
SupportedPluginCompatibilityUUIDs B3F3FC72-315D-4323-BE85-7AB76090224D 225E0A48-2CDB-44A6-8D99-A9BB8AF6BA04 99BB3782-6C16-4C6F-B910-25ED1C1CB38B 2610F061-32C6-4C6B-B90A-7A3102F9B9C8
After this, make sure you’ve moved the Letterbox.mailbundle from the ‘Bundles (Disabled)’ folder back to the ‘Bundles’ folder to get Letterbox running again.
September 11th, 2009 at 2:34 am
Ahh… formatting was stripped from my last post… hopefully you can figure it out from that!
September 11th, 2009 at 3:45 am
Hello all,
I just upgraded to MacOS X 10.6.1. The upgrade comes with a new Mail version 4.1 and… Letterbox is desactivated… arghhh…
Francois
September 11th, 2009 at 5:13 am
Ollie, it works, thanks, just change the strings
September 11th, 2009 at 5:31 am
Shockingly adding those two strings to the plist worked.
Not sure how you figured that out, but thanks.
Adam
September 11th, 2009 at 5:50 am
The Snow Leopard beta worked well UNTIL I installed the 10.6.1 upgrade. DOH!
That’ll learn me!
September 11th, 2009 at 5:55 am
grep -A 1 ‘PluginCompatibilityUUID’ /Applications/Mail.app/Contents/Info.plist == PluginCompatibilityUUID 2610F061-32C6-4C6B-B90A-7A3102F9B9C8
grep -A 1 ‘PluginCompatibilityUUID’ /System/Library/Frameworks/Message.framework/Resources/Info.plist == PluginCompatibilityUUID 99BB3782-6C16-4C6F-B910-25ED1C1CB38B
just to let you know for 10.6.2 - if it comes
September 11th, 2009 at 7:09 am
Hello, it doesn´t work. There is a warning that the mail bundle is disabled because i need a version who is compatible with mail 4.0
what is the problem
thanks for help
September 11th, 2009 at 7:24 am
Peter, do you have Snow Leopard installed? It should have updated mail to 4.1
September 11th, 2009 at 7:41 am
Changing the SupportedPluginCompatibilityUUID did not work for me. It still states it’s not compatible.
September 11th, 2009 at 7:43 am
Fantastic! It is so much easier to manage a big email load using this; I can’t imagine why Apple has not stolen it from you yet!
I’m a bit skeptical of your move to a two line display. Isn’t that called “Entourage”? As long as it can be turned on and off, I guess it might come in handy at times…
Tom
September 11th, 2009 at 8:11 am
Yikes, just when I got Letterbox back, 10.6.1 comes along and makes the fix incompatible.
Hope you can solve the problem — Letterbox is too useful not to have Apple’s support.
September 11th, 2009 at 8:15 am
Allow me to add to the string instructions (at least what finally worked for me):
The end of the info.plist should have the strings represented as follows:
225E0A48-2CDB-44A6-8D99-A9BB8AF6BA04 99BB3782-6C16-4C6F-B910-25ED1C1CB38B 2610F061-32C6-4C6B-B90A-7A3102F9B9C8 B3F3FC72-315D-4323-BE85-7AB76090224D
These between the “array” codes
September 11th, 2009 at 8:18 am
Not having luck adding the strings. Probably not copying and pasting in the correct format or something. What would be useful is if you could simply past the entire plist with formatting here if possible. I know, its not rocket science for you guys . I keep getting the error with the new strings added.
September 11th, 2009 at 8:22 am
Okay…the codes got stripped from my comment. Let’s see if this works:
There should be the term “string” (between the “less-than” and “greater-than” signs) at the beginning of each string and the term “back-slash-string” after each string (again between the signs mentioned above). The strings are:
225E0A48-2CDB-44A6-8D99-A9BB8AF6BA04
99BB3782-6C16-4C6F-B910-25ED1C1CB38B
2610F061-32C6-4C6B-B90A-7A3102F9B9C8
B3F3FC72-315D-4323-BE85-7AB76090224D
This from a wanna-be geek who struggles to understand it all…hoping it helps another.
September 11th, 2009 at 8:29 am
I’ll try one more thing to hopefully make it clearer to those like me who struggle with codes of any kind.
< string >225E0A48-2CDB-44A6-8D99-A9BB8AF6BA04< / string > < string >99BB3782-6C16-4C6F-B910-25ED1C1CB38B< / string > < string >2610F061-32C6-4C6B-B90A-7A3102F9B9C8< / string > < string >B3F3FC72-315D-4323-BE85-7AB76090224D< / string >
Remove the spaces in the codes before and after the strings (they get removed by this commenting system otherwise). Should be between the “array” codes at the bottom of the plist file. (fingers crossed the codes don’t get stripped)
September 11th, 2009 at 8:39 am
Aaron, Alexis, Thank you!
And, what “DBill Says: September 11th, 2009 at 8:22 am” says above works! Thanks!
September 11th, 2009 at 8:43 am
OK — finally got it — one of the strings had a space at the end. Removed it an now it works!
September 11th, 2009 at 8:49 am
got it working with mail 4.1, however…..when i click mail away (but running) and want to show mail again (via dock), it will not show and starts to hang, have to kill mail and restart it….hmmm.
September 11th, 2009 at 9:00 am
Thank you, thank you DBill! Cut & pasted the strings etc and followed your instructions, which worked like magic. I’m so glad to have letterbox working again!
September 11th, 2009 at 9:46 am
I completely forgot to say “Thank You!” to cmassa & Ollie for providing the strings and explanation (respectively).
September 11th, 2009 at 10:06 am
Thanks for the trick. All works fine on SL now… I’m waiting for the 64 bits version !
Thanks guys : LetterBox is great !
September 11th, 2009 at 10:28 am
Thanks for Aaron,Alexis! I waited it! I’m very happy!
One more say, Arigatou!
September 11th, 2009 at 10:34 am
To cmassa & Ollie: Thank you!
September 11th, 2009 at 10:39 am
Oops! The 10.6.1 update I just installed includes a version 4.1 of Mail.app that now throws your 32 bit patch out, if present when opened. So we are out of business again…
September 11th, 2009 at 10:50 am
日本から失礼します。 From Japan,i’m sorry. Mac OS X 10.6.1にアップデートしたところ、Mail 4.1ではLetterboxが機能しなくなりました。 気に入っていたので、残念です。 Mail 4.1に対応したバージョンのリリースをお願いいたします。 Thank you.
September 11th, 2009 at 11:14 am
Follow instructions that Dbill gives above at #90 and make sure you get rid of all spaces in the strings so that you have 4 lines of code between the two should look something like this 225E0A48-2CDB-44A6-8D99-A9BB8AF6BA04 B3F3FC72-315D-4323-BE85-7AB76090224D 99BB3782-6C16-4C6F-B910-25ED1C1CB38B 2610F061-32C6-4C6B-B90A-7A3102F9B9C8 and reopen mail and bingo!! all working.
Thanks to all of you.
September 11th, 2009 at 11:42 am
Not working for me. 10.6.1. On startup, Mail says that Letterbo is incompatible with Mail 4.1 and Message 4.1.
Thanks for the great product though, and I know you’ll have a fix soon.
September 11th, 2009 at 11:49 am
Fix described by dbill (87, 89, 90) worked for me! Thanks!
September 11th, 2009 at 12:39 pm
Got it, thanks guys. That does work (trick for me was the in two lines.
September 11th, 2009 at 12:39 pm
Yup! The fix is in — added the two strings as above and 10.6.1 and Mail 4.1 are back to Letterbox
I too was more than happy to send a donation.
September 11th, 2009 at 1:40 pm
YES!!! Thanks to all who came up with this, and posted it so that a total luddite can make it work in the edit!
September 11th, 2009 at 2:25 pm
Ex-cellent. Now my plan for world domination will go on as planned. Er… I’ve said too much.
September 11th, 2009 at 2:55 pm
Ok, Back to trying. Should there only be one set of code brackets with the code mentioned or should there be FOUR with 4 sets of code between 4 string brackets. Thanks all. I really miss the 3 vertical panels.
September 11th, 2009 at 3:06 pm
Nope. No matter how I format the code it crashes. Dang.
September 11th, 2009 at 3:39 pm
Bless you all for you work on this plugin. Life has been horrible without it. Things are much better now.
September 11th, 2009 at 3:59 pm
I have completely messed up the stated fix and now have to restart from ground “0″.
Should I reinstall the beta letterbox bundle and then go into info.plist and delete the bottom 2 strings and substitute the 4 string lines and save the file? Or how should I proceed.
thanks
Ina
September 11th, 2009 at 4:54 pm
I would love to know when you are non beta. I am capable of using beta. Would rather not beta email though. You should get an email log to blast folks. I will be happy to throw a $4.99 at you. I am sure others would too.
September 11th, 2009 at 5:14 pm
For those of you looking to get letterbox working after the 10.6.1 update, you can find well formatted instructions here: http://www.vanillahd.com/mac-apple/update-osx-10-6-1-update-kills-letterbox-for-apple-mail-no-worries-here-is-the-fix/
September 11th, 2009 at 6:02 pm
One thing I forgot to mention earlier is that I edited my info.plist file with TextEdit (comes with OS X). When I clicked on “Save” it saved the file as “info.txt”…NOT “info.plist” (which caused a “fail”). I had to “Save As” and then type the extension, “.plist” into the file name window. Then I had to click a box insuring that I actually did want to save the file as “info.plist” and NOT “info.txt”, and then one more box telling me that there was an older file with the same name, and did I want to replace it (”yes”).
September 11th, 2009 at 9:01 pm
Hi - got the strings fine for 10.6.1 but if I close the window using the red close button cpu usage on one core goes up to 100% and the ram usage for mail continues to rise steadily. (I can see form the above posts that it seems like a hang but in the background the cpu and ram usage is out of control).
September 12th, 2009 at 12:47 am
Aaron: This is excellent! Works very well. Thanks again.
September 12th, 2009 at 5:20 am
absolut großartig, auch mit 10.6.1 und dem damit verbundendenen Update auf Mail 4.1 ist nun wieder alles letterbox. DANKE !!!
September 12th, 2009 at 8:02 am
Well, I installed it as it is told above. But when I’m launching Mail it tells me that this plug-in is disabled…
I’m running at a Mac Pro * 2 Quad Core 3 GHz Xeon * 10 GB RAM
September 12th, 2009 at 3:35 pm
The update to Mail 4.1 broke it again. Just thought I’d make sure that go in here.
September 12th, 2009 at 10:28 pm
Plist Edit Pro makes editing the file a little easier
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/development_tools/plisteditpro.html
September 13th, 2009 at 3:31 am
THANK YOU! Both Mr. Harnly and DBill.
I almost have my MBP back to how it was in Leopard now. Just need Sticky Windows to be updated.
p.s. check ~post 90 to get it working in 10.6.1
September 13th, 2009 at 4:28 am
Using this beta in 32-bit 10.6.1 results in a hang on quit for me as evinced by the following entry: 3 -[NSObject(LetterboxSwizzle) Letterbox_deallocSwizzler] 70 (in Letterbox) [0x73f76f]
September 13th, 2009 at 6:10 am
Thanks for the fix for 10.6.1
Wonderful to have Letterbox back again.
September 13th, 2009 at 6:43 am
Folks, just wanted to pipe in that I’m sorry, I had to leave for the weekend before getting the update out. I’ll post an update later tonight.
September 13th, 2009 at 6:53 am
Thank you to Aaron for the temporary fix….the last few weeks have been “difficult” having to read mail in the preview pane at the bottom. Still waiting for the donation button to appear on your website somewhere.
September 13th, 2009 at 11:06 am
There is a DONATE button in the preference pane of Letterbox in Mail. Send some money!
September 13th, 2009 at 4:22 pm
I can’t wait, I can’t wait, I can’t wait
September 13th, 2009 at 6:36 pm
Just can’t wait to get the real thing, but the intermediate solution works fine (you just don’t miss things until they’re gone). Just added another 10$ to your pocket, Aaron
Greetings,
Treyfane
September 13th, 2009 at 9:39 pm
Great work Aaron, I’ll go back and check for the Donate button. Is it me, or someone please point it out to me, but I cannot adjust the column in order to widen the message body and reduce the other columns. Seems the message column is stuck are about 30% total width.
Thanks
September 13th, 2009 at 10:17 pm
Absolutely loved the plugin in leopard. Trying to get it to work in 10.6.1, i have added the code to the bottom of the plist file but mail is still disabling the plugin. I have also tried opening it with and without using the terminal command listed above. Any Ideas? Thanks
September 14th, 2009 at 1:11 am
Hi Aaron,
Does not work for me, I’m in 10.6.1 and logging in in French.
Seems like Mail.app does not detect the plugin at all.
I’ve a Mac Pro Rev1 (thus 32 bits kernel), and the “32 bits mode” is well activated for Mail.app
September 14th, 2009 at 3:13 am
Hi Aaron, works fine on my German 10.6.1.
September 15th, 2009 at 11:00 am
[...] Aaron has a nice one that allows 3 column view. Widemail looks pretty cool as well, but I have not used it personally. No matter, they both crapped out when I upgraded to Snow Leopard. I went from happy to sad in 1.2 seconds. YAY!…no wait….boo hoo [...]
September 17th, 2009 at 1:32 pm
Thanks for getting this out so fast, Aaron! Can’t stand the default view in Mail and like many here was bummed after upgrading to Snow Leopard.
Is it true that you’re working on a two-line view as well? I hope so, because I find the two-line view to be superior (even if it resembles Entourage; must we be so dogmatic if interfaces work well?).
October 15th, 2009 at 9:20 pm
Works great now thanks!
One thing I would love to see is a layout like MS Outlook where the From/To and Subject column wrap and organise themselves over multiple lines. Much easier to read!
Actually I don’t have a Subject column in Mail… Weird.
November 15th, 2009 at 11:02 am
Great plugin, worked excellently under Snow Leopard 10.6.1 even. However, I installed all updates last night, including 10.6.2. Sadly, I received a letterbox plugin error dialog upon restarting Mail and sure enough, Letterbox no longer works. DOH! If I’d only thought about that first!
Still seriously considering a roll-back to 10.6.1 via Time Machine though…
Thanx heaps for all your work on this vital plugin (: