Hi all,
When viewing messages by thread, is it really necessary to have the
subject for every message within a thread displayed? It makes the
listing appear very cluttered when you expand the threads and the
repeated listing of the message subject takes up a lot of screen real
estate, pushing the listing out of the boundaries of the message list
pane.
Agent displays the subject of just the first message in the thread
and lists the authors name only after that and actually in the
subject field. The authors names are listed in a stepwise fashion to
reflect the subthreading. In so doing, the expanded thread listing
never spills off the list pane, going out of view and it's a lot less
cluttered, more comfortable to look at and more polished.
X-News does it interestingly as well. For each thread it displays the
subject only in the initial message, then for the others, shows a
little box in a stepwise fashion to reflect how the messages are
subthreaded. The authors name stays in the author column. In this way
again, complex, long threads are displayed with ease without it
spilling off the screen.
Gravity has the same problem as TB and this is one of the main
reasons why I prefer Agent to it.
Displaying an envelope for every message, opened or closed is again a
cluttered interface. Using an envelope for new mail and then a
smaller indicator than an open envelope, which is actually thicker
than a line of text (if you look carefully the envelope isn't fully
displayed and they are touching each other) for reply and read
indicators would look better and again less cluttered.
I've been wondering why TB's interface is not yet quite spectacular,
yet it has the necessary ingredients. I guess it has to do with how
the ingredients are used. :))
Just my $0.02.
--
-=Ali=-
>>> Oxymoron: Sugarless Candy. <<<
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