Hello Martin, Thursday, May 6, 2004, 9:05:59 PM, you wrote:
MW> Here are a few things that are hardly bugs but do nonetheless need MW> resolution. I guess they're not as important as proper IMAP support, bug MW> fixing etc. but nonetheless will lead to a more polished product. In no MW> order of importance... An interesting list. I'd like to add my own items: 11. I'd like a "memo present" flag 12. I'd like a "scheduled event" flag 13. I'd like a "known/unknown" flag for addresses 14. I'd like a "Full conversation" virtual view Item 11: Memo present flag. Memos look good. I'd like to use them, I really would. I can see how they'd be useful. Especially as the text of memos can be searched separately from the body of emails, for instance. But I just can't use them that well unless I know memos are present on emails - otherwise, I'll probably never see my memos again, knowing me. So they're useless in the current implementation. I could add the Memo column to my views. But that shows the text of the memo. So for it to be anywhere near aesthetically useful, I'll want to assign it enough space in the view to show at least one word. Except most emails don't have memos - so that's a lot of space to dedicate to a field that's not used that much. The solution? When a memo is added, add a flag to the email saying it has a memo. This means that you can now show it as a flag in a similar way to the parked flag, the attachment flag and the flagged flag. That would be truly useful. This feature request truly comes into its own with the new virtual folders - because it's a flag, you can now quickly search large message bases for emails with memos (as opposed to doing a lengthy text-based search). So a virtual folder can be used to keep tabs on all your memos, making memos a truly useful feature - rather than something highly likely to be forgotten. Item 12: A "Scheduled Event" flag. See the reasoning for item 11, really. Another great feature in The Bat! that could make it truly exceptional, as current scheduling is a little flaky. Emails with events scheduled against them need to have a flag, so that it's easily visible. I know that the scheduler does more than just emails, but this would go some way to making the scheduler more visible. Also, if some work is done to make scheduled event details quickly visible, the scheduler would become more useful. I suggest adding a clock icon in the header information when you're previewing or viewing a message - clicking on the icon should show you the details of the event. But that's for the future - a flag that you can use in views or searches is the first step to really making the scheduler more visible and usable. Item 13: A "known/unknown" address flag Not for use in views, funnily enough. The idea here is more that when you're viewing a message, The Bat! should give you active feedback as to whether it "knows" the recipient via your address books - an icon seems like the best way, just showing the contact card. (And perhaps a contact card with a question mark on it if they're not in your address book.) Put the icon in the header information, preferably after the name on the from line. I don't think we need this in the to/cc/bcc lines, just the from line to start with. Clicking on the icon should take you to the contact's address book entry, or if there isn't one it should offer to create one for you. Item 14: A "Full Conversation" view. We can piece together threads in mailing lists fantastically in The Bat!, but private correspondance is a nightmare. I'm left to manually track back through conversations via "open reply" and guesswork. And as a slap in the face, The Bat! will thread my mails in the Sent folder, or their mails in my Inbox (or whatever folder) - but not all of the messages together! Perhaps I'm missing something, but I can't see a way to see the whole thread of correspondence between me and someone else if we're not using a mailing list. All that's needed here is a special class of virtual folder which take the message you have highlighted and searches for all messages related to it - and then threads them together for you. It would make tracking emails much easier. Notes: These are all just niceties. I can continue to not use Memos, for instance. It would just be nice to be able to use them. And the scheduled flag - well, I just don't use the scheduler right now. Instead, I flag messages and then use a virtual folder to show all flagged messages, which I then deal with at my leisure. So I have my own personal workaround on that item, and as I said I think it's more something to consider when the scheduler gets a little more integration into the rest of The Bat! - which it will hopefully get one day. The address flags are purely a nicety, based on me wondering whether or not I had added someone to the address book earlier today. I had to open my address book to confirm it, and at that point I wondered why The Bat! wasn't doing the work for me... And the Full Conversation view is ripped from another email client - Lotus Notes, if you must know. Many people think there's nothing to learn from Lotus Notes, but I've used it in a professional capacity since release 3, and I think that its "Discussion view" - which threads all emails, both sent by you and recieved - is a fantastic innovation. Provided you can find the email you're looking for. (There's actually an easy trick to that caveat too, but this isn't a Lotus Notes mailing list... *grins*) Threading is a useful tool, but the lack of threading of non-mailing list email seems like a large oversight once you've gotten used to it in another email client. :-) I think that's about it. I note that I don't seem to have put any bugs in my list - I'd say I'm not suffering from any, but that would be tempting fate. Let's just say I've not noticed any that bugged me too much. *grins* If I get any other ideas, I'll let you all know. Probably in another long, tedious message. ;-) -- Best regards, Philip mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Using The Bat! v2.10.03 on Windows 2000 5.0 Build 2195 Service Pack 4
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