How to Manage Your Email More Efficiently With Postbox

Jeffry Thurana — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 12:48:54 +0000

I’ve been a web-mail kinda guy since a long time ago. I ditched my email clients (Mail, Entourage, and Thunderbird) and prefer to keep my GMail handy on any computer (or sometimes cellphone) that I use, wherever I am. But Postbox might just change my mind.

This free open-source mail client (available for Mac and Windows) combines few great features that can help users manage their emails better.

The developer’s site have a comprehensive list of Postbox’s features and abilities, but here are few that I personally find useful.

1. Create new accounts

The first time Postbox is opened, it will offer you to create a new account. You can also create another account later by going to File -> New -> Account menu. Compared to other email client that I’ve used so far, Postbox’s new account creation is the easiest. It supports major web mail services like GMail, Hotmail, Yahoo and even MobileMe.

2. Browse mails with tabs

Each time you select a mail, it will be shown on one of the window’s pane. There are two pane’s layout that you can choose: Classic View and Vertical View. You can toggle between these two views from the View -> Layout menu.

If you double click on one of the messages, it will be opened in a new tab instead of window. I think the idea is nice and produces less cluttered workspace.

3. Organize messages with topics

In Postbox, you can organize messages by topics. You can set and add any topics that you can think of according to your preferences.

The easiest way to add topic is by right clicking on the favorite topic pane and choose “Create New Favorit Topic” on the popup window. Then you can to assign messages to the topic by clicking the Plus (+) sign next to the “Topic” option in each message.

But if you need to assign topic(s) to many messages automatically, use filtering option for the fastest result. Go to “Message -> Create Filter From Message” menu.

4. To Dos

Postbox comes with the ability to create to do list easily. Not as elaborate as Outlook, but most people – like me – do not need advance organizing capability.

You can create a to do entry manually by clicking “New To Do” icon, or you can ‘tag’ a to do entry to a message by selecting a message and clicking the ‘To Do” button in the message view.

After that, if you go to “View -> Pin To Dos” menu, all the message with the ‘To Do’ tag will be listed above other message.

5. Attachment (and other) List

This app also has a attachment list feature that will show all the attachments from all of the messages in one page. Just click on the Attachment button under the search field. There are 3 other list buttons that you can choose: Images, Links, and Contacts.

The list will open up in a new tab. From here on you can choose to Save (to your hard drive), Send (to others via email), Upload (to Google Docs, but I don’t think this service is compatible with every filetype), or just to have a Quick Look.

This list is based on my short encounter with Postbox for Mac, but the feel for Windows version should not be far off. As time goes by, I’m sure I’ll add more to the “what I like about Postbox” list.

Have you tried Postbox? Whether you will like it or not, this nice app deserves at least a try.

And as always, share your thoughts and experiences in the comment below.

How to Manage Your Email More Efficiently With Postbox originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)
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