This is hidden-defaults.txt in view mode; [Download] [Up]
This is a description of some hidden Mail.app preferences.
To use these, you typically have to enter the dwrite commands in a
Terminal shell window (or use a defaults editor). You also have to quit
and restart Mail for these changes to take effect.
Some of the more useful of these may make it into a new Preferences
panel in EnhanceMail someday...
I've included the original (slightly edited) news articles for now.
Enjoy!
--Tom.
--------
From: cedman@princeton.edu (Carl Edman)
Subject: Secrets of Mail.app 3.3 uncovered !
Message-ID: <CEDMAN.95Feb26163654@freedom.princeton.edu>
Originator: news@hedgehog.Princeton.EDU
Sender: news@Princeton.EDU (USENET News System)
Nntp-Posting-Host: cedman.remote.princeton.edu
Organization: Princeton University
Date: Sun, 26 Feb 1995 21:36:53 GMT
Lines: 126
Here are a few undocumented features of Mail.app 3.3 which I
discovered with gdb. Some may already exist in older versions of
Mail.app, but for most I doubt it. This is the list of the dwrites,
their meaning and some typical values.
dwrite Mail BigPieChart YES
dwrite Mail BigPieChartColor Green
In combination these two dwrites grow the mail receipt progress
indicator in the Mail.app icon from stamp size to full size. They
also allow you to set the color.
dwrite Mail DisplayFilter "/tmp/snoop"
This one is neat. If it is set to the full path of an executable,
every time a mail message is displayed, it is first piped through this
executable. In principle you can use this hook to allow Mail.app to
display absolutely any message type.
dwrite Mail DoubleClickRestores YES
dwrite Mail RestrictedRestore NO
If these are set double clicking on a message calls up a Compose
window with that message in it, just like "Restore Draft" does. The
second dwrite allows you to do this in any mailbox, not you the drafts
mailbox.
dwrite Mail LoadNetInfoAddresses NO
This adds the users and aliases from netinfo into the addresses window.
dwrite Mail SpacePages YES
Simple, but useful. With this dwrite hitting space in a mailbox
window advances the message one screen, jumping from message to
message as needed.
dwrite Mail StatusLine YES
Don't like the new 3.3 mailbox status line ? This dwrite kills it.
dwrite Mail ComposeStatusLine YES
dwrite Mail DelayedComposeUpdateSize NO
dwrite Mail ComposeSizeDelay 0
These dwrites give every compose window a status line as well which
contains the size of the current message.
dwrite Mail NXCommandKeys "Page Layout...,.,Encryption Keys...,E,Sort by
Date,D,Sort by Name,N,Sort by Number,.,Sort by
Subject,S,Deliver,.,Reply,.,Reply All,.,Forward,.,Get New
Mail,G,Search,.,Restore Draft,r,Sort by Size,Z,Show All Headers,t,Font
Panel...,."
This is not really a Mail.app specific dwrite, but I find it useful in
particular with Mail.app. It modifies the command key equivalents.
dwrite Mail SendSizeLimit 1000000000
If you try to send a message longer than this number (in kBytes), you
will be querried by Mail.app.
dwrite Mail TocFont Helvetica
dwrite Mail TocFontSize 12
Font and size for the table of contents.
dwrite Mail Debug YES
Enables some additional information about Mail.app in the console.
dwrite Mail Encrypt YES
Causes messages to be set to be encrypted by default.
dwrite Mail ReadReceipt NO
Does the same for ReadReceipts.
dwrite Mail 24HourClock NO
This selects whether the clock in the mailbox window is a 12 hour or a
24 hour clock.
dwrite Mail ActiveMailbox "Active.mbox"
dwrite Mail DraftsMailbox "Drafts.mbox"
dwrite Mail OutgoingMailbox "Outgoing.mbox"
These dwrites change the names of the standard mailboxes which
Mail.app refers to.
dwrite Mail PeopleDir "/LocalLibrary/Images/People"
This is the directory where Mail.app looks for images to be displayed.
dwrite Mail CompressCommand ""
dwrite Mail TarCommand ""
I believe these two dwrites allow you to alter the tar and compress
commands used by NeXTmail.
dwrite Mail IconFont ""
dwrite Mail IconFontSize ""
dwrite Mail ShowIconCount "YES"
These three dwrites allow you to change the font and size of the
number of unread messages displayed in the Mail.app window. Or to
disable this feature completely.
dwrite Mail LoadBundles YES
dwrite Mail PriorityValues ""
dwrite Mail PriorityHeader ""
dwrite Mail MailFilter1 ""
dwrite Mail AutoCompact ""
dwrite Mail IncAllMailboxes ""
dwrite Mail AutoSelectFont ""
dwrite Mail CCPollTime 0.1
dwrite Mail MailMarker "Subject:From:To:Cc:Attachment:Date:Reply-To:Sender:In-Reply-To"
dwrite Mail RemoteFetch ""
dwrite Mail Send8BitMime ""
dwrite Mail SendRtfEnrichedMime ""
dwrite DatabaseKit DBKitBundlePath ""
These dwrites intrigue me, and seem to have some effect, but I have
not yet figured out what exactly they do. If you can explain some of
them, please let me know. But if you find any of these features
publicly documented anywhere, please keep it to yourself.
Carl Edman
--------
From: yoda@cis.uni-muenchen.de (Marc Guenther)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.software
Subject: Re: Secrets of Mail.app 3.3 uncovered !
Date: 1 Mar 1995 16:45:55 GMT
Organization: Institut fuer Informatik der Universitaet Muenchen
Lines: 71
Message-ID: <3j28c3$511@arcadia.informatik.uni-muenchen.de>
References: <CEDMAN.95Feb26163654@freedom.princeton.edu>
Reply-To: yoda@cis.uni-muenchen.de (Marc Guenther)
NNTP-Posting-Host: optoflop.cis.uni-muenchen.de
In article <CEDMAN.95Feb26163654@freedom.princeton.edu>
cedman@princeton.edu (Carl Edman) writes:
[see above --TRH]
>
dwrite Mail AutoCompact YES
this seems to automatically compact the mailbox (nice for users,
who don't know, that delete doesn't delete) But I didnt test it.
dwrite Mail RemoteFetch "somehostname"
this is nice !! If you set this to a hostname, Mail fetches the mail fro
that host !! I don't know how it does that, but I have the host I tried
it with in my /Net directory. Don't know if that's needed.
I tried to make it a list of hostnames, but it didnt accept it.
Some others I found:
dwrite Mail ReadReceiptOption Ask (or "Always" or "Never")
Pops up a confirmationpanel, whenever you read a message.
(or just sends the receipt, or doesn't)
dwrite Mail Uuencoder /usr/bin/uuencode
... TarCommand
dwrite Mail CompressCommand /usr/ucb/compress
... UncompressCommand
all the utilities Mail uses (TarCommand is probably safetar ?)
It would be nice, if we could use gzip instead of compress, but
then nobody else could read our email. At least, everybody should
use gzip for uncompressing.
In addition to Active, Outgoing and Drafts, there is a Templates.mbox
(whatever it is)
dwrite Mail TemplatesMailbox Templates.mbox
dwrite Mail DeleteAlwaysSelects NO
when you delete a mesage, and there is no undeleted below it, nothing is
selected (instead of slecting the next or previous available message)
I don't know what these two are:
IncludePrefix
FoundDisplayDelay
I just noticed, that Shift-Tab inside the Compose Text moves the cursor
back to the Cc: Field !!
What else did NeXT hide in there ???
have fun,
--
Marc Guenther
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