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<p dir="auto">For those who haven’t yet delved into MailMate’s “hidden” preferences, I just want to note that some minor tweaking in ~/Library/Application\ Support/MailMate/Styles.plist can make a very big difference in the UI experience.</p>
<p dir="auto">In the more recent versions of MailMate, the application automatically adopts a “dark” mode if the System Preferences (under General/Appearance) are set that way. While that’s generally a good thing, at least to my eye, it almost eliminates the visible impact of showing unread messages with a bold font in the message list. The key issue is that bold white text on a gray background does not stand out from the un-bolded text the way it does when the foreground/background are reversed. I tend to keep messages marked as unread for a while, so it’s important for me to be able to visually fish them out of the ocean of other messages (preferably without losing the overall context of the message list by switching to an alternate view).</p>
<p dir="auto">This is my personal Styles.plist, which one must create in the ~/Library/Application\ Support/MailMate directory. </p>
<pre style="background-color:#F7F7F7; border-radius:5px 5px 5px 5px; margin-left:15px; margin-right:15px; max-width:90vw; overflow-x:auto; padding:5px" bgcolor="#F7F7F7"><code style="background-color:#F7F7F7; border-radius:3px; margin:0; padding:0" bgcolor="#F7F7F7">{ styles = (
{ type = keyword;
keyword = '\\Flagged';
color = "#FF6666";
},
{ type = keyword;
keyword = '\\Seen';
color = "#888888";
},
);
}
</code></pre>
<p dir="auto">Knocking the brightness of messages flagged as “Seen” down to 50% gray (“#888888”) does not make them invisible, but the lower contrast is a bit easier on the eyes, and it clearly distinguishes them from the few unread messages floating around. Likewise, flagged messages get a real visibility bump with a light red color (“#FF6666”). The styles work together nicely, making unread and flagged messages both bold and red, so they really scream out for attention.</p>
<p dir="auto">Glenn P. Parker<br>
<a href="mailto:glenn.parker@comcast.net" style="color:#3983C4">glenn.parker@comcast.net</a></p>
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