TOKYO (MacHouse) – It’s has been more than 2 weeks since we released a new Mac software title last time. That’s a bit unusual as we release a new software title every 1 week or so. Well, the first software title of this year has already been released, though. It’s called Switchies For Mail.
 Source: MacHouse |
Remember Switchies (Switchies For Stickies)? We introduced this application about 4 weeks ago. It’s now 4th most popular software title of ours. Switchies allows the user to create and maintain different sets of Stickies windows. Switchies For Mail is pretty much similar. It allows the user to create different mail accounts over Apple’s Mail. You can switch from one set of mail accounts to another with just a click of Mouse, using Switchies For Mail. We’ve developed this application for a good reason. We subscribe to one of the Apple mail support groups. And every time somebody posts a question or a reply, we are false-alarmed that we’ve received a payment receipt from PayPal. We can really use Switchies For Mail so that we can switch to a different set of mail accounts over (Apple) Mail only when we wanted to read non-urgent messages.
Click on the button for more information on Switchies For Mail. 
Switchies For Mail is a product of MacHouse.
(Apple) Mail is a product of Apple, Inc.
Switchies For Mail is an absolutely brilliant idea, but it seems like the app’s windows must stay open on the the desktop at all times.
Is there a way to get rid of the open panels on the desktop, and do the switching between profiles either from the app’s icon in the dock, or even better, from the menu bar?
Thanks,
Ryan
Are you Ryan Ferguson from Columbia, Missouri? (REF: 48 Hours Mystery: The Lost Night) Just kidding…
Umm… How would you intend to switch mail profiles on the Dock or from the menu bar?
Please click here to understand a possible problem if the user could select a Mail set to edit and delete on the menu.
Thanks for the reply.
I was envisioning something like the StuffIt Magic Menu: from the StuffIt icon on the menu bar, you can launch different components of StuffIt, like StuffIt Expander, or DropStuff.
In Swithchies for Mail’s case, from the Switchies icon on the menu bar, I’d be able to select the Mail Profile I want to start.
BTW, I’d love to be able to purchase Switchies for Mail, but I get the green “will be back” box. I am assuming that you are coming up with a new version, but is there a way to just get the current one for now, instead of waiting?
Here is a link so that you can see what StuffIt’s Magic Menu looks like:
Please click here.
[Partially edited by Administrator]
Ryan, thank you for your interest in Switchies For Mail. It’s been currently offline because we have been trying to make it available at Mac App Store. I’m not sure if it will ever be available there. There is a small stability issue, which I think I’ve resolved. After making sure there is no more stability issue, we’ll sell it at our web site.
As for menu selection, that’s actually one of the reasons why Mac App Store rejects this Switchies For Mail. This screenshot comes from Switchies (For Stickies). Swichies is pretty similar to Switchies For Mail. And its update is almost complete. With this update, users will be able to switch Stickies sets (equivalent to Mail sets), deleting, editing any of the selected set as shown in this screenshot. And I’ll probably make the same feature available with Switchies For Mail if that’s close to what you want.
Hi,
I think the menu selection in your link is great, but I am assuming that when I need to switch sets, I’d have to open Switchies for Mail.
This would be fine, but it may be even better if there is a Switchies icon on the right side of the menu bar (next to the Airport, Displays, etc. icons) which is where the StuffIt icon appears, as well as DropBox, Adobe Updater and so on.
In other words, I don’t have to necessarily to go and open the Switchies app in order to change Mail Profiles.
Of course, I am not sure if this is feasible, or how difficult it will be to implement, but it would make it a little easier to switch profiles.
Anyway, I hope Apple accepts Switchies for Mail in the App Store, because Mail is the only major OS X mail client without profiles switching capabilities, and user switching is not really appropriate for this task.
If you need a guinea pig to test this, please send me an email — I’d be happy to pay full price and get it early 🙂
Thanks again.
>This would be fine, but it may be even better if there is a Switchies icon on the right side of the menu bar (next to the Airport, Displays, etc. icons) which is where the StuffIt icon appears, as well as DropBox, Adobe Updater and so on.
I see. That’s a folder action menu. No, that is not feasible for the moment.
>If you need a guinea pig to test this, please send me an email — I’d be happy to pay full price and get it early
Sure. I was going to ask you if you are interested in being a guinea pig. Could you go to this support page and choose No. 1 and send a short message like ‘Hello’ with the e-mail address you’ve used here so that I know who you are. Please be sure you use a full name. And you won’t have to pay a penny for this full version since you are doing us a favor. By the way, an update is complete.
Chances are that Apple will never approve this app. Some reviewers are very difficult. Others don’t even know basics about software per se.
Thanks.
Hi. Thank you so much for letting me try Switchies for Mail.
I was out of town for a couple of days, so please excuse the delay in responding.
I have installed Switchies for Mail on an 2.8 GHz Intel Core i7 iMac with 4GB of RAM, running Mac OS X 10.6.7 (10J869).
I have imported two Mail profiles, each with several email accounts and each containing approximately 30GB of emails.
Switchies works very well, being able to switch between profiles within 10 seconds or so. I have not had a single issue or crash over the last two days — it is totally stable so far.
One thing I am noticing is that after I switch profiles, the hard drive gets hit for about half an hour or more. I thought it was Spotlight, and it seems like it is: In Activity Monitor I see mdworker near the top of %CPU. I am wondering if it goes to work after each profile switch, seeing a “new” Mail folder. Of course, it is possible that it is still indexing the 60GB of emails, but it should have been done by now. I’ll keep an eye on it.
Other than that, here is a rehash of the UI suggestions:
It’d be great if the switching is done from the menu, instead of having floating windows.
Also, it’d be great if Switchies restarts Mail after a switch, and a user selectable option for Switchies to quit after a switch may be useful, too.
I’ll report in a few more days, after I have had a bit longer to play with it.
Again, LOVE the app, without it, I wouldn’t be using Mail.
Thank you!
(BTW, I tried to respond to the support email with this report, but it bounced.)
Thanks, Ryan for your review.
> One thing I am noticing is that after I switch profiles, the hard drive gets hit for about half an hour or more. I thought it was Spotlight, and it seems like it is: In Activity Monitor I see mdworker near the top of %CPU. I am wondering if it goes to work after each profile switch, seeing a “new†Mail folder. Of course, it is possible that it is still indexing the 60GB of emails, but it should have been done by now. I’ll keep an eye on it.
Switchies For Mail is unlikely to have anything to do with that issue UNLESS the corresponding mail set comes with hundreds of mail accounts.
> Also, it’d be great if Switchies restarts Mail after a switch, and a user selectable option for Switchies to quit after a switch may be useful, too.
hehehe… Actually, Switchies For Mail does restart itself when you switch mail sets. It’s a small app and starts up very quickly, so you may not notice that. Quit option? That’s a good advice. I’ll implement it in the next update.
Thanks again.
>Switchies For Mail does restart itself when you switch mail sets.
True 🙂 But I meant it’d be good if it restarts Apple Mail after a switch, instead of the user having to do it manually.
(bow)
Ryan, you cannot directly respond to the support message. I suppose, there’s a clickable link in it. If you click on it, you will be taken to the support web site with your ticket open so that you can read the response or write a reply.
>But I meant it’d be good if it restarts Apple Mail after a switch, instead of the user having to do it manually.
Ahh… Not S4Mail but Mail… I see. That’s a very good advice. Sure. I’ll implement it.
Switchies For Mail has been updated to 1.2.2 with a couple of bug fixes plus the suggestions made by Ryan.