[SkiBikeSki]

I recently convinced someone to switch from Entourage 2004 for Mail.app, and so far they're liking it. The speed of the app and especially Spotlight are major selling points! But he's asked me a setup question I can't quite find a good resolution too. He has only one email address, but would like to have several different "Full Names" for it all with the same reply-to address. For example, sometime he wants to send email as John Doe, sometimes just John, sometimes Mr. Doe, depending on who he's sending it to. Now I realize most people don't aren't this specific, but it doesn't seem like this is too odd.

Under Entourage you would simply make multiple accounts, enter the same email address, pop, smtp, etc information in each account, but only have one account active for the "Send and Receive all" and for 15 min. automatic checks. That system worked perfectly.

Under Mail.app whenever you try to enter the same pop address into multiple accounts, it complains that the folder ~/Library/Mail/POP-John(abbreviated) already exists. I thought no big deal, cause only one account needs the correct info to check mail, the rest can have fake pop info, as long as they all have the same reply-to address and smtp info. And set those extra accounts not to be part of automatic checks. For the most part that works well, but when you click Get Mail it checks all accounts. Then you wind up with that little "caution" symbol by the inbox because some accounts failed, obviously. This works ok for now, and luckily Mail.app doesn't throw up any error dialogs, just that icon, but there must be some other way.

Yes, you can expand the inbox, right-click on just the main account and check only that one. But he'd rather not have the clutter of several inboxes since he has really only have one email address.

Is there some way to exclude certain accounts from the Get Mail button in the toolbar?
Is there some other way to create multiple but similar accounts?
Is there some better fake info I can enter? I just did something like "asjdfhakl.com"

Also AFAIK the only way to remove those caution icons is to either get that account working, or quit and re-open Mail.app. Is there some other way to remove them?

Thanx,
SBS

[peeb]

I wonder whether different signatures might achieve what you want?

[SkiBikeSki]

Ya, a normal person might just use a different sig. But he wants a different name in the header, in your list of messages, and so forth.

[besson3c]

Mail does not support multiple identities (which is the name of the feature you are requesting), sorry. I'd really like for it to, but Apple in their infinite wisdom decided not to support this useful feature.

[Cold Warrior]

What if he deliberately creates an incorrect POP address, but keeps the same SMTP server settings? Then he can turn off the option to include that account when automatically checking for new mail.

[Chuckit]

Originally Posted by besson3c 

Mail does not support multiple identities (which is the name of the feature you are requesting), sorry. I'd really like for it to, but Apple in their infinite wisdom decided not to support this useful feature.

I thought multiple identities was associating several e-mail addresses with one account (which Mail does support). I admit I don't use any such feature in any program, though — am I mistaken?

He might like Thunderbird, though it's not as well integrated into the OS. I think it does allow what you're trying to do, though.

Also, to besson: How is this particularly useful? I can understand that some people have arbitrary whims (and that's totally within their rights, of course), but I just don't see any general usefulness to this.

[besson3c]

Originally Posted by Chuckit 

I thought multiple identities was associating several e-mail addresses with one account (which Mail does support). I admit I don't use any such feature in any program, though — am I mistaken?

Multiple email addresses and full names, the latter which is not supported. Moreover, the comma separated list of email addresses really is more of an easter egg than transparent feature - it's a rather poor implementation in terms of clarity and usability.

He might like Thunderbird, though it's not as well integrated into the OS. I think it does allow what you're trying to do, though.

Yes, it does, and it's a much better behaved client than Entourage.

Also, to besson: How is this particularly useful? I can understand that some people have arbitrary whims (and that's totally within their rights, of course), but I just don't see any general usefulness to this.

It's immensely useful.

Scenario #1:

- you have access to a shared mailbox for support tickets and want to address mail out of that mailbox as "<company name> Support" rather than your personal name

Scenario #2:

- you have mail redirected to your mail email account and you want to address some mail as "<company name>" and some with your personal name (some people wear several different hats in their lives). Personnel changes without some organizations frequently, roles don't. Sometimes it is better to train people to email a group account addressing the group rather than an individual in that group. Other times you simply don't want people to know your name

[besson3c]

Originally Posted by Cold Warrior 

What if he deliberately creates an incorrect POP address, but keeps the same SMTP server settings? Then he can turn off the option to include that account when automatically checking for new mail.

Well, for starters it is a PITA to have to wait for a non-existent account to timeout when you launch the app (I believe even with the "don't check for new mail" option checked it still checks at startup). Moreover, it's a bit of a nuisance to have an extra bogus account visible in your mailbox listing with an error icon beside it.

However, this actually might be a good idea, my bitching aside. I'm mostly bitching because it just seems like an obvious oversight on Apple's part. I mean, pretty much every other email client has this feature but Mail. Duh Apple!

I'll try this idea and let you know how it works out

[Chuckit]

Originally Posted by besson3c 

Scenario #1:

- you have access to a shared mailbox for support tickets and want to address mail out of that mailbox as "<company name> Support" rather than your personal name

You can do this. Just set up the e-mail account on your computer with "<company name> Support" as the name. We do this at the company where I work, in fact.

Originally Posted by besson3c 

Scenario #2:

- you have mail redirected to your mail email account and you want to address some mail as "<company name>" and some with your personal name (some people wear several different hats in their lives). Personnel changes without some organizations frequently, roles don't. Sometimes it is better to train people to email a group account addressing the group rather than an individual in that group.

It seems like the role should have its own e-mail account separate from an employee's individual account, in which case this would work as well. Having all the e-mail go to one account and sorting it out on the client side seems kind of grody to me. Do you not agree?

[besson3c]

Wow... Cold Warrior, you're the man! THANKS!! I've been waiting for a solution like this for a while, I don't know why I didn't think of myself.

This is obviously the biggest, sloppiest, and ugliest hack ever, but it *does* work

Thanks! You've earned your blue color!

[Chuckit]

Wow, have to admit, I didn't think that would work for some reason.

[besson3c]

Originally Posted by Chuckit 

You can do this. Just set up the e-mail account on your computer with "<company name> Support" as the name. We do this at the company where I work, in fact.

Reread my scenario. In my scenario you'd want to address some mails as yourself, and others as the company name within a single account.

It seems like the role should have its own e-mail account separate from an employee's individual account, in which case this would work as well. Having all the e-mail go to one account and sorting it out on the client side seems kind of grody to me. Do you not agree?

Having a separate email account is one way to do this, but some people don't want 2392234 email accounts for all the roles they cover - this is a lot of passwords and account information to track, plus it makes ones mail client far chattier. In our group, for instance, we have shared mailboxes for dns-admin, dhcp-admin, root, postmaster, mail-admin, RT tickets, feedback, etc. Shared mailboxes (which are different than shared accounts) are a much cleaner way to do this, which is what we use.

We don't do client side sorting, we use sieve rules.

[Cold Warrior]

Originally Posted by besson3c 

Wow... Cold Warrior, you're the man! THANKS!! I've been waiting for a solution like this for a while, I don't know why I didn't think of myself.

This is obviously the biggest, sloppiest, and ugliest hack ever, but it *does* work

Thanks! You've earned your blue color!

Coming from you sir, I will take that as a compliment. Glad I could help!

[SkiBikeSki]

Right, identities, that what's it called. You're right, it doesn't seem like Mail.app has a way to support multiple identities. I guess we're stuck with multiple accounts and frivolous errors icons.

Hate to burst you're bubble Cold Warrior, but what you described is exactly what I was trying to describe. Multiple accounts in Mail.app, all but one with incorrect POP info, and all with the same SMTP info.

[Cold Warrior]

Originally Posted by SkiBikeSki 

Right, identities, that what's it called. You're right, it doesn't seem like Mail.app has a way to support multiple identities. I guess we're stuck with multiple accounts and frivolous errors icons.

Hate to burst you're bubble Cold Warrior, but what you described is exactly what I was trying to describe. Multiple accounts in Mail.app, all but one with incorrect POP info, and all with the same SMTP info.

I see it now after reading your post more carefully. Maybe I subconsciously absorbed it, only to regurgitate it as my own?