[Simon]

OK, maybe I am just being plain stupid and I haven't found the menu entry yet, but I really tried finding something and I couldn't. I want to select a couple of e-mails in my inbox and open them in windows one behind the other. I selected the e-mails and then

- double-click. doesn't work, it only opens the mail you double-clicked on

- pressed command-o. doesn't work msince there is no command linked to command-o.

- tried to find a menu entry like "Open", but there's no such entry.

Is mail.app really not able to open more than one e-mail at a time?

[GRAFF]

Try opening one, return to the list of mails and then open the next item.

[Simon]

Originally posted by GRAFF:
Try opening one, return to the list of mails and then open the next item.

Well great, then I still have to open one after the other. No time saved. I want to be able to open 20 at once, read one, close its window and then read the next w/o having to manually open every single one of them.

Is this really not possible?

[kovacs]

Yep I found it, select multiple mails when holding down the command button and now command double click ( not just double click ) on one of the selected mails. You can also use the shift button, click one the first mail and then click one the last mail when holding down shift and now shift-double click on one of the selected mails...

[Simon]

Originally posted by kovacs:
Yep I found it, select multiple mails when holding down the command button and now command double click on one of the selected mails. You can also use the shift button, click one the first mail and then click one the last mail when holding down shift and now shift-double click on one of the selected mails...

Oh great. Thanks for your help. I didn't come up with that idea. Sounds a bit strange IMHO. It's not like Finder behavior or any other behavior I'm used to on the Mac. Is that some kind of remnant of the good ol' NeXT days?

[macmike42]

Originally posted by Simon:
Oh great. Thanks for your help. I didn't come up with that idea. Sounds a bit strange IMHO. It's not like Finder behavior or any other behavior I'm used to on the Mac. Is that some kind of remnant of the good ol' NeXT days?

Hmm? It's exactly like the Finder except that there is no rubber band selector, which IMHO, there shouldn't be unless you are selecting icons. Mail's listboxes act like every other multiple selection listboxes on the Mac OS. Now if you want some inconsistent behaviour, give the Mac OS 9 Finder a go.

[dfiler]

Originally posted by Simon:
Oh great. Thanks for your help. I didn't come up with that idea. Sounds a bit strange IMHO. It's not like Finder behavior or any other behavior I'm used to on the Mac. Is that some kind of remnant of the good ol' NeXT days?

The Finder has the exact same functionality as soes almost every other mac program ever. Select multiple items, perform an action... In this case, select the items then double click.

[kovacs]

Originally posted by dfiler:
The Finder has the exact same functionality as soes almost every other mac program ever. Select multiple items, perform an action... In this case, select the items then double click.

Yeah but that is it, you can't double click you have to command double click... In the finder you only have to double click..

[Simon]

Originally posted by kovacs:
Yeah but that is it, you can't double click you have to command double click... In the finder you only have to double click..

Thanks for that clarification Kovacs. Dfiler and Macmike, first read, then think and then maybe reply - not the other way around. The fundamental rule of this board is not

Code:
while(onLine)
  postCount++
endwhile

Nothing about having to press command when double-clicking on the selection is Mac-like. That's why I asked. I'm wondering where this behavior comes from. If it were like in other Mac programs simple people like me would have been able to find it on their own. This way it's just like hide and seek.

[dfiler]

Originally posted by kovacs:
Yeah but that is it, you can't double click you have to command double click... In the finder you only have to double click..

Heheh. Oops.
You are correct.

Now i'm quite curious. Is this behavior exhibited by all cocoa NSTableViews? If so, is there a scenario where this behavior is good? Perhaps we can get it fixed if there is never a reason to require a multiple selection modifier key to be held down. I'll have to ponder this a bit more...

[bremner770]

Originally posted by Simon:
I want to select a couple of e-mails in my inbox and open them in windows one behind the other.

Here's another solution to your problem:[list=1][*]Select the relevant messages from your 'In Box'[*]Click on the 'View' menu and select 'Focus On Selected Messages'[*]Your 'In Box' now contains only the selected messages. Read each message by clicking the down arrow and making it appear in the preview pane.[*]Once you've finished reading then select 'Show All Messages' from the 'View ' menu to return your 'In Box' to how it was.[/list=1]
Easy!

[Simon]

Originally posted by bremner770:
[list=1][*]Select the relevant messages from your 'In Box'[*]Click on the 'View' menu and select 'Focus On Selected Messages'[*]Your 'In Box' now contains only the selected messages. Read each message by clicking the down arrow and making it appear in the preview pane.[*]Once you've finished reading then select 'Show All Messages' from the 'View ' menu to return your 'In Box' to how it was.[/list=1]

Ah, very imaginative. Thanks.

[cpac]

I'm shocked nobody has mentioned the easiest of all.

Select all the messages you want to read.

Hit return.

ta-da!!!

[Simon]

Originally posted by cpac:
Select all the messages you want to read. Hit return.

Ah, very simple indeed. Strange, another non-typical way to do this on a Mac. Gee wiz so many ways to do it, but the normal Mac-way doesn't work...

[dfiler]

Originally posted by Simon:
Ah, very simple indeed. Strange, another non-typical way to do this on a Mac. Gee wiz so many ways to do it, but the normal Mac-way doesn't work...

I'm still divided on the whole RETURN = (click or double click) thing. On windows, this is most notably manifested in the file system. Select file(s) and hit return to open. Also, return activates the currently focused widget.

In the Mac OS(s) return typically edits the text of a selected item.
Shhhhh. I think I actually prefer the windows way. Although, this really overloads the functionality of the return key. Users must take great care to ensure that they know exactly what is selected before pressing RETURN. I think that OS X could probably change the RETURN key's behavior without user's habitual workflows causing destructive errors.

RETURN should be the equivalent of double-clicking an object. This change should only be applied to objects and not controls. Arrow keys and the RETURN key offer speedy and convenient keyboard navigation. Arrow keys and Command-O is simply not good enough for most people to actually adopt keyboard navigation under the current Mac OSes.

Oh yeah, and double-click should definately not require a modifier key for performing a simple 'open' command on objects. This means that objects will have to wait for the double click time-out-period prior to invoking even a single-click action.