[amorag]

I can't seem to find an answer to the following question - any leads would be greatly appreciated:

Is there a way of forcing Mail.app to use the first/last name from my address book as the display name in the "From" column? This would make it must easier to sort my incoming e-mail. Currently, even senders that are in my address book are displayed as an e-mail address, or whatever "display name" they designated for themselves. I would prefer to ignore this and use the display name I set for them. Incidentally, when I double-click on a message, the From address shown in the window DOES use the address book name, but only if the sender hasn't set a display name - otherwise this is ignored.

If Mail.app is not capable of doing this, is anyone aware of an App that is?

[Rainy Day]

I've noticed this behavior too and, like you, would rather Mail.app used the address book name rather than whatever is in the mail header.

Sounds like good feedback for Apple. I encourage you to submit it to them. They just might implement it.

[amorag]

Okay, will do. Since this feature is very important to me, are there any other e-mail apps that permit this?

[Rainy Day]

I don't know of any, but that doesn't mean there aren't any.

If one is determined enough, one could make it happen with Mail.app, one way or another.

If Mail.app permits the modification of headers once mail has been read, an AppleScript could do the trick, and this would be the easiest, most direct way.

If not, one might be able to directly modify the message my manipulating the mbox files which Mail.app uses to store eMails, but this technique has several drawbacks and i don't recommend it.

A safer and more robust technique would be the transformation of the header prior to Mail.app reading the mail. This can be done through a combination of procmail, fetchmail, a little shell scripting, the AddressBook CLI tool, and a local pop server. This approach should work with a variety of mail clients, but has some limitations too.