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DigitalEl · May 20, 2003, 06:17 AM

Has anyone done it?

This otherwise great app always looks awful with darker themes, because some elements have white backgrounds. Specifically, the six buttons that switch you between e-mail, address book, calendar, etc... And the l'il widget that shows or hides those buttons and your e-mail folders.

I love some of the darker themes, like BBX Mercury and the new SS Studio Pro, but almost always go back to a whiter theme, like Smoothstripes Glossy, because of Entourage.

Damn, I wish iCal and Mail were good enough for my everyday use. They certainly look better. Well, Mail does anyway.

This is not an invitation to discuss the merits of Mail/Address Book/iCal vs. Entourage. I just want to know if there are any GUI hacks for the latter.

godzookie2k · May 20, 2003, 07:23 AM

I haven't seen any. Frankly I also don't really care. I don't spend *that* much time in Entourage for it to bother me.

FB Eye · May 20, 2003, 08:25 AM

wow godzookie2k, that sure is helpful!!!

DigitalEl · May 20, 2003, 09:06 AM

Originally posted by FB Eye:
wow godzookie2k, that sure is helpful!!!

That's so the spirit of these forums anymore, FB Eye, it doesn't even phase me. Whatchagonnado?

bbxstudio · May 20, 2003, 10:37 AM

I think it's the sort of thing that would require some serious deep hacking to pull off, but then you'd have to redistribute the altered Entourage for anyone else to use it - big no no. I use Entourage all the time, but I'd switch to Mail or something else if they were anywhere near as versatile. I used to use Eudora and then QuickMail in OS9 - but so far Entourage seems to be the beefiest mail client in OSX. Seeing as I now have 2 years worth of traceable history and filed messages in entourage, I'd be reluctant to switch over without the ability to carry all of that over intact.

+ spiral + · May 20, 2003, 10:58 AM

powermail ... *cough* ... powermail.
http://www.ctmdev.com

bbxstudio · May 20, 2003, 03:10 PM

Originally posted by + spiral +:
powermail ... *cough* ... powermail.
http://www.ctmdev.com

Yeah I've checked it out and it seems like a fantastic app - but my biggest problem is not carrying over just address books, but a vast archive of filtered and filed messages... been using Entourage for so long that I've just got too much info wrapped up in there. I'll have to wait for a catastrophic crash or drive failure wherein I'm forced to start from zero before I'll be compelled to leave Entourage and move on to something nicer. Simply forwarding and refiltering the messages will mess up any original sender/time dependant info, so no go.

+ spiral + · May 20, 2003, 05:26 PM

Originally posted by bbxstudio:
Yeah I've checked it out and it seems like a fantastic app - but my biggest problem is not carrying over just address books, but a vast archive of filtered and filed messages...

You can import Entourage databases into Powermail. You just have to drag the folders to the desktop and then import them through powermail. It could be a bit of a chore (depending on how many folders you have), but hey, you won't have to use entourage anymore. I'm not sure about filters, but there is bound to be an apple script to do that as well. I don't think you would really need to start from zero to switch. There is a 30 day demo if you wanted to try importing some messages etc.

I can't say enough good things about Powermail. I've been using it for 3 years and used to be a OE lover. Powermail is so much faster and more lean. I haven't had a single problem during the whole time i've used it. The newest version can sync up with Apple's address book which is nice if you are using that. I've actually paid for the past upgrade as well. It has been worth every penny and then some.

alex_kac · May 20, 2003, 10:51 PM

My biggest beef with PowerMail is its IMAP support and HTML support. Both are very lacking. I have many hundreds of mailboxes in IMAP and it needs to work well. My tests showed that it didn't a few months ago (though I don't remember what exactly).

Worse was that 99% of the email I create and receive is HTML based - for the styles such bold, italics, indenting, etc... (we use this a huge amount on our internal dev lists) also because of URL wrapping, and much more.

It also just felt so much like an OS 9 app. I WANT to like PowerMail. I really do.

DigitalEl · May 21, 2003, 12:25 AM

I WANT to like PowerMail. I really do.

That's the way I feel about Apple Mail.

barbarian · May 24, 2003, 04:48 PM

Well it is easy to swap out all the entourage icons. Just doing that goes a long way to making it less disgusting.

Powaqqatsi · May 26, 2003, 11:20 AM

--> show package contents and change the resources. no ? (I know I did it once with MSN messenger, to get rid of the pinstripes)

acollins · Jun 7, 2003, 02:32 AM

I would like to second the request for help to change the icons. I tried a ctrl-click, and there was no Show Packaged Contents available. What's up with that? Why not?

Does anyone know where the icons are kept, so that they may be changed?

Sage · Jun 7, 2003, 02:58 PM

Originally posted by acollins:
I would like to second the request for help to change the icons. I tried a ctrl-click, and there was no Show Packaged Contents available. What's up with that? Why not?

Because Microsoft's Office apps were made to be able to be run on CarbonLib for compatibility with OS 9, and obviously OS 9 doesn't support packages.

Does anyone know where the icons are kept, so that they may be changed?

That's something I'd like to find out too!

[edit]: Oh, I see you're a soCAL resident too! I live about 40 or 50 miles north of LA, near the Santa Clarita Valley.

acollins · Jun 7, 2003, 03:16 PM

Because Microsoft's Office apps were made to be able to be run on CarbonLib for compatibility with OS 9, and obviously OS 9 doesn't support packages.

I'm almost sure that I've seen Carbon Apps with classic compatibility have packages of some sort. Maybe I'm just nuts, thoguh

What I was thinking was something along the line of ResEdit for the Classic OS, but in OS X. I've heard of ResExcellence, but I'm not very familiar with the site. Do they have something that lets you change a Carbon app's resources?

Anyone know about this?

Andrew

PS - Sage, I grew up in Lancaster and moved down here to go to UCLA. I actually live in Santa Monica.

Sage · Jun 7, 2003, 03:39 PM

Originally posted by acollins:
I'm almost sure that I've seen Carbon Apps with classic compatibility have packages of some sort. Maybe I'm just nuts, thoguh

Nope, not nuts.

For example, Dreamweaver MX and Fireworks MX both have CarbonLib compatibility, yet come with packages. Interestingly enough, Flash MX and Freehand 10 don't come in packages though.

Also, having re-read what you just said, note that I'm not referring to Classic, but actual OS 9... as in, using those apps on a computer that only has OS 9 installed.

PS - Sage, I grew up in Lancaster and moved down here to go to UCLA. I actually live in Santa Monica.

Heh, seems like everybody I meet on the Internet from Cali used to live in Lancaster! (Not me though... I've been in the same general area all of my life). Good job on getting into UCLA... I just completed my freshman year of high school though, so I need 3 more years under my belt before I even know where I'm headed to.

smeger · Jun 7, 2003, 05:46 PM

You can use a program called Resourcererererererrerrreeer to edit resources that are stored in an application's resource fork (this is how Entourage stores them). I didn't see the icons in there, though. They may be in one of the files in the Office folder. One of them had some WBMP resources that looked promising. I didn't pursue it, though.

acollins · Jun 8, 2003, 11:46 AM

Thanks a lot Smeger. That is exactly the program I was looking for. I also appreciated being pointed in the right direction.

Once I get done with finals I'll take a look at all those files in the Office Folder.

Thanks again.

Andrew