Email attachment question

[David]

Hello again.

I was wondering if there is a way to ensure that images dropped into an email message [or attached otherwise] can, by default, be seen as an icon rather than the image appear in full view?  There is the option to change to an icon view after being placed within the message, but I can't see in preferences how to make that a default.  I'm usually fairly thorough at checking things out for myself, but am presently on pretty strong pain pills, and so can use that as an excuse for not seeing what might be obvious.

Thanks.

David.

[ben schmidt]

Try quitting "Mail.app" if it is running, then launching "/Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app" and entering this command:

Code Select Expand

defaults write com.apple.mail DisableInlineAttachmentViewing -bool true

Then relaunch "Mail.app".

To reverse, repeat the above steps but replace "true" with "false".

[David]

Thanks.  I didn't realise I'd have to be a programmer to use this program, and left all that behind with MS.  I just hope I can find this information when I do decide to reverse anything done.

David.

[ben schmidt]

Thanks.  I didn't realise I'd have to be a programmer to use this program, and left all that behind with MS.  I just hope I can find this information when I do decide to reverse anything done.

Well, one doesn't need to remember arcane commands like the one provided. One can always make the choice to accept the default behaviour of their applications.  And is it so bad? The authors of mail.app, for example, evidently decided mail.app display attachments should be shown visually by default. But, as you discovered, they thoughtfully allowed this behaviour to be overridden by right-clicking on any attachment.

However I totally get that advising computer hobbyists not to "tweak" their systems is missing the point -- for many this tuning is a core aspect of their hobby.

• And therefore, isn't it wonderful that, although OS X application developers may have not intended that such-and-such a default behaviour in their application be changed, they thoughtfully abstracted the setting into a variable in their preference file?


• And isn't great that Apple provides a command-line tool, "defaults", that that makes it easy for software hobbyists to share a specific edit to these preference files?

I could have alternately and equally validly shared the above hint by saying: (1) locate mail.app's preference file, (2) look for such-and-such a text-string, (3) if it's not there, add it in; and (4) then edit its value to "0" from "1". But offering a single command-line that does all is a much more succinct and error-free way to share, don't you agree? For more information on the "defaults" command, just type "man defaults" in terminal.app. Isn't it great to have the power of Unix under the 'hood' of OS X?

So if one identifies as a hobbyist, "tweak away!" and let's keeping sharing these tweaks. But let's also accept that it's choice we're making to stray off the main-road - and isn't it great we can?

[Dan Millar]

I totally agree with Ben, but I completely understand David's reluctance to drive all the way into downtown UNIXville when all you need is a cornerstore solution. As Ben points out, Apple has made the parts of the user experience they want you to have access to very accessible via the defaults system, preference "plists", etc. A lot of these "hacks" are scattered all over the internet, and a few books as well, but we're also fortunate that several programmers have written user-friendly applications that allow non-technical users to change some of those arcane settings  quickly and without a word of terminalese. I think I've seen Cocktail (http://www.maintain.se/cocktail/index.php) discussed on here, and I believe it even has a setting to hide attachments within messages, while still allowing you to save or quicklook the attachments from the mail header. There are others - TinkerTool and Onyx are, reportedly, also quite good.

Happy Mac'ing, and, be careful out there!

Dan

[David]

Sorry for the turmoil.  When I said I'd "left all that behind with MS" I was complimenting the fact that Apple had GUI when I was typing DOS lines, setting printer dip switches, and thinking I was being clever.  With the PC, I've done everything up to and including dabble in Assembler, using the architecture to advantage ...but that was long ago.  Now I'm old, and just want to point and click, and was looking for a simple solution, that's all.  If the only solution is not intuitive,  I can handle that.

Thanks for the effort and advice.

David.

[ben schmidt]

all the way into downtown UNIXville

downtown UNIXville! I love it. Where all the residents here have ponytails and wear Birkenstocks!

Cocktail, TinkerTool and Onyx

Nice call Dan! There are 'tweaking' utilities, whose aim, as you point out, is to put a GUI (Graphical User Interface) on some of the more common tweaks for OS X and its core apps. These utilities are ideal for hobbyists who don't think 'Oh boy!' when they look at OS X's Unix commandline. I took a quick look at the three apps you mentioned:

Cocktail 4.6.1 (Snow Leopard version) - Bingo! Your memory serves you well! Just as you recalled there is indeed a checkbox for tweaking mail.app, entitled "Do not display attachments in message"

Onyx 2.1.1 - no luck. It does have two tweaks for mail.app, just not the one addressing display of attachments.

TinkerTool 3.96 - no luck. Tweaks for Finder, Dock and Safari but didn't see any for Mail.

Maybe Mugoo members use some other tweaker-apps they'd like to share?

[Dan Millar]

Hey, I cut my pony-tail off years ago! And as far as Birkenstocks, I never wore them - but, they're better than "Crocs", aren't they? But, yeah, downtown UNIXville is full of those guys (and a few gals too). It was the Mac that lured me away from UNIXville all those many moons ago, but I always wished there was a "command line" in the OS somewhere, but not DOS! Please! I was, frankly, quite puzzled that both MicroSoft and Apple were re-inventing the wheel when there was a perfectly sound and robust OS like UNIX around. I can't tell you how thrilled I was when I saw my first NeXT computer, and when "the Steve" returned to Apple I was even more thrilled to think of what was coming.

Even so, the command line can be a dangerous place. Classic example - rm *.* (geekspeak-delete every file in this directory) when you think you're in a user's sub-directory, but you're actually in the root. Ouch. On the other hand - wanna find every TIFF file on your hard drive, rename them with a sequential string and number, compress them into a giant zip file, and copy the zip file to a CD in less than one line of code, or, would you rather do it in the Finder? I'll take the CLI every time...

Mac OS X - the absolute best of both worlds!

Happy Mac'ing

Dan