Other than turning into the misinformation superhighway, if ever there was a scourge we could attribute to the internet, it’s email, the app we love to hate regardless of which app we’re using at the time. Despite technology advancements that put the power of a desktop computer from just a few years ago into a pocket, complete with high quality photo and video camera, and mobile face-to-face video calls, we still do email the old fashioned way. Begrudgingly and one message at a time.
Is there a better way? No. Apple’s Mail has added the weight and complexity of countless features that few of us pay much attention to, let alone use regularly. Basically, what most Mac users want is to get through the mass of mail every day as quickly as possible. Here’s a clever and affordable tool that helps. It’s called MailBar. Guess where it lives?
Yep. MailBar resides in the Mac’s Menubar so it’s like having email from within any Mac app, easily viewed and handled with a click.
The Menubar icon displays how many unread messages remain in the Mail inbox, and a click gets you a drop down list– sort of like a mini Mail app, but with options to search messages, mark messages, move messages to archive or delete, and all the basics that bore us to death, but need to be done. Soon.
Right from the first Menubar click you can compose a new email message, reply to one in the inbox, or forward the message to get it out of sight as quickly as possible. MailBar even does autocomplete when you begin to type an email address.
Despite being a mini-mini version of Mail, MailBar isn’t devoid of basic features. Configure up to four email mailboxes, each with color, sound, and active state. Customize keyboard shortcuts, too.
MailBar isn’t Mail and it’s not supposed to be. It’s a more convenient, faster, easier way to dispose of the latest messages while you’re working from within another app on your Mac. For that, it works, and that justifies the less-than-a-cheap-lunch price tag.