Do you know where the thread under my original comment went? I see them in the RSS feed but not on page for the blog post. Odd.

Jesse

it's also an app launcher.
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/14831

It *seems* daunting in the begining. But it's a tool I cannot live without.

You can also do 2 from the keyboard with command-return on the result, which will open a finder window with the item selected. This also works in many applications that manage files, like itunes.

For 3, if the email contains a date and/or time, you can hover over that to get a small drop-down. This is called a data detector, and the menu will contain items for creating ical events using that info. Not quite what you're talking about, but a half step away.

For 4, I can't think of anything that would change that behaviour. I'd be a steak sandwich that in a few weeks you won't notice it anymore, though. The mind is way more fluid in habit forming and dropping than we expect.

Getting to the menu bar using the keyboard is control-f2, (control-fn-f2 if you're on a macbook).

Congrats on the mac.

Regarding Mail, I do use it at work as my primary e-mail client. I use it at home to mirror my personal Gmail via IMAP because, like you, I want to have my data in several places. Since you are handling so much e-mail, I would recommend looking into 1) Smart Mailboxes and 2) Mail rules, especially those that use Applescript to interact with non-Mail apps. Similarly, you may find Smart Folders within Finder to be helpful (e.g, PDFs or Word documents that were modified in the last two days and are stored in your Documents or Downloads folders). Once created, you can then drag these Smart Folders to the sidebar in your Finder window. These are a few big timesavers for me.

For example, at work I pipe all event invitations to a separate Gmail account using an a Mail rule & basic Applescript (which opens Gmail for me, so I can easily accept and modify the event). I use Calaboration to sync the Google Cal and my work iCal. Alternatively, one could use the CalDAV method described here (http://www.google.com/support/calendar/bin/answ...), which seems more elegant.

1. Open Automator
2. Select “Service” template
3. Set “Service receives selected” to “Files or folders” in “Finder”
4. Drag the mail action “New Mail Message” into the area marked “Drag actions or files here to build your workflow.”
5. Save it and call it “Send to”
6. In finder select some files and right click. “Send to” should be there.

This should give you a tough example to polish.

I've met a lot of people who have migrated to Gmail/GCal. I totally understand where you are coming from and can't seem to do it for two reasons. One, I like have my data on my machine, data I can back up and do what I want with (plus I haven't figured out how to sync my BB with gcal). But more importantly, I find Gmail frustrating because I can't sort mail by subject line or sender. This is critical because I get a lot of false positives in my junkmail folder with Gmail and the easiest way to scan junk mail is to sort my subject and then quickly delete anything that references a sexual organ, drug or dating service. I'd never thought that feature was important until Gmail took it away – and it seems to simple, I don't know why they don't add it. It's like they feel you should HAVE to search for your mail…

Anyway, again, thank you for that link and the advice… super helpful!