As a part of thread started by Jeffrey: http://lists.osafoundation.org/pipermail/design/2007-October/007706.html

1. By default, stamping an item to address it does not necessarily mean that you will send it out as an email. This means a couple of things: The only addressing fields that appear are 'To:' and 'CC:' Even though CC is an email convention, I think it's very helpful in assigning tasks and sending out invitations to meetings. It's really a concept that should be extended beyond email, not restricted to it. The communication status column does not display a 'draft-status' icon. Send button does not activate as soon as user enters something into To/CC fields. The Mail application area needs to be changed to something more generic. Something that says 'communication' rather than email per se. The icon should be changed to match the Addressing stamp. Below the 'To:' and 'CC:' fields is a checkbox where users can opt to 'Send the item as email'.
2. Checking the 'Send as email' box does a number of things: 'From' field appears, auto-populated with the user's name Send as pulldown appears, auto-populated, same as now, with first SMTP account listed in the Accounts dialog. Communication status column displays a 'draft-status' icon. Send button activates.
3. When editing sent/received messages, users have to explicitly check the 'Sent email update' checkbox in order for all the 'email-like' features to activate: Update button activates Communication status icon displays 'draft-update' status Additionally, as Philippe has lobbied for in the past, in order for this design to work, we will need to display the byline (at the top of the DV) at all times (instead of mixing the byline with the email pulldown).

Nice to have: More specific attribute labels for Tasks and Events

• When addressing a task item: To becomes Assigned to: or Owner:
• When addressing an event item: To becomes Invite:
• Expando addressing fields

Final Analysis

I believe this proposal will address a whole host of usability problems we've had with the whole addressing stamp workflow. In particular:

• Draft status popping up when people have no intention of sending email or update emails
• Users not understanding that the Update button is for email only and isn't needed to apply to sharing edits
• Users not understanding that the Addressing stamp can be used for more than just email

However, what is the cost? Is this do-able (implementation + testing) in a 3 month timeframe? (Obviously this depends on what else we need to work on.)