Possible Features when Browsing Messages

This area is for listing all the possible features that an email user might want to do related to browsing messages.

OSAF will eventually use this list to determine which features should be in which (if any) releases.

User actions

• ChangeMessageAttributes
• delete selected messages
• "open message in its own window" support
• Save commonly used Views for reuse ("bookmarking")
• change/add attributes (which acts the same as moving/copying to a different "folder")
• Switch current View
• Select all
• one-click column sort
• multi-column sort (e.g. first by Category, second by read/unread, third by date)
• roll selected messages into a digest (see comment in EditingReceivedEmail)
• Toolbar buttons for
  • one-click to move to next message (i.e., message has pending actions, but I don't want to deal with it yet)
  • one-click to move to next unread message
  • one-click to move to previous message
  • one-click to mark "done" (i.e. get it out of my current view)
  • one-click to change category to category (for those who want to "file" as they go)
• Allow the user to make a temporary grouping inside the mailbox for all messages matching a certain field (Eudora has this feature)

Display

• DisplayedMessageAttributes
• Sort by any attribute (e.g. date, category, urgency)
• 2-pane and 3-pane views
• Display arbitrary message attributes (e.g. "Read" & "Done")
• Automatic highlighting/coloring (see Possible Email Filtering Features)
• Modify/examine/delete current View
• Allow each column to be customizable by format and fonts
• Optionally show threads in expandable/collapsable groups
• Optionally hide (or collapse) threads and sub-threads with no unread messages
• Optionally show all messages with a specified property (e.g. "project") in expandable/collapsable groups
• Optional support for summary view (brief summary of each email mesg)
• Sorting that recognizes "Person" as property (to group messages from different email addresses belonging to the same person)
• Optionally sort messages by how recently there was correspondence in the same thread
• Sort-by-subject should ignore all permutations (in all languages!) of "RE:" and "FWD:"
• A View that shows responses (outbound messages) mixed in with incoming messages
• hiding messages until time/date or event
• Upon opening, have the client set the "current message pointer"/selected message to (optionally):
  • last read message
  • earliest unread message
  • first unread message in last unread block (FUMLUM)
• Optionally have the client not reorder messages when new messages are brought in

Other

• Public/shared folders
  • read/write
  • read-only
  • will full access control features (so e.g. an admin can read/reply to his or her boss' email)
• Move messages between local repository and remote folders (particularly for IMAP)
• Copy messages between local repository and remote folders

External resources

Web pages:

• Jamie Zawinski's algorithm for threading

Mailing list messages:

• Message sorting and character encoding by KentSin^?
• mail: digestion and attached emails by JoelFinkle^? (about rolling selected messages into a digest)
• A Sort by subject annoyance by ArnulvRudland quoting Mark Nielsen (about multilingual RE and FWD)
• Outbound rules by Nick Virtue (with a snippet about a View that shows both inbound and outbound correspondence)
• Document Management -- Universal In Box by TimRandolph^? (discussing the "universal inbox" -- the inbox as the user's complete "to-do" list)
• view/filters: default option by DuckySherwood
• JoelFinkle^? wants Chandler to come up on the earliest unread message since last time he opened Chandler
• ThijsStalenhoef^? wants all his messages funnelled into one mailbox with color-coding to show which email account the message was addressed to
• KevinFrank^? has a request about sort order for messages just moved to the mailbox

Contributors

• AlCho
• DuckySherwood
• ChaoLam - 10 Jan 2003