Our Verdict
AppleMail , the e-mail guest that comes with OS X , handily do the demand of millions of Mac user . Use it for long time , though , and you may get hold that Mail ’s hunt capabilities ca n’t easy find that six - twelvemonth - old subject matter that you need right now . And nearly every mail guest suffers from the creeping problem of degraded functioning , a final result of the collection of gigabytes of messages and attachments .
EnterMailSteward Pro , a product that helps address both plights . MailSteward Pro ’s elementary function is to study your Apple Mail single file structure and imitate the substance and attachments to its own database . Using the ware ’s hefty search features , finding just the ripe message among 10 of M is readily achieve . And , with the emails move to a searchable archive , they can be deleted from Mail , thus shrinking its database and recoup some speed .
MailSteward Pro delivers , with an investiture of time and endeavour . One of MailSteward Pro ’s bully flexibility can be a source of frustration for the uninitiate — users must first arrange up a MySQL database in which to hive away the message replicate from Apple Mail . This certainly does n’t require a data processor science point , but expect to expend a few hours downloading , put in , and configure the freeMySQLserver product . MailSteward Pro ’s documentation offers excellent direction here . Once set up , the vast possibilities of take your emails in a relational database are at your electric pig .
If the idea of configure and administering a SQL waiter move around your hair blank , consider the simpler MailSteward ( sans Pro ) . This $ 50 adaptation builds and manages its own SQL database . However , what you pull in in ease you lose in tractableness . MailSteward Pro ’s database can be accessed by multiple users on a connection and need not reside on the same calculator as the MailSetward Pro diligence . Back - end data storage notwithstanding , the two versions are selfsame .
Telling MailSteward Pro what and when to spell is handled in the tabs of a preferences dialogue box . The Accounts tab displays the email account configured in Apple Mail , and allows you to select those you care to file away into MailSteward Pro . A Mailbox view in this lozenge display your intact mailbox pecking order , allow more focused importation . A checkbox at the bottom of this tab instructs MailSteward Pro to blue-pencil the take messages from Mail after they ’ve been copied — use that checkbox with uttermost caution , because MailSteward Pro ca n’t move messages back into Apple Mail .
The Scheduling lozenge is used to automate ingest of new mail messages . MailStewardPro can grab young message at any interval between hourly and each year . While the MailSteward Pro program need not be kept open for the schedule to execute , the MySQL waiter and database must be approachable for the subprogram to succeed .
Tags ( one to two word text verbal description ) can be applied to email messages automatically at the prison term MailSteward Pro archives them . A Tag Rules tab in the configurations dialogue box provide a body structure for defining which tags to apply . For example , any subject matter that get along from your cousin ’s email speech can automatically be tagged with the “ Family ” category and the keyword “ cousin . ” position up a Tag Rule for each penis of your family that assigns appropriate keywords , and it becomes dead simple to search for substance from all your cousins at once .
My testing realise MailSteward Pro copying content at a charge per unit of about eight per sec , though I was n’t include fond regard or applying Tag Rules . irrespective of options and configurations , it ’s probably wise to to let that first big backup run overnight .
Once MailSteward Pro has some information in its system , browsing and searching becomes potential . The substance viewer window is running , but not exactly beguile . A toolbar across the top propose buttons and menus for finding and manipulating messages . Just below the toolbar is a list of the emails that meet your search standard . Select any subject matter and its contents and attachments appear in stacked windowpane acid just below the list . It ’s all quite clear and graspable , but has the feel of being designed by a very subject engineer , not a user port expert .
Each of the Print , Save , Delete , and exportation buttons in the toolbar offer thoughtful array of choices . Most of the action can be applied to the selected content , the messages that come along in the current list , or all the subject matter in the whole database . Combined with MailSteward Pro ’s lookup prowess , you could , for example , receive and print every bill received from a particular marketer in the third quarter of 2009 . The toolbar also sports Reply and Forward buttons that create new outgoing messages in Apple Mail — a handy shortcut that saves some written matter / paste bouncing between applications .
Bottom line
Like the car crusher at a junkyard , MailSteward Pro is an efficient , purpose - built dynamo . You ’re not going to bribe it because it ’s reasonably , but if you ’re awash in email messages , it ’ll aptly tame that creature . case-by-case exploiter can opt for the non - Pro version that offers the same feature in a shut database for half the cost .
