Help me suggest to MacBU better Readability of titles for newsgroupthreads?

[Norman R. Nager, Ph.D.]

I'd like to suggest through Entourage/Help/Send Feedback an improvement for
the readability of the title lines for threads that are now in bold face
black font on purplish bars. Please help me suggest something that is
workable to the Mac BU.

(I have my newsgroup posts arranged to display threads of posts by date.
And the Subject column is on the very left.)

But it's hard to scan down screens of threads, including single and
couple-post threads, that contain a lot of NEW posts with subject, from,
etc. column entries ALL in bold face looking for those topics that one wants
to learn more about. Although the thread titles are on a colored bar, the
bars (for my vision) seem lost in a maze of bold faced print.

What would be feasible and good for one to suggest to the Mac BU?

What kind (size or color, for instance) of font or what kind of color in
the title bars would stand out from all the bold face in display screens
filled with new posts and short threads?

Respectfully, Norm

 

[Bill Weylock]

This doesn¹t answer your question, but you might see if this works better
for you:

I read the group items by Subject, with the subject groups sorted by date
sent with newest at the top. Within each subject group, I have the items
sorted by date with the oldest one on top.

I find it makes things a lot easier to read that way. You might give it a
shot.

For the rest of it, just don¹t know. But the real EntourJocks will chime in
I¹m sure.


Best,


- Bill

I'd like to suggest through Entourage/Help/Send Feedback an improvement for
the readability of the title lines for threads that are now in bold face
black font on purplish bars. Please help me suggest something that is
workable to the Mac BU.

(I have my newsgroup posts arranged to display threads of posts by date.
And the Subject column is on the very left.)

But it's hard to scan down screens of threads, including single and
couple-post threads, that contain a lot of NEW posts with subject, from,
etc. column entries ALL in bold face looking for those topics that one wants
to learn more about. Although the thread titles are on a colored bar, the
bars (for my vision) seem lost in a maze of bold faced print.

What would be feasible and good for one to suggest to the Mac BU?

What kind (size or color, for instance) of font or what kind of color in
the title bars would stand out from all the bold face in display screens
filled with new posts and short threads?

Respectfully, Norm

Best,

Bill
Imac 2.8Ghz -10.5.1
Office 2008/2003 - Windows XP Pro SP2

 

[Diane Ross]

I'd like to suggest through Entourage/Help/Send Feedback an improvement for
the readability of the title lines for threads that are now in bold face
black font on purplish bars. Please help me suggest something that is
workable to the Mac BU.

I'm guessing this is preview pane below. You might be a lot happier with the
3 pane view. See this page:

<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/get_started/views.html#14210>

See this comparison:

http://www.entourage.mvps.org/ng/views.html

 

[Norman R. Nager, Ph.D.]

Thanks, Diane.

I used the Preview pane years ago, but vaguely recall some security warning
I read about viewing HTML messages with Preview. If it is now secure, I
think I'd have to get used to the narrower view again of 3 panes vs. 1. Any
such security problems now in Preview with an HTML message?

Even with the 3-pane view, I'd still recommend a different font size or
color in the thread subject bar than in the post subject bars within it.

What do you think?

Respectfully, Norm

 

[William Smith]

I used the Preview pane years ago, but vaguely recall some security warning
I read about viewing HTML messages with Preview. If it is now secure, I
think I'd have to get used to the narrower view again of 3 panes vs. 1. Any
such security problems now in Preview with an HTML message?

That security issue may have been with tracking bugs in E-mail messages
a long long time ago. Entourage 2004 and later prevents the automatic
display of HTML messages from people not in your address book and makes
you purposely choose to download the content.

Today, I know of no other security issues with using the Preview pane.

Hope this helps!

--

bill

William M. Smith, Microsoft Interop MVP - Mac/Windows
Entourage Help Page <http://entourage.mvps.org/>
Entourage Help Blog <http://blog.entourage.mvps.org/>

 

[Allen Watson]

You can select what font and size you want the items in your message list to
use. In preferences, select Fonts, and then set the font and size for your
List Items. I don't think there is a way to set a color, though.

Another technique for more quickly scanning subjects, without being
distracted by the boldface subject lines of the individual messages, is to
go to the View menu and select "Collapse All". This collapses the threads
(make sure you have the message list and not the folder pane selected or it
will collapse the folder list!), so only the title bars show. This fits a
lot more onto the screen, and each subject appears only once. When you spot
a subject you want to read, click on the title bar to open up the thread and
see the individual messages. This is a very efficient way of wading through
messages, which I often use (whether or not I have the Preview pane
showing).

Incidentally, in Entourage 2008, the default settings about downloading
images and such (the security risk you mentioned) are set to a safe mode. No
images download until you click "Download pictures" _unless_ the sender is
listed in your Address Book--presumably, a person you know and trust. So
using preview pane is quite safe now.

 

[Norman R. Nager, Ph.D.]

That security issue may have been with tracking bugs in E-mail messages
a long long time ago. Entourage 2004 and later prevents the automatic
display of HTML messages from people not in your address book and makes
you purposely choose to download the content.

Today, I know of no other security issues with using the Preview pane.

Hope this helps!

Yes, indeed. Thanks!