Efficiently Rule Your Inbox

Dave Andrews

Good news, Mac cc:Mail users: Release 3 makes your wishes for more control over the ever-increasing number of messages in your E-mail inbox come true. The new Mac client for cc:Mail, Lotus's LAN-based E-mail program, takes the advanced-rules technology from the Windows cc:Mail client and improves it. As you can with the Windows version, you can set up your cc:Mail for Macintosh E-mail inbox to automatically delete junk mail, place messages in specific folders (depending on criteria ranging from subjects to specific text strings in the message's body text), or forward messages when you are away.

But I find the current Windows version's interface too cumbersome to automate anything but the most basic messages without spending an inordinate amount of time programming a given r ule. I found the new Mac version's approach to rules easier and more intuitive. Within 5 minutes, I had written several complex rules to forward and archive messages based on subject header, author, and content.

Other handy features include droplets, which let you place mailing lists on the desktop for easy access when you are sending a message, and 150 new file viewers, which let you read and print files created in other applications without launching the application.

Lotus cc:Mail for Macintosh release 3 is available for PowerPC- and 680x0-based Macs. Mac users of cc:Mail need no longer look with envy at the rules technology of their Windows cousins; in fact, the shoe is now on the other foot.

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PRODUCT INFORMATION

Lotus cc:Mail for Macintosh release 3
  single user.............................$95
  10-user workgroup license..............$495

Lotus Development Corp.
Ca
mbridge, MA
Phone:    (800) 343-5414 or (617) 577-8500
Internet: 
http://www.lotus.com

Circle 991 on Inquiry Card.

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Efficiency Rules

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