Please read the documentation, known issues list and troubleshooting section before asking your question in the comments below.
Known Issues
- Changing reply/forward label in Lion no longer works: Known issue with Mail on Lion. Bug filed with Apple Radar. It’s something Apple needs to fix.
- Cannot forward multiple selected messages: MessageFont only supports forwarding one message at a time.
- New, Reply and Forward buttons or menus do not work with MessageFont: MessageFont only works with the keyboard shortcuts to create new messages, replies and forwards in Mail. One workaround is to use the insert and replace shortcuts to convert your reply text before sending.
- The Mail preference for including only selected text in replies and forwards is not respected: Known issue with AppleScript’s implementation of the reply and forward commands, which MessageFont uses to create new outgoing messages.
- MessageFont works partially with MailTabs: Known issue. New replies and forwards will appear in separate windows instead of in tabs when using MailTabs. New messages will appear properly in tabs.
- MessageFont window does not come to the foreground on initial launch: Enabling Hide Dock icon prevents the application from appearing in the foreground at initial launch.
Troubleshooting
- Pressing the keyboard shortcuts in Mail shows the standard new, reply and forward windows.
- Solution: Make sure Enable MessageFont for new messages is checked.
- The reply/forward label font doesn’t get replaced. The text
MessageFont_formatted_textis displayed above or below it. - Solution: Adjust the Compensate for space following signature preference.
- Pressing the keyboard shortcuts in Mail results in a beep and nothing more.
- Solution: Quit and relaunch MessageFont.
- Occasionally, I press the shortcut for reply, forward or new, and MessageFont comes to the foreground, displays an error and disables the shortcuts.
- Known issue that we’re looking into at the moment. It might be due to the app not being able to “find” the currently selected message via AppleScript.
- I am running the MsgFiler 2.x Mail Plugin. Pressing the New, Reply or Forward message shortcuts causes MessageFont to display an error and disable the shortcuts.
- Workaround: This is a known issue. Make sure the MsgFiler 2.x window is closed before pressing the keyboard shortcuts.
Version History
- Version 1.0 – Initial release (April, 2011)
How do you get MessageFont to display the font in colour?
Michael: Right now, MessageFont can’t be configured to set the font color. It’s something I plan to add in the next version of the application.
Will it be possible for MessageFont to format the signature as well?
While you can select the signature text and press the replace selection shortcut, I would recommend just setting the signature font directly in Mail’s preferences.
Why is it when i use the shortcut to reply, whatever i have copied on my clip board is also pasted under my signature?
You need to adjust the setting in MessageFont Advanced Preferences called “Compensate for space following signature” Choose the number of lines that MessageFont is “missing”. This will fix the problem. Let me know if it doesn’t.
this worked thanks.
Actually it didn’t work it instead replaces lines of my signature with what is on my clipboard. I didn’t catch it. Please let me know!
This is a very promising 1.0 product, and it’s good to see that someone is addressing this longstanding gotcha in Apple Mail.
I’d like to see a version that is compatible with 10.5, and that does not require the App Store. Moreover, it would be very helpful if the product worked with the toolbar buttons, not just the keyboard shortcuts, as users tend to use both. We geeks may be fine with this limitation, but it is a sticking point for the end users we support.
David – Thanks for the comments. Because MessageFont is an application (and a Mac App Store one at that), it doesn’t have access to certain things that a Mail plugin would have. Perhaps a future version of the app will allow for this.
A feature suggestion, for those of us who hate bottom-quoting: An option to have the MessageFont_SELECT_AND_TYPE_OVER_THIS_TEXT below the selected quoted text, rather than above it.
I have purchased message font and thought it would address the viewing issue of the size of the font that is seen by my recprients that are not using a mac, could you advise of the settings that I should have as I had read that this app should resolve this.
Thanks
Gary – Can you send me screenshots of your MessageFont settings and what your recipients are seeing on their end? One thing to keep in mind is that your recipients should have the same font on their computer as you have on yours. support (at) messagefont (dot) com.
Adam – couple of questions. Can I stop MessageFont putting up a splash screen on every start up?
And is there a default so that MessageFont just works on every message I send or reply to? I’ve got used to using the hot keys (and it works very well) but I just feel it should just work in the background. Of course, there may be reasons why you have designed it to need to be set for each message…
Ian: What happens if you check the “Hide” checkbox in System Preferences / Accounts / Login Items / MessageFont? Do that make the window disappear at startup?
Because MessageFont is an app, there’s no way to integrate fully with Mail and override all calls to Reply, New Message and Forward (i.e. menu items and buttons). If the app were a Mail plugin, this might be possible, but there’s no plan right now to work on that.
Is this app required for Lion, or does Mail 5 resolve the issue and negate the need?
This will still be required for Lion. There are some incompatibilities with Lion, which I will explain once Lion is released to the general public. Since it’s still pre-release, I can’t say much more than that at this moment.
I just installed Message font.
Mails sent in Verdana 10 appears in Verdana 7,5 and Verdana 13,5 in outlook.
First line says “MessageFont_formatted_text ”
2 questions
1. How do I secure that Verdana 10 in mac mail appears as Verdana 10 in Outlook
2. How do I avoid that the first line in the mail in Outlook starts with “MessageFont_formatted_text “
@carl – You need to double-click on the MessageFont_formatted_text and type over the text. This will cause the text to be formatted properly in your email. Do not press delete and start typing, as that will cause Mail to delete the formatting.
@adam,
OK that helped. I still have the problem that type text formatted in Verdana 10 appears as Verdana 7,5 in Outlook and the signature – also formatted as verdana 10 in mac – appears as verdana 13 in Outlook
Any work around for this ?
I cannot find any method for making my default signature match the font in the message. It always appears much larger when received in Outlook. I’ve tried every setting every way. It’s also very cumbersome to have to tab backwards to place the message title and then tab back to recipients. Am I missing something or is this just what I am going to have to live with when using given the limitations of Apple Mail?
@Eric – There is an option in MessageFont > Advanced settings where you can change where focus is. Note, however, that due to various Lion Mail bugs, this feature does not always work consistently. Unfortunately at this point, it’s an Apple Mail problem which needs to be resolved.
Regarding the default signature, this is a common problem with Outlook. Try making sure that the font size you use is a standard size (i.e. 10pt, 12pt) instead of 13pt.
Thanks for the help. It’s just not working properly. Just reverted to Outlook for Mac. Thanks for trying to develop a solution. I’ll continue to watch for updates to see if there’s a way to improve operability. Amazing that Apple would provide a mail system with this problem for such a long time. Very disappointing.
I get the error message pretty frequently, where it tells me to change the setting in the accessibility prefs and then disables MessageFont. As mentioned, this happens whenever it can’t immediately get focus. I can live with that (I know to keep my “fonts” window closed, give it a beat before typing a recipient address, etc.).
But … I’d *really* love it if the error message didn’t also disable MessageFont, because that’s the most annoying part … having to move the mouse, dismiss the error, and then click the checkbox to reenable MessageFont. If I could just hit “enter” and the default behavior was “proceed as you were and just try this message again” then I would be overjoyed.
Ian – I’ll look to fix this up in the next release of the app. Thanks for the feedback.
My question is:
If I use a font like Novecento for my outgoing messages, if the person that receive my messagge doesn’t have the font Novecento in his font library, What happen?
If the recipient does not have Novecento, the message will be displayed in the default mail font.
I have recently updated my Mac to Mountain Lion and after many test emails to get the Mac email to look correct when email people not using Mac, I am back to where I started! The emails are now arriving in Outlook in Times New Roman rather than the Candara font I am sending. What has happened? Is there a solution within the existing MessageFont app?
Adam – Many thanks for your help. In case others are experiencing similar problems, we managed to resolve the issue by changing the font settings in Mail Preferences to something other than I was using in MessageFont. i.e. Mail now uses Arial for all views and MessageFont is applying Candara.