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The New Mac OS X Leopard Mail Templates - Editing

By
Services for Real Estate Pros with RealSatisfied

Edited Mac OS X Stationery FileI stayed up late to install the new Macintosh Operating system: OS X Leopard.

I'm pretty sure this officially makes me a geek.

But I wanted to get it installed and working for one very specific reason - to see how easy it would be to edit the new templates available for the Mail application.

Apple snubs the business market again.

From the first moment I saw the templates that would be available, I was upset. Once again Apple has decided to ignore the business market and only include templates for personal email use. While the templates are great and just mind numbingly easy to use, there are no templates that allow you to change out a logo for business use.

So my task tonight was to see how difficult it would be to edit an existing template and create my own Mail template.

The image on the right is my first attempt. I edited the existing "Fun" template, which actually required almost no HTML changes. It was almost entirely graphic editing. The process is really simple if you know how to do some basic image editing and understand that you need to save your changes over top of the existing files, using the exact same file names and formats.

I've experienced no problems with the upgrade so far. For those of you who are going to be making the leap to OS X Leopard and are not afraid to dive into the guts of the Library folder and edit package contents, a more complete description of how to edit Mail templates in OS X Leopard is located here.

Enjoy!

For those who don't read the comments... here are two more templates that have been "de-cuted" and made available for download.

Mac OS X Leopard Mail Templates - White 1 and White 2

And a very simple letterhead template that you can place your own logo into. Instructions and download are here:

A Customizable Letterhead Template For Mac OS X Leopard Mail

Anonymous
Me too!
"Stationary" in mail was one of the main things I was interested in and found myself beyond irritated that there are no business templates. Not one! What the hell are they thinking? Sometimes I just don't understand how Apple can be so innovative and so retarded at the same time.
Oct 27, 2007 06:33 PM
#12
Taryn Merrick
Merrick Management And Media Virtual Assistant Services - Dandridge, TN
Virtual Assistant
Very Macwonderful of you to post this! I have Leopard enroute from Amazon and cannot wait to play with it! The mail templates will be extraordinarily useful as a marketing tool for any business professional.
Oct 27, 2007 10:10 PM
Thesa Chambers
West + Main - Bend, OR
Principal Broker - Licensed in Oregon
But now it is your birthday - so you can do what ever you want - happy birthday Jeff - thanks for providing such great help - by the way we already knew you were a geek  - that is why we love ya
Oct 28, 2007 06:39 AM
Gabriel Silverstein
Angelic Real Estate, LLC - New York, NY
SIOR
As great as Macs are, their inability to dethrone the lesser quality, but better business minded Microsoft from the business world dominance on PC operating systems - something Linux has made far more headway on in a few short years - begs the question...WHY?  I would love to use a Mac but I can't for what I do, there are too many critical industry-standard, Windows based applications that I have to have to function.  At least Apple's stock seems to have fared well anyway.
Oct 28, 2007 02:25 PM
Sam Miller
RE/MAX Stars Realty - Howard, OH
Knox County Ohio Real Estate Specialist

Jeff - I will be watching your Leopard comments in the future.  I actually had planned on buying another MacBook Pro preinstalled with Leopard and letting my marketing specialist use my current MacBook Pro.

Oct 29, 2007 12:26 AM
Jeff Turner
RealSatisfied - Santa Clarita, CA

All... here are two more templates that have been "de-cuted" and made available for download. 

Mac OS X Leopard Mail Templates - White 1 and White 2 

Oct 29, 2007 10:18 AM
Jeff Turner
RealSatisfied - Santa Clarita, CA
All... let me know what interest you might have in a Listing Template for Mail. 
Oct 29, 2007 10:34 AM
Jeff Turner
RealSatisfied - Santa Clarita, CA

This just out (Thanks, Mike)

http://www.equinux.com/us/products/stationery/business.html

Still a bit cheesy for the most part.  

Oct 29, 2007 06:00 PM
Aziz Abdur-Raoof
RE/MAX Rewards - Columbia, MD
Howard Co. Real Estate Scoop
Jeff - - I just switched over this evening.  I hope you sent Apple a note regarding the snub of the biz community.  It would be nice.  I will check out the tutorial this weekend.  Have a good one!
Nov 01, 2007 04:17 PM
Jeff Turner
RealSatisfied - Santa Clarita, CA
Aziz... :) I figured this blog post would get more eyeballs than my letter to Apple. I've written three posts on this topic, two outside of AR,  and they all show up on the first page of google. So, if Apple really wants to see it, they'll see it. My bet is this was done with purpose, just as leaving Flash off the iPhone was done with purpose. So, I'll keep playing with template designs and I'll keep posting them. I'm working on a listing information template now... in my spare time. :)
Nov 02, 2007 02:02 AM
Maureen Maureen
Orangeburg, NY
Jeff - I have not switched yet.  Looking into it.  Thanks for the tips.
Nov 05, 2007 12:16 AM
Jeff Turner
RealSatisfied - Santa Clarita, CA
Maureen.... if it's your only computer, I might wait a few weeks for the first update, but it's been very stable for me. And the new features are extremely beneficial.
Nov 05, 2007 05:56 AM
Rob Baldwin
US ECO-GREEN REAL ESTATE INC. - Santa Clarita, CA
REALTOR, Santa Clarita
I have to say, I have subscribed to your blog and I usually find it difficult to respond to some of your postings because I don't have a Mac. Maybe some time in the future I will have to change that.
Nov 11, 2007 02:31 AM
Jeff Turner
RealSatisfied - Santa Clarita, CA
Rob... do it! Do it!
Nov 12, 2007 09:31 AM
Dawn Heinemann
Long Realty Company - Tucson, AZ
The Peter DeLuca Team

I have the same look on my face that Chris has - squared!

 

Nov 13, 2007 12:50 PM
Jeff Turner
RealSatisfied - Santa Clarita, CA
Dawn... I've seen the face before. :)
Nov 16, 2007 04:57 PM
Christina Bennani-Persechini
Keller Williams Realty Boston North West - Lexington, MA
Realtor - The House For You
Great tip there weren't any good business templates on Leopard. I am going to make my own with your directions!
Dec 02, 2007 04:53 AM
Margaret Rome Baltimore 410-530-2400
HomeRome Realty 410-530-2400 - Pikesville, MD
Sell Your Home With Margaret Rome

Jeff, you are an amazing geek.

I am still working with a Tablet PC. and my first cousin Arnold wrote the new book Switching to a Mac for Dummies. 

Dec 04, 2007 10:30 PM
Anonymous
Tracey

Jeff,

 

I did exactly the same the thing as you, I got Leopard early, really hoping that the new features in Mail would give me some flexibility from a marketing/business perspective and was a tad disappointed. However, having seen the rest of the features, I'm more than happy to have done the upgrade. I'm a long term Mac user (got into them waaaay back in 1985/86 when the Classic was first introduced - haven't looked back since. I'm now onto my fifth Mac system and I still love it! I also have quite a lot to do with PC's and for me, there's no comparison. My husband is an accountant and with the new intel macs we have found that there is no reason not to buy a mac for whatever your purpose! 

Cheers Tracey 

 

Dec 23, 2007 02:02 PM
#30
Anonymous
Jonalyn
It’s about time smoonee wrote about this.
Jul 15, 2011 04:07 AM
#31