UI Update

[camner]

On both the web interface (macOS/Chrome & Safari) and iOS/iPadOS interface, I no longer see the checkboxes that allowed one to multi select messages to mark as read/unread, etc. Am I missing something, or in their infinite wisdom did the FM folks decide that multiselecting isn?t an important feature? Or is there now another way to multi select that isn?t obvious from the interface?

[JeremyNicoll]

Originally Posted by camner

On both the web interface (macOS/Chrome & Safari) and iOS/iPadOS interface, I no longer see the checkboxes that allowed one to multi select messages to mark as read/unread, etc. Am I missing something, or in their infinite wisdom did the FM folks decide that multiselecting isn?t an important feature? Or is there now another way to multi select that isn?t obvious from the interface?

They are still visible & work ok within Chrome for me, but my version of Chrome is an old one as my laptop's still running Windows 8.1, for which Chrome support ended ages ago. [My Chrome is: Version 109.0.5414.168]

[InquiringMind]

Thank you JeremyNicoll for pointing me to this thread.

Fastmail took away the lines that separate emails in the list of emails.

I find this very very very hard on my eyes and if anyone finds a way to get back the old interface, please post it.

I worked with programmers for many years and they never seem to understand "if it ain't broke, don't fix it."

[JeremyNicoll]

Originally Posted by InquiringMind

Thank you JeremyNicoll for pointing me to this thread.

Fastmail took away the lines that separate emails in the list of emails.

I find this very very very hard on my eyes and if anyone finds a way to get back the old interface, please post it.

I worked with programmers for many years and they never seem to understand "if it ain't broke, don't fix it."

I worked for much of my career (until illness stopped me) as a programmer (at first on micros, latterly on a UK bank's mainframe) and inbetween as a "systems programmer" - which mostly was not a programming role except when we wrote modifications to the OS, mostly making things more secure) and I can tell you that we prioritised necessary function & reliability/robustness, rather than cosmetic frills.

[InquiringMind]

"I worked for much of my career (until illness stopped me) as a programmer (at first on micros, latterly on a UK bank's mainframe) and inbetween as a "systems programmer" - which mostly was not a programming role except when we wrote modifications to the OS, mostly making things more secure) and I can tell you that we prioritised necessary function & reliability/robustness, rather than cosmetic frills. "

Sorry Jeremy. I just find it so frustrating that the people I worked with were only concerned with their own idea of perfection and I have run into that attitude over and over again in programs I have purchased or rented through license.

There is a scene in "Mr. Robot" where Phillip Price says "We con people into believing in something, the American dream, family values. Could be freedom fries for all I care. It doesn't matter as long as the con works and people buy and sell whatever it is we want them to."

That attitude drives me nuts.

I apologize if I hurt anyone's feelings.

[DumbGuy]

Originally Posted by camner

On both the web interface (macOS/Chrome & Safari) and iOS/iPadOS interface, I no longer see the checkboxes that allowed one to multi select messages to mark as read/unread, etc. Am I missing something, or in their infinite wisdom did the FM folks decide that multiselecting isn?t an important feature? Or is there now another way to multi select that isn?t obvious from the interface?

Here on desktop webUI... Hovering over the avatar/icon reveals the checkbox for the email/row. Select it and all the other checkboxes appear visible and usable.

[JeffK]

Originally Posted by camner

On both the web interface (macOS/Chrome & Safari) and iOS/iPadOS interface, I no longer see the checkboxes that allowed one to multi select messages to mark as read/unread, etc. Am I missing something, or in their infinite wisdom did the FM folks decide that multiselecting isn?t an important feature? Or is there now another way to multi select that isn?t obvious from the interface?

Hello camner, I am on a different setup to you (Windows11/Firefox). However if I go into Settings=>Mail preferences and turn avatars off the checkboxes return. However the superfluous blue dot remains.

Jeff

[JeremyNicoll]

Originally Posted by InquiringMind

Sorry Jeremy. I just find it so frustrating that the people I worked with were only concerned with their own idea of perfection and I have run into that attitude over and over again in programs I have purchased or rented through license.

I apologize if I hurt anyone's feelings.

You didn't hurt mine, though.

One of the issues (especially with PC software) is that most users won't pay for successive years' licences unless they see continuous new features. Personally I'm more into new function - which is often invisible.

If you look at the publicity around successive new releases of Windows, most of it is about the GUI. But between XP and v8 I noticed that the file system (NTFS) became much more resilient - I can't remember when I last had an unexpected reboot followed by running chkdsk which then found any problems on disk. (I do have 'unexpected' reboots when I deliberately force a BSOD to get a full memory dump to send to software companies - something which one has to configure Windows to do.

At the same time there was a huge change in the internal organisation of separate processes inside the OS, making a crash in a single process much less likely to bring down the whole OS - making it much more robust & also making it harder for malware in one process to interfere with other processes.

[Prognathous]

The good: Avatars make it easy to differentiate between different senders.
The bad: Undiscoverable checkboxes. Thanks DumbGuy for explaining where they are. I don't think I would have found them myself.
The ugly: All that white space. Why waste so much screen real estate on literally nothing?

[JeremyNicoll]

Originally Posted by JeffK

However the superfluous blue dot remains.

I was thinking about this; the blue dot is redundant (& space-wasting) for me because I can tell if mails are unread by whether their subjects are in a bold or normal font.

But people with poor sight (or none) might not be able to make that distinction. Also screen-reader software might need an indicator to be present or not to be able to announce an email (line) as read or unread.

[camner]

Getting back to the web interface after several hours, the checkboxes now appear. I always had avatars turned off. Don't know what changed, but I'm glad to see them again. I hope they stay.

After too much time trying to figure out how to see the checkboxes in the iOS app, I stumbled on it accidentally. One of the posters here said that the checkboxes appeared after he hovered over the avatar area in the web interface. I wondered how I could "hover" in iOS (one can't, of course). So I touched the screen in the avatar area (remember, I have avatars turned off) and left my finger on the screen for a moment. The checks boxes appeared! So, the secret move is a long hold on the message (anywhere on the message...it doesn't have to be in the area of the avatar). It does add an extra step, though, if one wants to use the checkboxes. One first needs to make them appear, and then one can check the messages one wants to take an action with.

And as others have mentioned, I, also, dislike the loss of the faint, but definitely visible gray separator lines. Without the lines does look "cleaner," but some sort of visual demarcation (such as a line, or light shading differences) to distinguish one message from the next is helpful.

These changes appear to be another example of form over function, so common in UI design. Bah, humbug!

[trikotret]

anyone know the CSS codes for stylebot to make thin lines between the emails?

[JeffK]

Originally Posted by JeremyNicoll

I was thinking about this; the blue dot is redundant (& space-wasting) for me because I can tell if mails are unread by whether their subjects are in a bold or normal font.

But people with poor sight (or none) might not be able to make that distinction. Also screen-reader software might need an indicator to be present or not to be able to announce an email (line) as read or unread.

Yes good points, Jeremy. I'm with you on the first one.

[voxson]

I wonder who thought it would be a good idea to remove thin lines separating messages? it's ubiquitous in pretty much every webmail interface out there.

[somdcomputerguy]

Originally Posted by trikotret

anyone know the CSS codes for stylebot to make thin lines between the emails?

I recollect a reference to a greasemonkey script in the fastmail reddit threads. Maybe this will indirectly help you? I'd post a link to the actual post, but I don't have it handy.

- Bruce