Mail searches etc.

[Macs R We]

On Feb 4, 2008, at 1:00 PM, macosx-talk-request at omnigroup.com wrote:

>>> From: LuKreme <kremels at kreme.com>
>>> I believe in pre Leopard you need to do
>>>
>>> (4 February)
>>>
>>> To group the terms.  the info is in the mail.app help
>>
>> Grouping them isn't the same thing as quoting them.
>
> Quoting themn as you did is not how to do it in Tiger's mail.  I don't
> have access to Tiger's mail easily, so I cannot check the specific
> syntax.
>
> It _IS_ in the mail.app help though.

Quoting:

If you search the From, To, or Subject fields in selected mailboxes,  
Mail finds messages that contain the entire search phrase, in the  
order you entered the words.  If you search an entire message or  
search in all mailboxes, Mail finds only messages containing words  
that have the same prefix (or the same beginning letters) as any of  
the words you entered in the Search field.  The words can be in any  
order.... When you search entire messages, you can refine your search  
by using logical symbols to represent "and" (&), "or" (|), "not" (!),  
and parentheses.

In other words, if you're looking to search actual message text for a  
string, you flat can't do it (at least using Mail).  Clearly a case  
of someone tunnel-visioned on making native database tools available  
to the end user instead of paying attention to the interface issues  
of how people want to search mail and how they have already gotten  
used to using every other search facility on the internet.

> Leopard works correctly, however.

Hallelujah for that (five releases later).  :-(

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