Tony, you may want to poke at Automator to get started first. It's kinda a quick drag and drop applescript editor that in some cases may do exactly what you need, and failing that at least give you a good start. Apple's site has a ton of automator scripts now, and odds are some functions are already out there so you don't have to start with nothing.

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Right next to Spotlight - number one with a bullet because it barely works

Spotlight for me has been pretty useful. I threw on about 5 gb of technical PDF and webpages on my Powerbook,and can search for specifics usually faster then some of the web tools we have internally. Since it also can show results from e-mail where a lot of technical discussions go on, I find myself getting answers to problems quicker then I used to. Add to that the fact that my mail reading is so much easier now with about 20 smart folders instead of my old manual system of folders and filters, and well Spotlight is now a must have feature for me.

I completly redid my work e-mail to just have the IMAP folders be 2000-Q1, 2000-Q2 and so on. Then the smart folders setup I have a "Product" folder that has e-mails that talk about an MSA1000, or EVA, or whatever. Then I have other smart folders for certain e-mail lists, and certain groups of people. Lastly, I have a "Last Day" "Last Week" and "Last Month" folders to quickly glance to see if I missed anything.

I'm really considering doing similar to my home e-mail as well, but the one disadvantage would be losing the universal access I now have. Currently the exact folder structure is in the web interface, Mail on the Mac, or Thunderbird on the PC.


Dashboard, well, it has some use for me, but only in having a calculator right there instead of using Quicksilver to launch the app. I could easially live without it.