A Plan for Email (w/ credit to Rob Griffiths of Macworld), OSX, Apple Mail, Purify, Email Compass Options

[Jeff Hendrickson]

If you are using Apple OSX, and Apple Mail, here is a plan for email that will keep your email inbox spam free, and keep your email related information at your fingertips, and securely archived.

Before taking credit for this evolution, I have to give a shout out to Rob Griffiths from MacWorld for both dinging me about Purify "not being an integrated solution", and for his article on how to use an IMAP account to manage your email on multiple Macs. I took his critique and suggestion to heart, and added functionality to Purify version 2.1.9 and later that allows a user to rate their email using Purify AFTER it has been received by Apple Mail using a Purify provided AppleScript. This simplifies the installation and setup in the extreme. The only thing required of the user is to set up the account(s) in Purify (mostly for licensing purposes). The user can fine tune their Purify installation to suite their needs, and for the novice user this can be as simple as importing their friends from their Apple Address Book, and clicking a button to download hsc's suggested Purify Blacklist. There are also two other AppleScripts that allow the user to painlessly add friends to Purify from either their Apple Mail Inbox, or Sent Items. Purify is also fully integrated with our other product Email Compass to allow a user to automatically archive Purify validated email. This is illustrated in the diagram below.

Ok, so how do I use this you ask?? First you set up a "base computer" running OSX 10.3 or better, Apple Mail, Purify version 2.1.9 or better, and if email archiving is desired Email Compass. You set up the base computer so that Apple Mail is checking your email using IMAP. Set up Apple Mail so that it is rating email after it is received directly from your email server using Purify with the provided Apple Script Rate_Received (Mail)!. This AppleScript will do nothing to valid email, and move spam to Apple Mail's Trash folder for the Apple Mail account on which it was received. Set up Apple Mail on the base computer so that it checks email every minute or so. That way, spam is being detected, and moved to the Trash! Only valid email is in your IMAP inbox!! I used to forward my "Purify'ed" email to my iPhone, and now I have my iPhone set up to check email directly on my main account using IMAP knowing that Purify is moving the spam to the Trash from my base computer.

Worth mentioning, Purify's email abuse reporting absolutely has an effect on the level of spam that you receive, and is a worthwhile investment of time. If you don't want to see the abuse responses (and occasional bounce), you can set up Purify's filtering to ignore them, which will move them to the Trash of the Apple Mail account on which they were received, or you can use a "throw away" account that you do not use day to day to do your email abuse reporting with Purify.

Rob's review of Purify on Macworld can be found here.

So there you have it. Here is a diagram that shows how all of this technology is screwed together...