One of the biggest changes that Apple has implemented in Mac OS X Lion is Mail version 5.0. The new version of Mail has a whole new look and feel to it that I’ve heard a few of you complain about. Well good news this tip will show you how to reverse the new modern look that Mail is sporting these days into something a bit more classical.
- If you haven’t already launch Mail on your Mac running OS X Lion.
- Open the preferences pane for Mail by selecting Preferences from the Mail menu or by pressing the Command key plus the comma key at the same time.
- Select the Viewing tab in the preferences window that opens.
- Click Use classic layout.
Mail will now change how its window is configured from the new modern look introduced in Mail 5.0 to one that looks a bit more classical like it did in Mail 4.0.
If you like you can tweak the classical look by selecting several sub-options under the Use classic layout. You can decide whether or not you want to show To/Cc labels, contact photos in the message list, or how many lines of a message you want to show in preview (the default is 2).
If you decide to change these sub-options you’ll have to do so without having the Use classic layout box checked, because if that option is checked these sub-options are grayed out. Personally I think that is a bug in the Mail application, but for now this work around will get you past that.
