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Create new Mail messages with BCC field open Apps
Creating new Mail messages without the blind carbon copy (BCC) field is annoying. The issue has been discussed here on MacOSXHints before. I had submitted this issue to Apple back in April, and I guess that we were not the only ones complaining about this because the next version of Mail will allow, via Preferences, to set the BCC field to display permanently. But that doesn't help today...

Meanwhile, I tried many many different approaches (like forcing all CC to be BCC or setting a default BCC to myself to force the field to show) but this is so far the best way:

  1. Create a new script called "Create new BCC message" and save it as an application:
    tell application "Mail"
      set newMessage to make new outgoing message
      tell newMessage
        set visible to true
        make new bcc recipient at end of bcc recipients
      end tell
      activate
    end tell
  2. Drag this script into your Home -> Library -> Scripts folder. If the Scripts folder does not exist, create a new folder and name it Scripts.

  3. Now drag the "Create New BCC Message" on the dock to create a link. You could also use a script menu and even set a custom icon for the dock.
Now, when you want to create a message, just click on the icon in the dock (or select the script from your script menu). If Mail is not open, it will start. Then a new message will appear with the BCC field visible and blank.
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Create new Mail messages with BCC field open | 8 comments | Create New Account
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Create new Mail messages with BCC field open
Authored by: laurence.wilks on Aug 13, '03 10:10:52AM

This works great.

If you have already installed the Scripts Menu, by double clicking on

/Applications/AppleScript/Script Menu.menu

you can add this to the AppleScript menu by saving the script into

/Library/Scripts/Mail Scripts/



[ Reply to This | # ]
Create new Mail messages with BCC field open
Authored by: DizzyPenguin on Aug 13, '03 10:43:08AM

I was pleased to read your hint... just yesyerday I posted a query on MacFixIt asking about BCC!

I tried your script by emailing myself and BCC my 4 other accounts. The only niggle using BCC... when you view header of the received message, you get all the BCC recipients listed under "X-Apparently-To:".

That's not very blind is it!

---
DizzyPenguin



[ Reply to This | # ]
erratum
Authored by: DizzyPenguin on Aug 13, '03 12:44:46PM

Forget that, a slight misconfiguration!

---
DizzyPenguin



[ Reply to This | # ]
Create new Mail messages with BCC field open
Authored by: MaxMarino on Aug 13, '03 12:28:12PM

I suppose it is hence too difficult to enter "shift-splat-B" in Mail.app compose window?! "option-splat-R" adds instead the "Reply-To" header.
Alternatively you may access those from Edit menu.

I do not see the convenience of these script methods. Would be different if it was modifying default behavior but they are not (and would not be the right thing unless one uses BCC and Reply-To consistently)



[ Reply to This | # ]
Create new Mail messages with BCC field open
Authored by: DizzyPenguin on Aug 13, '03 01:02:06PM

Ah! The Edit menu... and the keyboard shortcuts...
Now why didn't I ever think of looking there?!

---
DizzyPenguin



[ Reply to This | # ]
Create new Mail messages with BCC field open
Authored by: tssfulk on Aug 14, '03 12:10:57AM

Yours was a great hint! I used to use BCC on OS 9 (Eudora) when mailing all my friends and family update info. I have been miffed that it there was no preference (and I thought no way) to use BCC in Mail.app.

Now my huge update letter recipients will not have to see a gazillion TO: and CC: header listings.

tssfulk



[ Reply to This | # ]
Re: "shift-splat-B"
Authored by: jiclark on Aug 14, '03 01:23:51AM
Thanks, that's very helpful as well... I hardly ever use any menus in Mail, so I'd not seen that one. Oh, and 'splat' for 'command', that's a new one too! Very clever...

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[ Reply to This | # ]

Re: "shift-splat-B"
Authored by: MaxMarino on Aug 14, '03 07:24:45AM

Just comes from my habit: I always check all menus and kb-shortcuts of all applications.

Splat meaning depends on where you are: on a Mac is the Command (or feature) key. Some MIT people use it for '#'; in IBM, DEC and other stands for the asterisk '*' character. This may derive from the "squashed-bug" appearance of the asterisk on many early line printers.

It is also an obsolete name for the semi-mythical Stanford extended ASCII circle-plus character, finally it is sometimes used by mathematicians as a notation for "tensor product".



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