message selection (in conjunction with the preview pane)

[listlizard]

I'd like to see a different message selection mechanism either replacing or in addition to the current method of clicking on messages in the message pane. The new mechanism should allow one to select one or more messages without causing it to display in the preview pane or make RC hit the mail server. There are two issues that I expect this to solve:

1) If spam makes it into my inbox I want to be able to select it and delete it without causing it to display in the preview pane. Although disabling remote URLs avoids security issues related to the display of spam, it doesn't prevent potentially inappropriate content from appearing on your screen (e.g. at work).

2) If I need to select multiple messages for some reason clicking on the first one causes RC to try and load the message from the server and interferes with what I was trying to do. In this context, server access is unnecessary and wastes bandwidth.

A reasonable way to implement this would be to place a column of checkboxes in the message pane. Clicking on one toggles the checkmark without selecting the message for display (or displaying it).

thanks...

[alec]

You can select multiple messages with SHIFT or CTRL key (this isn't probably working on IE). We don't like checkboxes on the list.

[listlizard]

I'm aware of the multi-select feature, in fact I referred to it in my description (did you read it?).

There are serious issues associated with that feature when used with the preview pane, as I described. That's the reason for the request.

Checkboxes are one very effective way to fix those issues but perhaps there's another way? What exactly don't you like about checkboxes anyway? I don't personally see any issue with them, particularly when they solve important issues.

[alec]

What issues are you talking about? You can select messages without displaying them (with CTRL).

[listlizard]

If you don't want the currently highlighted message to be among those in your selection (for deletion, for example) you have to select the first one *without* CTRL and that causes it to be displayed (and retrieved from the server). (You can use CTRL, as you say, for the remainder.)

For example, if I have 10 messages and 5 of them are spam, unless one of the spam messages is already displayed, I have to click on the first one without CTRL or SHIFT (or cursor up to it, which has the same effect) and then use CTRL or SHIFT to select the rest. But the action of selecting the first one has caused the message to be downloaded and displayed in the preview pane.

A selection method which doesn't cause the message to be downloaded or displayed would avoid this.

[alec]

I don't understand or you're wrong. It's possible to select and unselect message(s) with CTRL and without displaying any message.

[listlizard]

doh! I didn't realize you could *unselect* with CTRL (I probably should have). That does seem to work. In that case I guess my request is moot. Sorry for the confusion and thanks for your help.