Inbox Zero for Zimbra
Take back control of your Inbox!
Inbox Zero for Zimbra implements Merlin Mann's productivity process as a mail message toolbar. This zimlet lets you cruise through your Inbox in record time, simplifying common tasks down to a single button click!
The heart of Inbox Zero, as defined by Merlin Mann, is to perform one of five simple operations on each piece of email in your Inbox with the goal of keeping your Inbox empty at all times. These five operations are:
- Delete
- Delegate
- Respond
- Defer
- Do
Inbox Zero for Zimbra expands on this concept while maintaining a simple list of only five actions on the mail message toolbar. For users that prefer to never throw anything away, messages can be archived instead of deleted; you can delegate responsibility for an email to someone else and automatically followup later; you can defer messages for different durations; etc.
The complete list of Inbox Zero for Zimbra actions are:
- Delete or Archive
- Delegate or Followup
- Respond or Respond All
- Defer 1 Hour, Defer 1 Day, or Defer 1 Week
- Create a Task ("Do")
Try Inbox Zero today! You'll never look at your Inbox the same way again!
Notes:
Inbox Zero for Zimbra works best if your Inbox is sorted by message, not by conversation. This may feel very limiting at first but once you start using Inbox Zero you won't need conversations because there is (hopefully) never more than a dozen messages in your Inbox at any time.
To view your Inbox by messages instead of conversations, go to the Mail application and pull down the View menu from the toolbar. Select "By Message" and you're done! The client will automatically save your setting when you logout.
If your Inbox already contains thousands (if not tens of thousands) of emails already and it seems too overwhelming to start using Inbox Zero, there's a simple solution: start by archiving everything in your Inbox. This helps you start fresh and you can always go to the archive folder and process important messages later.
Here are step-by-step instructions on how to archive your Inbox to get started using Inbox Zero:
- Go to the Mail application.
- Select a message, any message.
- Pull down the Delete button from the Inbox Zero for Zimbra toolbar above the message reading pane and select Archive. The first time you perform an Inbox Zero action, the zimlet will automatically create a couple of folders, including an "Archived" folder. The selected message will be moved to this folder.
- Shift-click the select-all checkbox in the message list header. This selects all the messages in the current view and all messages that match the current search but are not yet in the view.
- Click the move button from the message list toolbar.
- Select the Inbox/Archived folder and hit OK.
- Wait while the system moves everything in your Inbox to the archive. This may take a while. If you are impatient, open another browser tab or window and load a separate copy of the client to continue work while you wait.
Useful Links
| Downloads: | 5,306 |
|---|---|
| Latest Version: | 1.2_6.0.0.20100901.112857 |
| Categories: | Mail, Organization, Utilities |
| Compatibility: | ZD 2.0 |
| License: | AL |
| Created: | August 20, 2010 |
| Updated: | February 21, 2012 |
Reviews
Overall I like the extra toolbar this zimlet creates. However,
several functions do not work properly at this time (on our Zimbra
installation at least). Both the 'Archive' and 'Create Task' buttons do
not work. You can press them, but nothing happens.
Another 'bug'
is that when you defer an email it changes the time of the 'delivered
on' time of the e-mail. This is something you don't want (at least I
don't want it). It also stays in the deferred box, and does not give you
a reminder of any kind after the time to which you deferred the e-mail
has elapsed.
It would be great if you can somehow attach some kind of (calender?) reminder to a deferred e-mail message.
If these bugs can be resolved this zimlet certainly has potential.
@developer: Feel free to contact me if you would like more detailed info about the herementioned bugs.
@ThomS I'm sorry to hear that it is not working for you. A few of the over 160 people that have now downloaded the zimlet have reported similar issues. I have not been able to recreate the problem yet on my end but will continue to work with the few users that are affected to try to find a solution for you.
I have fixed the problem some users were having on their systems. Please download and deploy the new version.
After deploying the new version, please flush your server zimlet cache using "zmprov flushCache zimlet", flush your browser cache, and reload.
Sorry for the inconvenience and please let me know if there are any more issues.
Very interesting zimlet. Thanks
Would you explain me the difference between delegate and followup.
I used delegate and followup and couldn't see the difference.
When you defer a message for one hour for example, the reception hour and date are correct in the message but the date and hour displayed in the message list are the date and hour the message has been deferred (I apologize for my poor english). It migth be interesting to display two columns, one for the reception date and one for the defererred date.
I had not been able to create a task from a message.
You must notice that I use ZCS in french ant that I translated .properties (not below the point you indicated).
I installed and uninstalled the zimlet several times and now when I click archive the message is still in Inbox. Defer works properly.
Feel free to contact me.
hi,
thank you for this useful zimlet.
Testing it on 6.08-os-debian5_64, I noticed that it does not appear with the "Reading pane off".
If this is the way it should behave, a mention in the description could be useful
(sorry, if it is already mentioned and i overlooked that)
anton
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