Display of Sender Identity - Inconsistency

Question

Display of Sender Identity - Inconsistency

I use Apple's Mail as my email reader. When I receive an email that has been sent to a number of recipients some of the names are displayed with just the name and some with the name and email address, for example, "John Smith" or "John Smith <jsmith@voodoo.com>". This is when I have the Mail preference "Viewing > Use Smart Addresses" checked. If I uncheck that preference all of the addresses will be displayed with the name and email address. My preference is to have all of the names displayed with just the name and not the email address. Is there a setting that will accomplish this?

I'm using Mail Version 44 (1082) running under OS X Version 10.6.6.

Many thanks in advance for any suggestions.

MacBook Pro 17", Mac OS X (10.6.6), 1.67 GHZ -- 17" -- 2 GB RAM

Posted on Feb 12, 2011 8:12 AM

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Answer 1

Feb 12, 2011 9:47 AM in response to James_L. Ryan

From my observations of Mail's behaviour this is what I've learned.

If the sender sends you and email that includes their real name with their email address and that person in not in your Address Book or in your Previous Recipients list then both their real name and email address will be displayed. If you want to see only their real name and not their email address then add them to your Address Book.

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Answer 2

Mar 16, 2011 10:19 AM in response to Gino Cerullo

I have a related problem which illustrates the inconsistency. If the sender's is in my address book sometimes the sender's name is shown and sometimes the email address! If the sender is not in my address book then the name always show (in the examples on my machine now). I have looked at the raw headers of one in the address book (email address) and one not (name) and, to the untrained eye, I can't see a difference. I tried re-inputting but the address book one still shows the email address.

"There are known knowns etc ...."

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Answer 3

Mar 16, 2011 10:24 AM in response to Tom_Morris

I forgot to say that most of the received emails were imported from Eudora only a week ago but the problem still exists.

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Answer 4

kfhew

Level 1

0 points

Apr 6, 2011 6:50 PM in response to Tom_Morris

Tom, TaliesinSoft: Did you guys find a solution to your problem?

I'm experiencing the same frustration with emails received from some people in my address book come up as email addresses in the 'From' heading e.g. <joe.bloggs> <joe.bloggs> while others which are no on my address book come up as just their name...

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Answer 5

Apr 7, 2011 9:02 AM in response to kfhew

No, none.

I did see that OS 10.7 (Lion) will have a new Mail program, so I doubt if we will!

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