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Level 1

2 points

new message window in Yosemite Mail is way to big for a small screen

I have a problem with Mail (Version 8.0 (1990.1)) since I have updated to Yosemite. Writing a new Message with Mail (8.0 (1990.1) becomes almost impossible.

Every time, when I intend to write a Mail and press the Buton „new Message“ the window of the new email opens so large that it s not fit on the screen on my Macbook 13“. Approximately one-third of the new-message window is off the screen. The window width can not be reduced in size. Now I have to shove arround window, to see what´s on the right side. If I move the cursor to the right outside edge no double arrow appears. There is only an arrow appears to amplify the already too large new-message-window. I tried a clean install, but the problem is still there. I changed the toolbar. Does not helped. Even my 27“ iMac shows the same issue. The new-message-Window covers the whole screen. The only good thing is, that the 27" is big enough to show the whole window. It seems that Apple programmed a fixed non-adjustable size of the new Message-window. Any Ideas?

MacBook Air (13-INCH, MID 2011)

Posted on Oct 17, 2014 10:53 PM

Best reply

johnmarbles

Level 1

4 points

Posted on Jul 27, 2017 6:16 PM

I had the same issue - I found this fix:

go to mail > preferences > signatures.
In the middle box which shows the 'name' of the signature, the system seems to automatically populate this with the entire string of text from the right hand box where you type in your signature text.
Click on each of your signature names and go in and find the end of the name (which can take a long hold of the right hand arrow key to get to the end if you have a long signature)
Delete this back to only being one or two words long
Do this for each of the names is you have multiple signatures
Exit and restart mail.
Restart mail - The width of the Signature selection box in the new message window will now be much shorter to correspond to the longest signature names you entered earlier - and this lets you reduce the width of the new mail window.

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34 replies

Beroli Author

Level 1

2 points

Oct 21, 2014 2:39 AM in response to AdrianFleming

Hi Adrian,

there is no need for cut and paste the signatures for every e-Mail. Just follow the described procedure. Remove your Signatures under Mail/Settings/Signatures. After this you will be able again to adjust your New Message or Reply-Window in width. After you have adjusted your New Message - Window, restart the Mail-App and write your Signatures back under Mail/Settings/Signatures. Now anything should work perfect. You can adjust any Windows in Mail, as it should be. If your Signature is to big, you can copy them into a file from the Textedit-App, change the Text over Format/Make Plain Text (with this step you remove hidden formats), then change the text back over Format/Make Rich text and copy in the last step this Text back to your Signatures under Mail/Settings/Signatures. Close your settings, restart Mail. This procedure takes you only minutes. After this, it works for sure. 😁

Sorry for my bad English, but I hope you will understand what I intend to tell you.

Oct 21, 2014 2:39 AM in response to Beroli

Had the same problem on a MacBook Air 11".

Great that you found a way to fix it. I have found another way that does not involve editing the signatures.

What you have to do is to change the View into 'Classic', resize the New Message Window and then de-select 'Classic' view once more. So...

Mail -> Preferences -> Viewing

Check 'Use Classic Layout'

Click on the New Message icon to create a new email, resize the dialog window (in this view it works), close the window (without need to actually send the new message).

Now from Mail -> Preferences -> Viewing

De-check 'Use Classic Layout'

It worked for me.

Regards.

Oct 22, 2014 6:06 AM in response to Giovanni T

Sorry... I realised that the one I proposed is just a temporary fix and when you re-start the application the problem comes back.

I tried deleting and re-creating the signatures and that seems to do the trick.

Oct 22, 2014 3:57 PM in response to Beroli

This solved the problem. Only one of my signatures was causing the problem. Thanks you.

APFELJIM

Level 1

0 points

Oct 23, 2014 2:56 PM in response to Beroli

Looks like you found a fix, but I thought I would share what I did. I ran into the same issue of not being able to resize the new message page or move it.

I use 2 monitors and would have Mail open in one and my new message open on the other monitor, as I go back'n'forth between emails to collect info to compose my new email message etc. Was driving me nuts as I couldn't move it to the other monitor anymore, or resize the new message page. What I discovered is that I have to hit the green button to take it out of "Full Screen". Once it jumped out of Full Screen, I hit New Message and was able to move it and resize it as needed.

Beroli Author

Level 1

2 points

Oct 23, 2014 10:52 PM in response to APFELJIM

Hi APFELJIM

your solution does not fit for the problem, described in the original post.

In many apps, you can expand the window to fill your entire screen, by pressing the green dot on the left corner. While in the "full-screen view"-mode, it is not possible to to move the window or to change the width or the height.

Like me, a lot of people were not able to change the width of the new message window while the fullscreen mode is not activated. They can move their windows, change the height, but not the width. This is caused by a bug in the setting of the new Mail in Yosemite. The new Mail can not handle some existing signatures which were inserted in previous versions of Mail. Maybe because of some format differences.

APFELJIM

Level 1

0 points

Oct 24, 2014 6:32 AM in response to Beroli

My apologies. Luckily I was able to resolve my issue based on this thread and thought it may offer insight to others.

Beroli Author

Level 1

2 points

Oct 24, 2014 9:05 AM in response to APFELJIM

Your experiences are very welcome. 🙂 Sorry, I did not meant to be rude, but after the first reply on this post, who described a general way how to resize a window and after some discussions with the Apple-Support (they advised me immediately a completely new installation, because this problem does not exists) I tend to react a little thin-skinned in this matter. 😐 Imagine that in your case: instead of explaining the deactivation of the "full-screen modes", Apple would recommend a fresh install, which takes a full day to complete without using your TimeMachine-Backup.

APFELJIM

Level 1

0 points

Oct 24, 2014 9:37 AM in response to Beroli

No worries. You were eloquent and to the point in your reply. So it didn't come across as rude. I fully understand the frustrations that come with installing a new OS. There are always bugs and eventually fixes, and if not, we adapt. In my case, your post forced me to take a step back and think. And that resolved my issue. (As this reply is primarily for Beroli and has not added value to the thread, so the moderator is of course welcome to delete).

Nov 22, 2014 10:00 AM in response to Beroli

Daylite 4 users have this problem. I installed their current update for Yosemite and it solved the problem.

Apr 23, 2015 10:07 AM in response to Beroli

None of this has worked for me.

Apr 23, 2015 10:12 AM in response to Giovanni T

Unfortuantely, this didn't work for me either.

Apr 23, 2015 10:15 AM in response to APFELJIM

This one didn't work for me either.

Apr 23, 2015 10:20 AM in response to Beroli

After reading all the suggestions here and finding that none of them worked, I actually erased all of my signatures. (I had the random setting for various sayings that contributed to what I do.) Unfortunatley, they are now all gone but I can resize my outgoing mail screen. I don't know which is better.

May 1, 2015 11:10 PM in response to Beroli

I tried doing that but inside my user/library/mail folder I only had this:

There were no settings or signatures folders.

new message window in Yosemite Mail is way to big for a small screen