Good idea in Vista needs more work

While some people are hooked on instant messaging, it has a decidedly narrow appeal. In order for it to work, you need to be online all the time. And it is a little too informal for many situations. Still, you can't argue with its convenience.

With this in mind, two utilities are available as part of the Vista Sidebar that let users dash off a quick note without going through the hassle of loading their mail software. Or that's the theory.

Vista's Sidebar, one of the features of Microsoft's new operating system, is a more convenient version of the Mac's Dashboard, offering useful applets designed to improve your online experience in some small way. The mail utilities, Speed Mail and MailSender, represent a good idea that is decidedly flawed. They sit at the right of the screen to be activated by a single mouse click.

Speed Mail has a small silver window that allows you to input an address and subject, and compose a message in a window 11 characters wide. With Speed Mail's ability to scroll, you can fit in as much text as needed, but it is best suited for short notes.

Less elegantly, Speed Mail then sends the message to your default mail client, where you have to hit Send for it to go anywhere. So while the program saves some time initially, it gets you on the back end.

MailSender is much cooler. Its advantage is the ability to send e-mail without using an e-mail account, although apparently you need to type something in the From window for a message to go through. MailSender has a receipt function, and its screen is large enough to comfortably use.

The trouble with MailSender is that it doesn't always work. Several test messages sent to my own mailboxes didn't go through. Perhaps it doesn't work with Web mail, or some installed filter blocks communication. A message to a friend worked, but it arrived with an unwieldy subject line: "Testing Abysal Systems Web Service SendEmail: Test." My original subject line was just "Test."

As it stands, MailSender is a bad bet. It's not at all reliable, so you would need to call up the recipient of your message to see if it was received. This would defeat the purpose of instant access and, as with Speed Mail, eat up any time saved initially.

Both programs have a high cost of admission: First you must install Vista, which itself can be a nightmare. Then you must configure the Sidebar, only to end up with programs that don't function well or save time.

If it's not worth using, why did I bother writing about it? In fact, it is a very bright idea that someone could now perfect, saving people a lot of time and perhaps making a little money in the process.

Sometimes e-mail will suck you in and demand full concentration, but other times it is best set off to the side where you can send and receive as an adjunct to other functions. In this respect, aspects of instant messaging can enhance standard e-mail. And sooner or later some genius will get it right.

If you have questions or suggestions for Charles Bermant, you can contact him by e-mail at cbermant@seattletimes.com. Type Inbox in the subject field. More columns at www.seattletimes.com/columnists.