Apple Mac OS X tips and tweaks

Date: 7th september 2011

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OS X Lion: Disable Mail animations and boost the speed

Here's something to try if you have OS X Lion on the Apple Mac: Start Mail and select a message, then press Command+R to reply to it. The new message window appears using an animated display. It grows in size and moves into position in a series of animated steps.

It only takes a second or two, but adding delays like this to everything can become a bit tiresome after a while. It looks cool the first few times, but once you have seen it, you just want to get on with the job. If you would like to disable this animation and just have the message window appear instantly then a quick tweak to the preferences is all that is needed.

There are two ways to modify preference files and the easiest is to use the Property List Editor. You may or may not have this on your Mac as it is part of the Xcode developer's tools. Xcode is free on the Mac App Store if you want to go and get it.

In Finder, (from the desktop), click Go, hold down the Option key and click Library. This opens the hidden Library folder and then you can open the Preferences folder. Double click com.apple.mail.plist and it opens in the Property List Editor.

Click Add Item and set the key name to DisableReplyAnimations. In the middle column set the type to Boolean (which is a simple on/off or disable/enable switch), and in the value column tick the box. Save the plist file and quit. Now start Mail and press Command+R to reply to a message. The compose-message window appears instantly without the animation.

The other way to modify preference files is to type a long and complex command into the Terminal. Open the Utilities folder and start Terminal. Type:

defaults write com.apple.Mail DisableReplyAnimations -bool YES

Undo the changes
Before making any changes to the system you should always know how to undo them in case you change your mind. Using Property List Editor you can simply clear the tick against DisableReplyAnimations or delete the key completely. Using the Terminal you just change the YES at the end of the line to NO.

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