14 DAY TRIAL // Everyone uses e-mail, and most people use Mail as their e-mail application. Many people also have several e-mail accounts that they use for different purposes and while Mail can let you have as many accounts as you like, it will display all of the new mails you have across all accounts in the dock icon.
If you have ever wanted to be able to see different counters for each account, or even a counter for the junk mail you receive, then DockStar is a program for you.
What it does
DockStar is a small little Mail application enhancer that will add four more badges to the program's dock icon. These badges are fully customizable, and can display the number of unread messages in various mailboxes, in various accounts, letting you see a detailed status of unread mails at a glance.
Tight integration
The best thing about DockStar is how well it integrates with Mail, to the point that it is less of a standalone application and acts as a separate tab in the Mail preferences. Once you install it, simply open up the Preferences and go to the DockStar tab and you find all the options there.
Forget about a separate application that you have to keep on your hard drive and go into every time you want to change something, this approach is so good and seamless, you'll find yourself asking why other applications don't do this.
Many badges
What DockStar does can be summed up to adding little badges to the Mail dock icon, five to be precise. You can have one badge in each of the four corners and another one in the middle.
Each of these badges can be linked to display the number of unread messages in any mailbox or folder, in any account. This is done simply by selecting the desired mailbox from the drop down menu next to each badge. Alternatively, you can assign a badge to display the total unread messages which is in essence what the standard dock icon shows.
Customizing the look of these badges is simple enough. Clicking on them will cycle through the 5 possible shapes, which are Circle, Square, Star, Heart, and Aqua Lozenge. You can also resize them by dragging from the lower right corner of the badge, the only thing you cannot do is move them about, and they are always centered around the same location at the corners of the icon.
The color and opacity of the badges is also easily to change by clicking on the small square to the right of the drop down menus. You will be shown an OS X standard color choose window from which you can change the color and opacity, and these changes will be reflected in real time.
How much is too much Although the instant appeal of this application is undeniable, it makes it so easy to go overboard. The standard Mail dock icon was very good at doing what it was intended to do, show you that you have unread messages without being obtrusive or requiring too much of your attention.
With five possible badges, each one a different color and, depending on your mailing habits, each badge showing counter or up to three digits if not more, things can get out of hand quickly, and you start having to actually mouse over the dock icon to enlarge it so you can see what is going on.
The same goes for trying to differentiate the badges using colors. The original red stood out very well, but you are likely to want all the badges to stand out well, and that usually results in a chromatic nightmare in a very small 128x128 pixel area.
This is not a fault or limitation of the program itself, but rather an unavoidable consequence. Despite it letting you do much more, DockStar is best used with about two badges, and some distinctive, although neutral colors.
The Good A great way to add more information per pixel to Mail's dock icon. The seamless integration as a Mail preference item makes it very handy and easy to use.
The Bad Your Mail dock icon can end up looking like a Windows start menu after several years of installing programs on a regular basis and never removing them. Although the program lets you add many badges, overdoing it will most likely produce a less than satisfactory effect.
The Truth A great little program that lets you customize the Mail dock icon appearance right from within the application itself. It has the built in power to overload the poor dock icon, but if used moderately will be of source of much enjoyment.
Here are some screenshots, click to enlarge:
