Sender and domain watchers

#How a sender watcher works

Each watcher has one Gmail account and one or more senders. On every check, WebWatcher asks Gmail for unread Inbox mail from those senders and counts the messages that match. Reading or archiving a message in Gmail lowers the count at the next check. A notification appears when a new unread message from the list arrives.

Mail that already sits unread in your Inbox when you create the watcher is counted but does not notify you. Only mail that arrives afterwards does.

#Add a sender watcher

1. Click the WebWatcher icon in the menu bar, then Add Watcher.

   You seethe Add Watcher window with two tabs, Web page and Gmail sender.

2. Click the Gmail sender tab.

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   You seethe Add Email Watcher form. If no account is connected, it shows Sign in with Google instead of the account picker. Connect first as described in Sign in with Google.

3. Type a name in Name. If you leave it empty, the watcher is listed by its sender addresses.

4. Choose the account in the Gmail account picker.

5. Type an address or domain in the Senders field and click Add, or press Return.

   You seethe entry appears in a list under the field. Repeat for each sender.

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6. Leave Play sound checked if you want a sound with the notification.

7. Click Save.

   You seethe watcher under Email in the menu bar popover.

To change a watcher later, hover its row in the popover and click the pencil button. The same form opens as Edit Email Watcher, with Delete at the bottom.

#Sender formats

The Senders field takes two kinds of entry. WebWatcher turns what you type into lowercase.

A domain entry matches the whole domain only. @example.com matches [email protected] but not [email protected] or [email protected]. Add @mail.example.com as a separate entry to cover a subdomain.

You can paste several entries at once. Separate them with commas, semicolons, spaces or new lines. WebWatcher drops duplicates. An address copied as Name <[email protected]> is reduced to the address. Text with no @ is rejected with "Enter an email address or @domain".

#What you see in the menu

Email watchers have their own Email group in the menu bar popover.

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#The notification

A watcher posts one notification, and each new message updates that same notification instead of adding another. The text comes from your newest unread message and your unread count. You can change the text with templates.

#What clicking it opens

Clicking the watcher's row in the menu bar popover opens the same page.

#The action buttons

The notification carries four buttons. Each acts on every message counted by the watcher, not only the newest one. When the action succeeds, the watcher's unread count resets and the notification is dismissed.

#Notify for every new email

An email watcher tells you about mail from the senders you listed. The Notify for every new email checkbox widens that for one account: it notifies you about every new Inbox message that no watcher already covers.

1. Open Settings› then Gmail.

2. Find the account's row and check Notify for every new email.

   You seethe checkbox is on. It is off by default.

Use it when you want the account to behave like a general mail notifier, for example for a mailbox that receives little mail. Leave it off for a busy mailbox, where it produces a notification for every message. These notifications are per message: the title is the sender's name, the subtitle is the subject, and the body is the start of the message and its Gmail labels. They carry the same four buttons but do not use templates.

#How often mail is checked

WebWatcher checks each connected account every minute by default. The Poll interval setting in Settings changes this to 30 seconds, 2, 5 or 10 minutes, for all accounts at once. See Settings. The editor's footer shows the interval in use.

#If it does not work