Walkthroughs created with Apple Mail 3.4
These walkthroughs are companions to the product You Are Not Your Inbox: Overcoming Email Overload, an audio program by Stever Robbins. Click here for information about You Are Not Your Inbox.
Jump straight to the topic you’re interested in:
- Creating smart mailboxes
- Color-coding messages using filters
- Filter messages into a separate mailbox
- Using stationery and templates
- Turning off new mail notification
Creating smart mailboxes
- Choose Mailbox | New Smart Mailbox…
- Enter a name for the Smart mailbox
- Select contains Messages from the drop-down list
- Choose a set of conditions to separate out the messages you want to see in the smart mailbox.
- If you want a smart mailbox that views messages from your mom, you might choose From contains mom@moms-domain.com
- If you want a smart mailbox that contains only messages from the last 3 days, you might choose Date Received is in the last 3 days
- Click OK
Using filters / rules to color-code messages
- Choose Mail | Preferences…
- Click Rules
- Click Add Rule
- Name your rule. For example, "Make all messages from Boss red."
- Choose From contains your-boss’s-email-address
- In the Perform the following actions section, choose:
Set Color of text Red
- Click OK
Filter messages from mom or an e-zine into a separate mailbox
First, create the mailbox where you will send the messages.
- Choose Mailbox | New Mailbox…
- Type in the mailbox name, for example, Incoming EZines
- Click OK
Next, create the filter to move messages to that mailbox.
- Choose Mail | Preferences…
- Click Rules
- Click Add Rule
- Name your rule. For example, "Move all ezines to Ezines folder."
- Choose From contains the-ezine-from-address
- In the Perform the following actions section, choose:
Move message to mailbox: Incoming EZines - Click OK
Stationery/template/autocorrect
Creating stationery
- Choose File | New Message…
- Enter the subject line and message text that you want to be able to reuse later.
- Choose File | Save as Stationery…
- Give your stationery a name, for example, Thank you for your business.
- Click OK.
Using stationery
- Choose File | New Message…
- Click the Show Stationery button on the toolbar
- Select Custom as the stationery category
- Select your stationery
- Your stationery will be retrieved. Finish the message and send it as normal.
Turn off "You have new mail"
- Choose Mail | Preferences…
- Set New mail sound to None
- (optional) Set Check for new mail to Manually or to Every Hour
- If you choose Manually, you can check for new mail by choosing menu item Mailbox | Get All New Mail
- If you choose Manually, you can check for new mail by choosing menu item Mailbox | Get All New Mail