Smart Mailboxes
Jammo (0 pencils) | Fri, 2005-06-17 14:34
If you're a Tiger user and you're using mail.app then heres another little tip I find I couldnt do without.
How to set a smart mailbox for your unread messages only!
One of the first new features i used on Tiger was smart mailboxes, and as I've got about a thousand emails in my inbox (yes i know I should have a clean up) I decided I would like a mailbox that shows me my unread messages only.
So here goes!
In the left toolbar at the bottom, you have two icons - one for new mailbox and then the one we need 'Actions', click this and choose "New Smart Mailbox"
Now this bit can be as easy as shown below, or you can go advanced, I'll tell more in minute...
If you use the settings shown above, any new/unread email will go straight to that box (it will be in your inbox too).
Messages only disappear from the smartbox when the message is marked as read and the smart box is refreshed (click on another mailbox, then click on the smart mailbox again)
You said something about advanced?
Ok maybe the wrong choice of words, but hows this for an idea or two.
- When you was creating that smart mailbox you could have added more filters, so what if you had a smart mailbox for "unread items from your favourite forum" by simply putting the address in there that gets used.
- A smart mailbox to organise all those damn paypal / ebay receipts and notices
- A smart mailbox for each client, so everything from or with the clients name goes into a smart box
You will see that smart mailboxes are not just for incoming messages, so how about this for some small but hopefully useful ideas.
- If you deal with a lot of clients you could have a smart mailbox, set with the 'to' address. That way if your boss (if you're using tiger at work) says "Did you send that email?" Or "Give me all the messages you sent to the client between this date and that date" - Easy and very very quick way to get every message without having to pick out the ones from your inbox!
Well I guess thats it for that tip, not as big as the Archive one, but I've found this a great way keep my hundreds / thousands of emails organised.
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Goo
Commenting on this Blog entry is closed.
Good stuff... I use iBiz to track time and projects and it's integrated with Address book, and uses a Address Group (or whatever it's called) to group all my iBiz clients together.
In Tiger Mail, I set up a smart mailbox called "Client Mail," and pointed it to my iBiz Client list in Address Book. So now I have all my work viewable in one place no matter what mailbox the original message comes into.
Terrell Thornhill
e-zign Design Group
Thanks for the info about iBiz mate, Im gonna give that a go it looks very useful to me :)
Cheers thornysarus
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Goo
Terrell Thornhill
e-zign Design Group
If you make a smart mailbox for unread messages...they all show up there, "good" but then it still looks like you have messages in your inbox.
The problem gets worse when you have multiple smart mailboxes, you never really know what is in your inbox ... so you have to dig through it or search, which takes more of your time.
It would be better if there was an option for mark as read in inbox while still leaving it unread in the smartbox.
I guess I just have to get used to it.
I've got a feeling that this could be a personal preference prob, When you read the message in the smart mailbox, the numbers in your inbox (and next to each mail account) go down as you read each message. That for me doesnt leave me to think there are any messages in there that i've not read.
I've got multiple smart mailboxes set up and I naturally look at my New mail box number first and then if theres a message that falls into the filtered / smart box options then i know exactly whats there and whats not etc. I guess its something as I use my mac about 7+ hours every day I just tend to get used to it and dont think otherwise lol.
Thanks for your comments though nixter - (I saw your homepage was angryshirts.... I love that site and Im always getting shirts from there *wearing the white mac tshirt as i type :)* )
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Goo
nice info but abit late, did this as soon as i got tiger lol, never the less its a nice tip.
- Liam
Im sure quite a few people would have done this as soon as they got Tiger, I know I did lol . But there are some people here who might have missed the feature :) or knew it was there but didnt have a use for it - until now :p
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Goo
fair point :-), it is still never the less a really useful tip that i forwared to some friends
- Liam
I didn't really think about doing this till you pointed it out. Its great. I love it :) Thanks for pointing out the obvious :)