by Navigating through Mail can be a hassle, especially if you’re receving upwards of hundreds of emails a day. Getting plenty of email can result in disorganization — but there are plenty of Mail tips that you might not know about.
One way to declutter your inbox is to incorporate a badge on the Dock icon which displays the count of emails that you actually need — not all of them. To set it up, go to Mail, then Preferences, then Rules. Click on the Inbox Rules tab, then Add Rule. Then rename is to Personal Email, and note in there that the Rule should match any of the following conditions: Sender Is in My Previous Recipients; or Sender Is in My Address Book. Under the action, add Mark as Flagged, then choose a color. Create a new Smart Mailbox next. Click on Mailbox, then New Smart Mailbox. Specify that they need to be Unread, has a Flag (the colour you chose), is in the Inbox. The final step is to go to the General Preferences tab, click on Dock Unread Count, then click on Personal Email.
The newness of iCloud can lead to some confusion. Folks have been finding that their .mac address is flawless with their handheld devices, but iCloud and the Macbook aren’t working so well together. To clear this up, delete your account and re-add it. If that doesn’t work, go back tot he Account setting. Click on the + and enter the iCloud address and assowrd. See where it says Create? Hold down the Option key and Create should change to Continue. Click on that. Then, choose IMAP, and type in imap.mail.me.com. Your username and password should be automatically filled in. Click on Continue again, holding down Option if needed. Next, enable the Use Secure Socket Layer (SSL) option. Click on Password from the Authentication pop-up menu, then Continue. Now enter iCloud in the Description field, smtp.mail.me.com in the Outgoing Mail Server field, enable the Use Authentication option, and enter the email address, username, and password. Click on Continue. Enable Use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and click on Password. Then Continue. Make sure everything is right. Then Create. Done!
If you just are looking for a way to get specific messages to stand out, you can create a rule to change the colour of messages specific to, for example, your company, family, or friends. Go to Mail, then Preferences. Click on Rules. Click on Add Rule and choose that Any contains the addresses that you want it to be from (IE all from your work domain).
Sometimes automatically forwarding email to other people’s accounts is helpful, and being able to do so automatically can save you a lot of time. To create a rule for that, go to the Actions setting, then choose Forward Message. Type in the email address to be forwarded to (adding additional text if you want). So, for example, if you want to send any receipts to your business email, type in receipt and receipts under any, then use that to forward to your business email.
