How To Create Smart Mailboxes In Mail On Mac.
The smart inbox on your Mac lets you view your received and sent emails in a more customizable way. You can create this type of mailbox in the Mail app on your Mac, and then assign different rules to it for your emails.
These rules for your smart inbox decide whether your emails should go to it or not. Emails will only be placed in your mailbox if they meet all the conditions for that particular mailbox that you created.
Creating a new smart inbox in the Apple Mail app is quick and easy.
Create a Smart Mailbox in Mail on a Mac
Before you go ahead and create your first Smart Mailbox on Mac, keep in mind that these changes will only be available in the Mail app on your Mac. All emails you send and receive will not actually be tagged and you will not see any such mailboxes on the Internet or any other version of your email account.
This feature only exists in the Mail app to help you find specific emails in your email account.
- Click Launchpad, find Mail and click it when you see it.
- When it opens, find the option labeled “Mailbox” at the top, click it and select the “New Smart Mailbox” option. This will allow you to create a completely new mailbox for your specific emails.
- On the next screen, you will need to enter data in various fields to create a smart mailbox.
Smart mailbox name – Enter an appropriate name for this mailbox.
Contains messages this match – if you select “all”, all emails that meet all the conditions are placed in the mailbox. When you select any of them, emails that match any of your conditions will be placed in the mailbox.
- Use the drop-down menus to specify your terms. These are the conditions your emails must meet before they can be placed in this smart inbox for you. You can add multiple conditions and choose from many options. You also have the option to include cart and sent emails if you want.
- Finally, click OK to complete the Smart Mailbox setup.
- Your newly created mailbox should appear in the Smart Mailboxes section on the left sidebar of your screen. You can click on it to view your emails that match the predefined mailbox rules.
Diverse Uses of Smart Mailboxes in Mac Mail
It’s pretty easy to create a smart inbox in the Mail app on Mac, but it’s only as good as the rules you’ve set up for it. If you’ve set up hard-hitting rules that define your email requirements very well, you’ll only see the emails you need in your inbox.
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However, on the other hand, if your rules are too broad and not configured properly, you will find that sometimes even unwanted emails end up in this smart inbox.
If you want to get started with this feature, but can’t come up with any good rules at the moment, the following usage examples might be helpful.
Create a smart inbox for letters from someone specific
This is the most commonly used one, and you can set up a smart inbox on Mac that only contains emails from the user you specify in the ruleset. All emails from this person will be collected for you in one inbox.
We will assume that the user has multiple email addresses and you want to put them in the same mailbox.
- On the mailbox criteria screen, specify the following rules:
Smart Mailbox Name – Enter “Emails From” followed by the person’s name.
- Select any from the drop-down menu.
- Select From, contains and enter the first email address of the user.
- Click the + (plus) sign and add another rule, exactly the same as above, except for changing the email address to the second user’s email address.
- Finally, click OK to create and save the smart mailbox.
View emails with specific attachment types
If you frequently receive emails with a certain type of attachment, such as PDF, you can filter those emails from the rest and leave them to view.
We will create an inbox that will collect emails containing PDF attachments.
- Specify the following rules on the new smart mailbox screen.
- Enter PDF as the attachment name.
- Select all from the dropdown menu.
- Select the attachment type and then select PDF from the drop-down list next to it.
- Click OK to complete the Smart Mailbox setup.
- Use the drop-down menu on the criteria screen to find more advanced use cases for this feature.
Edit Smart Mailbox in Mail
If you want to change something in the smart mailbox, you can do so by editing the mailbox in the app.
- Open the Mail app, right-click the smart mailbox and select Edit Smart Mailbox.
- Edit the mailbox rules on the next screen and click OK.
Delete Smart Mailbox in Mail
When you change jobs, your boss’s email address changes, or something happens that makes your smart inbox irrelevant, you can get rid of it in the Mail app. Deleting a mailbox will not delete your emails, and they will continue to exist on your mail server.
- Open the Mail app, find your mailbox, right-click it and select Delete Mailbox.
- Click “Delete” at the prompt on the screen to get rid of the mailbox.
Create a Smart Mailbox folder in Mail on the Mac
A smart mailbox folder is a group of smart mailboxes that you choose to store in one location. You can create a folder, add selected mailboxes to it, and then access them with one click.
- Launch Mail and select Mailbox and then New Smart Mailbox Folder.
- Enter a name for the folder and click OK.
- Drag your smart mailboxes into a folder and they will be added to it for quick access.
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