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Everyone organizes things in different ways. The important thing is that you can find things quickly when you are looking for them and organize them in such a way that makes sense to you. By using labels, saved searches, and filters in Thunderbird, you can accomplish great things. Let's see how by looking at Thunderbird's excellent mail management features. Creating Folders and SubfoldersAt some point, you might need to create some additional folders to house different categories of email. To create a new folder, go to File | New Folder and give the folder a name. You can also designate whether you want the newly created folder to be a subfolder of an existing folder. Folders can be moved around, so it is a good idea to store your mail in a folder if you anticipate having to move it (to a local folder, for example) at some later time. Note If you are using IMAP to manage your email, you might not be able to create subfolder. Labeling and Marking Your MailLabeling and marking your mail allows you to quickly categorize email messages that you want to follow up on. When you need to find these categories quickly, Thunderbird offers you numerous ways to search your mail to find the messages you have labeled or marked. Labeling Your MailThunderbird allows you to label your mail into five categories:
To label a message, go to Message | Label and select the category you want (you can also highlight a group of messages and mark them all at once). Thunderbird uses a default set of colors to highlight the messages after you mark them. These colors can be changed by going to Tools | Options | Display and clicking the box that shows the default color. You can also restore the default colors at any time by clicking Restore defaults. After you have labeled your mail into the various categories, you can use the View feature described next to see messages in the various categories. Marking Your MailTo mark a message, go to Message | Mark and select the category you want. You can mark a message in the following categories:
Creating Saved SearchesThunderbird's Saved Search feature creates a "virtual folder" in a place you designate according to a set of search criteria you define. As shown in Figure 12-1, the search criteria can be constructed using Boolean logic, and you can formulate the search using attributes such as subject, sender, junk status, and so on. Figure 12-1. The New Saved Search Folder creation screen.
Note A Saved Search folder is identified with a different icon than the one for a regular folder (as shown in Figure 12-2), so you can easily distinguish the difference between the two. Figure 12-2. The Saved Search icon.
When you create a saved search, the messages do not actually get removed from the original location but are actually stored there in a virtual state. However, here are two essential things to remember when you are working with Saved Searches:
Ways to Create a Saved SearchThunderbird gives you four different ways to create saved searches:
To create a saved search, follow these instructions:
Figure 12-3. A Saved Search with the More option enabled.Using the View Menu to Create a Saved SearchIf you want to use the View menu to create a saved search, you first need to select the category that you want to view (such as "Recent Mail"). After Thunderbird sorts that view, click the View drop-down list and select Save Search as a Folder. You will get the same screen as in Figure 12-1, but it will be filled in with criteria since "Recent Mail" is defined as "Age in Days" is less than 1. Remember that you can change the criteria for this saved search to be anything you want. Using Quicksearch to Create a Saved SearchIf you want to use Quicksearch to create a saved search, you must select the category you want to search, such as "Sender" (see the "Searching Your Mail" section for an explanation of the Quicksearch feature). After Thunderbird retrieves that search and returns a set of results, you can click Save Search as a Folder and you will get the same screen as shown in Figure 12-1, filled in with the search criteria you have defined. If you want to change the search in some way, you have the opportunity to do that. Changing Criteria on an Existing Saved SearchAfter you have created a saved search, it is easy to change the criteria at any time. Right-click the saved search you have created, select Properties, and then adjust the criteria you want. Remember that if you have conducted a saved search and then change the criteria of the messages (like changing messages from one state to another), those messages will no longer appear in the Saved Search folder when you open it. Thunderbird refreshes the screen after you have changed criteria, so you should see an immediate change when you click back to the folder. If you find you need to rename or delete an existing saved search, you can accomplish this by selecting the saved search and then right-clicking to bring up the context menu. |
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