Section 59. Create a Smart Mailbox for Certain Types of Messages

59. Create a Smart Mailbox for Certain Types of Messages

BEFORE YOU BEGIN

54 Configure a New Mail Account

56 Send a Message

SEE ALSO

58 Create a Mailbox

14 Create a Smart Folder That Contains Certain Types of Items

A new feature in the Mail application included in Mac OS X Tiger is called Smart Mailboxes . If you're already familiar with Smart Folders in the Finder, or with Smart Playlists in iTunes, you already know the idea: a Smart Mailbox is essentially a canned database query, presenting an up-to-date grouping of messages in your existing mailboxes filtered according to certain criteria that you define in advance. You don't place messages into a Smart Mailbox yourself, nor do you set a rule to do so automatically. A Smart Mailbox gives you a dynamic list of messages that match your criteria, no matter where they are within your mailbox hierarchy.

The uses of Smart Mailboxes are legion, limited only by your needs. Mail comes preloaded with a variety of useful and demonstrative Smart Mailboxes, such as Viewed Today (which shows you all messages you've read in the current day), 90's Mail (all messages you received during the 1990s), and Images (all messages with picture attachments). You can set up Smart Mailboxes to catch all messages to or from a particular person, to show all messages with high priority that are sent to your work account, or to collect just the messages from people in your Address Book. Let your imagination run wildMail armed with Smart Mailboxes gives you a whole new way to think about organizing your digital correspondence.

1.	Add a New Smart Mailbox Click the "gear" button at the bottom of the Mailboxes pane. From the menu that appears, choose New Smart Mailbox . A sheet appears that allows you to specify the details of the new Smart Mailbox.
2.	Specify a Smart Mailbox Name Choose a name for the new Smart Mailbox that's descriptive of its function. For example, if you want to create a Smart Mailbox that collects all messages you sent to your business partner that contain image attachments, call it Pictures To Bob . 59. Create a Smart Mailbox for Certain Types of Messages
3.	Add Criteria for Matching Messages Use the + button to add a new criterion. The drop-down menus and text entry fields in each criterion line, which vary in format depending on the criterion you select, allow you to define a new filter for matching messages. For example, select Any Attachment Name from the first menu, then Ends with from the second menu, and enter .jpg in the third to create a criterion that all matching messages should contain JPEG image attachments. After you've defined at least two criteria, use the drop-down menu to choose whether messages must match any or all of the criteria you have defined. Use the button on any existing criterion to delete that criterion. Use Include messages from Trash to allow the Smart Mailbox to show messages that are in the Trash mailbox; if not selected, messages in the Trash (waiting to be automatically deleted) are not shown in the Smart Mailbox. When you're done defining your Smart Mailbox, click OK . The Smart Mailbox is created and now appears in the list of mailboxes, with a "gear" icon indicating that it's a Smart Mailbox. From now on, simply click the Smart Mailbox icon to see a list of all the messages that match its criteria. NOTE If you delete a message from the listing while viewing a Smart Mailbox, the message is deleted from its original folder.
4.	Modify an Existing Smart Mailbox You can modify an existing Smart Mailbox's criteria at any time, if the listing it presents isn't quite what you need. First, select the mailbox by clicking its folder icon. Then, from the "gear" button at the bottom of the Mailboxes pane, choose Edit Smart Mailbox . The same sheet you used to create the Smart Mailbox appears again, allowing you to make changes to its name or criteria. Alternatively, double-click the Smart Mailbox's icon to open the editing sheet, or click its name to rename the Smart Mailbox directly.