Mail

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How to Organize Email

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Email needs to be organized; otherwise that list in Mail can be a mess!  David Passell explains his system. "Here is a 'trick' that works for me in sorting out all the various messages and messages within messages. If you have 'Organize by thread' turned on, just select all messages in the thread, do a copy, then paste into a new message. You don't even have to send it to anybody; then you can read/print and digest it. It will be in the 'drafts' mailbox. This may help in tracking the train of discussion.

"It would help to have a consistent 'protocol' for sending/replying to messages.

(1) Some repeat all that has gone before, others extract things to answer, some don't repeat any of the previous message (like me).

(2) In the Cc: for both originals and replies -- some repeat the list of all addressees, some may use "undisclosed recipients" (not sure who may be a party to the replies), some only reply to the originator of the message. Nobody but the President or Secretary should send a message to all members of PMUG.

(3) If an individual receives a message that should be of interest to the board the message should be repeated, or it can be forwarded. If the message is already addressed to the board probably it does not have to be repeated.

(4) Since replies to a message always have as a subject Re: I always add to this in parenthesis (main point of reply). That way there aren't multiple messages with the same subject each of which has to be examined."

Little-Known Feature of Mail

Exploring features of Mail, David Passell passes along some information.  He tells us that he's found, "the ability to copy text (e.g. from Jumpcut), previous emails, images into a single email to be sent. It doesn't have to be an email; you can also use the Notes feature which doesn't ask you for all the header information. The first line you type into the note is the subject."  He volunteers to show and tell some specifics for a PMUG meeting or a SIG.  He comments, "This is even handier than a Screen Movie."

Benefits of Multiple Mail Accounts

"If you have several email accounts, and use Apple Mail as your main application, you can set up multiple account names," De Prez Allen Laudenslager reminds us.

The Apple instructions are right here for you.

"What this means is that when you send a new email, you can select from any of your accounts and the mail will be sent with that as the visible address and not from your 'primary' address.

"For example, suppose you had an account named xxx@mac.com as your primary but also had an xyz@gmail.com. With this system from Apple mail, you can send your message from either your .mac or .gmail account directly from your mail application!

"Cool, huh?"  Yes, Allen, and thanks for keeping us informed and inspired!

CableOne and Mac Mail

"I have been getting questions from people new to the Mac on how to set up Mac Mail to send and receive messages using CableOne," John Carter tells us.  Here he gives us step by step and illustrated directions.

Here's John's directions,  (you have to be connected to the Internet):

1. Open Mac Mail
2. In the Menu Bar, click on Mail
3. Click on Preferences.
4. In the window that pops up, click on the Accounts tab.
5. In the bottom right of the window, click on the "+" sign to add a new account.
6. In the Add Account window, Enter your full name in the top field.
7. Enter your cableone.net email address in the second field.

8. Enter your cableone.net password in the last field.
9. Click the Continue button in the bottom right. You will then get a pop-up window that appears to be an error message:

10. Click on "Setup Manually"
11. In the next window you will be setting up the Incoming Mail Server:

12. Enter the information as shown above, except use your user name and password.
13. Click Continue
14. In the next window, just click Continue:

15. In the next window you will be setting up the Outgoing Mail Server:

16. Enter the information as shown above for the Outgoing Mail Server. The Description field can be anything you like that will identify that CableOne is being used as an outgoing mail server.
17. Click Continue.
18. The next window will again appear to be an error message:

19. Click on "Setup Manually."
20. In the next window, just click Continue:

21. A summary of what you have done so far is shown next:

22. Click on the Create button to finish.
23. When you return to the Accounts page you should see this:

24. Please be sure to check the box "Use only this server" unless you have other email accounts that you prefer to use.
25. Notice that I have several other email accounts
26. Click on the "Mailbox Behaviors" and the "Advanced" tabs and set up your mail preferences the way you like them. There is no "best" way.
27. Create a test message and send it to yourself. In the Mail window, click on Get Mail if the message does not come in right away. Messages are retrieved according to the time period you set up in the General tab of the Mail Preferences (Check for new messages).   # # #

Keyboard Shortcuts with Apple Mail

Everybody likes to save time.  Jim Hamm begins by saying, "One tip not mentioned, which I use often is Command+N to open a new message box to send an email." He sends us this article of tips for Quickly Managing Mail.  (If you, like me, prefer to read black type on a white background instead of white type on black background do this: Control+Option+Command+8 and rest your eyes.)

Throughout the whole time of using Mac, often we will spend time on checking and managing our mail. I personally like the default mail application for Mac: Mail.app.

In this trick, I am going to share with you some keyboard shortcuts that come in handy when we're going to manage our mailboxes, quick navigate mailbox, and handle message.

Managing Mailboxes

You will use these shortcuts often. You should quickly burn these into your brain.

Cmd-Delete → Delete selected mailbox item(s)
Cmd-Shift-L → Mark selected items as "Flagged"
Cmd-Shift-J → Mark selected items as "Junk"
Cmd-Shift-Y → Add sender(s) of selected items to Address Book
Cmd-Shift-K → Select all related messages
Navigating Mailboxes

And you can always use keyboard shortcuts Cmd-1 ~ Cmd-8 for quick navigation to other mailboxes.

Handling Message

In the case of handling message, these keyboard shorcuts would be very useful:

Cmd-R → Reply
Cmd-Shift-R → Reply All
Cmd-Shift-F → Forward
Cmd-Shift-E → Redirect
Cmd-Shift-B → Bounce
Hope these shortcuts will help you in increasing your productivity.  # # #

Gmail is tops!

At the last PMUG SIG we talked a little about Gmail. Jim Hamm noticed that he hasn't seen any spam come in through his Gmail account while he does get a lot of spam through other mail account. I, too, have noticed the same thing. So I experimented a little today and set up my Gmail account to pull in all my email from my other accounts - except Yahoo - and now when I get mail in Mac Mail, all that mail comes in to one place because I pull it all from the Gmail account.

I have four separate accounts set up in Mac Mail, Gmail being one of them. The only account that is active is the Gmail account. The others are now just place holders. When mail comes in, I have rules set up to sort my inbox. Each mail item is moved to a folder based on the information in the To: and Subject: lines. Really nice! One place to read all my mail, even when I'm away from home - because I can now login to my Gmail account online and read everything.

Another plus! I set up Mac Mail to send through my Gmail account as the default sender, but I have the other accounts waiting in the wings in case there's a delay in sending through Gmail, and I am prompted to try another server - or I can just wait it out and it will get sent eventually.

Of course, I do have to log in to the Gmail account occasionally to clean up the junk folder. Even if I don't, it will clean itself up in time. No worries, mate!