Apple's Mail Question

[Huntn]

I'm trying to keep Mail synched between my G5 (Tiger) and my MBP (Leopard). I know about the Mail folder in the Library and the mail plist file in the Preferences folder.

When I moved a copy of it from my G5 to my MBP, the mailboxes moved, but not the smart mailboxes. Does anyone know where they are stashed?

Thanks!
_________________
"Something I missed, I don't know, something not in the plans!"

Hardware: - 2.2 Ghz 15" MBP, Mac OS 10.5, 4GB RAM, Geforce 8600M GT (128MB VRAM), Boot Camp- 32bit Vista.

[Bruce Thompson]

[Huntn]

[Huntn]

I've set up rules in Apple's Mail program so that messages coming "from" and "to" certain email addresses are supposed to be put in to a folder I've designated. The messages that are "from" are covered by a rule do move into the folder I designated. But the emails I send to someone covered by a "to" rule are not transfered. Instead I find them in my "sent" folder.

Anyone have an idea why the "to" messages are not being moved? I wonder if "to" is something different than the messages I send? Hmmm.

Thanks!
_________________
"Something I missed, I don't know, something not in the plans!"

Hardware: - 2.2 Ghz 15" MBP, Mac OS 10.5, 4GB RAM, Geforce 8600M GT (128MB VRAM), Boot Camp- 32bit Vista.

[Bruce Thompson]

In doing some checking on the Apple discussion boards, it appears that outgoing (sent) mail is not subject to rules. There were several comparisons to Eudora and some lamenting that Apple mail didn't have all of the same functions (I believe you had been using that).

There might be a way use Smart Folders to accomplish the same thing. As it is now, each account you have defined has its own Sent Mail mailbox. But there is no further breakdown. The "To:" is used to separate incoming if you have multiple email addresses you are checking. (I use that to filter out mail that comes to miniapples).

Bruce

[Huntn]

[Bruce Thompson]

[Huntn]

Does anyone know if you can create a batch mail template in Mail to send to a standard group of people?

Thanks!
_________________
"Something I missed, I don't know, something not in the plans!"

Hardware: - 2.2 Ghz 15" MBP, Mac OS 10.5, 4GB RAM, Geforce 8600M GT (128MB VRAM), Boot Camp- 32bit Vista.

[gregbuchner]

You need to clarify that a little better. Are you looking at having a standard message format that you can send to the same people? If it's that, I don't know for certain.

If you're looking at just typing in one thing, like say Family to send to the same people all of the time, just set up groups in Address Book with those people in it, then when you type Family it will put all of the people in that group in the address line.
_________________
MacBook Pro 2.4GHz/4GB RAM; PowerMac G4 Dual 1.6GHz, 1.25GB RAM; PowerMac G3/466; Apple IIGS; Apple IIe; Apple IIc

[Huntn]

With Eudora I could set up a standard email that went to the SIG leaders. Once setup, it was always there. It's looking like in Mail, I have to use the Address Book. In the Address book, it looks like if you set up a group, like SIGs it will send out individual emails to everyone in that group. But it looks hard to do group collaboration by email this way. I prefer to have the cc in there.

The format here at forumer.com is much better for collaboration.

-Dave
_________________
"Something I missed, I don't know, something not in the plans!"

Hardware: - 2.2 Ghz 15" MBP, Mac OS 10.5, 4GB RAM, Geforce 8600M GT (128MB VRAM), Boot Camp- 32bit Vista.

[Huntn]

Something else I'm noticing in Mail. When reviewing my mail, I can look at the index level of my folders and most of these folders do not show the correct number of unread messages. For example, if I look at say Fidelity, it will show no unread messages, however when I actually click on the Fidelity folder, a little clock icon appears and then poof, there are 10 unread messages. I don't like this as I want to see where all the unread messages are without having to be forced to click on each individual folder...
Suggestions? Thanks1
_________________
"Something I missed, I don't know, something not in the plans!"

Hardware: - 2.2 Ghz 15" MBP, Mac OS 10.5, 4GB RAM, Geforce 8600M GT (128MB VRAM), Boot Camp- 32bit Vista.

[Bruce Thompson]

Dave,

First, I have to assume you are using POP protocol. If not, all bets are off.

There are a couple of things you can try. If you select ALL of the folders, it should show how many unread items are in each folder. But it really sounds like the index needs rebuilding. Just select all of the folders or mailboxes, then go to Mailbox:Rebuild. It might take a while if your mailboxes are large.

I have experienced this problem a couple of times when Mail crashed trying to display a problematic message. I had to launch with the Shift key down so no messages were selected. And through some luck, was able to delete the offending message. Then I rebuilt the index and all seemed to be fine.

Bruce

[Tom Ostertag]

Greetings:

I imported all of my mailboxes from Entourage to Mail and now find that a lot of my incoming mail arrives in the Archives folder rather than the In folder. Any suggestions?

Tom
_________________
Tom Ostertag
tostertag@usfamily.net
svante1859@gmail.com
svante1859@yahoo.com

[Huntn]

[Huntn]

[Bruce Thompson]

[Huntn]

Bruce, thanks!

The other question is regarding email replies. I've looked at it more than once and it seems like there are no provision in Mail to filter replies so they stay in the same folder as the email being replied to. They all seem to go to the "sent" folder. Am I overlooking something? I just cranked up Thunderbird and under it's preferences you can tell it to put copies of replies in the same folder as the original. Can this be done with Mail?
_________________
"Something I missed, I don't know, something not in the plans!"

Hardware: - 2.2 Ghz 15" MBP, Mac OS 10.5, 4GB RAM, Geforce 8600M GT (128MB VRAM), Boot Camp- 32bit Vista.

[Huntn]

Question about "unread" filter. What if you have a filter that says put all unread in the unread folder. And then you have a filter that says put all Miniapples emails in the Miniapples folders. Is that a conflict? In other words when the next Miniapples email comes in and I have not yet read it, which folder will it go to? Or will it appear in both?

BTW I'm looking through documentation but how do you setup an "unread" smart mail folder?

My guess is you would not be able to set up a filter that shows only unread mail but not unread mail that belongs to another category say like Miniapples? You see it's a personal problem. I don't always read every email I get when it comes in. I get subscribed mailings on a regular basis, from merchants like say Blockbuster.com, Sears, and the like. I don't necessarily look at those exactly when they come in. I have setup filters so subscribed emails are filtered to their respective boxes.

My goal is to have a relatively uncluttered inbox that only contains unread emails that I have not categorized with filters. So the Blockbuster, Sears, and Miniapples (I do read those) are auto moved out of the Inbox. I'm suspecting with Smart mail boxes I'm going to be stuck with the main inbox with all the unread emails in it. But with actual filters like in Thunderbird, the emails I have assigned to filters are moved out of that inbox and make it a lot less cluttered. Am I making sense with my description?

I currently have Mail setup with real mailboxes and filters. The other problem I've noticed in Mail is even though I have set up filters they don't always work. I get email from different accounts and frequently I open an inbox and there are emails I know should be filtered but they are not until I do the "run filters" command. I have no idea why that is...
_________________
"Something I missed, I don't know, something not in the plans!"

Hardware: - 2.2 Ghz 15" MBP, Mac OS 10.5, 4GB RAM, Geforce 8600M GT (128MB VRAM), Boot Camp- 32bit Vista.

[Huntn]

How do you make a smart maibox that shows all unread mail? I've looked at the choices when making a new smart mailbox, but I don't see it.

I may have broken the code for getting "sent" messages to filter. There appears to be a master sent folder and if you run your filters on it the "sent" messages all seem to go where they should. IMO that should happen automatically but it does not.

In the old ole day, Eudora's filters auto worked. Now the difference may be that I was using POP with Eurdora so IMAP could be different for all email clients.

I also noticed in Eudora, you could set up a single filter that had both "from" and "to" criteria in it. In Mail you need 2 separate filters to accomplish this.
_________________
"Something I missed, I don't know, something not in the plans!"

Hardware: - 2.2 Ghz 15" MBP, Mac OS 10.5, 4GB RAM, Geforce 8600M GT (128MB VRAM), Boot Camp- 32bit Vista.

[Tom Ostertag]

[4tun8]

Remember that they are only a collection of aliases not the actual messages.

Found this at TidBitsTalk:

I set up Mail on a MacBook for a newbie friend and started to set up
smart mailboxes, thinking they would act a but like Eudora's filters.

Both are, technically speaking, "filters". But what in Eudora is called a
"filter" applies only to incoming and outgoing mail. A "smart mailbox" OTOH
is essentially just a search query, with the results presented as a mailbox.
It doesn't act on incoming or outgoing mail, but on stored mail.

and

Smart Mailboxes (called Custom Views in Entourage) and Filters (called Rules
in Mail and Entourage) may seem similar, but they approach a similar
goal--"grouping" of messages--in very different ways.

Rules can *move* messages into mailboxes/folders; so, for example, you can
set up a rule that automatically moves all messages from family members, as
it's received, into a Family folder. (Rules can also do many other things.)

Smart Mailboxes/Custom Views, on the other hand, are essentially search
results that are automatically and continually updated. This approach lets
you view all messages that meet particular criteria, but it leaves those
messages wherever they are. For example, you could set up a Smart Mailbox
that shows all messages from family members, even if those messages are
spread out over many different folders.

(You can also use Rules and Smart Mailboxes/Custom Views together. In
Entourage, I have rules set up to move all my mailing-list email into
individual folders, one for each mailing list. But I read that mail using a
Custom View that shows all unread mailing-list mail. I also have a Custom
View that shows all flagged mail, whether those messages are in my Inbox or
in specific project folders.)

and

Smart Mailboxes are not filters/rules, but rather saved searches. So they
aren't going to move messages around, but rather find every message that
meets your criteria. What you want to use are rules.

[Huntn]

I miss Eudora and pop mail...

I don't know what happened but somehow in synching my computers I lost my Apple "Mail" mailboxes (sitting on my Mac). So it's seems like a good time to reevaluate my email "situation".

Some Questions:
I'm using GMail/iMap for my email. What advantage if any is there of managing email via Apple's "Mail" versus just managing it with GMail online?

If you go with 100% Mail- Smart Mailboxes, are you actually downloading anything to your Mac or is everything still sitting on the server?

What if you want a copy of everything downloaded to your Mac (for backup purposes) but you are content to manage viewing of mail using either labels in GMail or using Smart Mail Boxes in Mail, how would you accomplish that?

Any reccomendations for good Mail "how to" links?

Thanks!
_________________
"Something I missed, I don't know, something not in the plans!"

Hardware: - 2.2 Ghz 15" MBP, Mac OS 10.5, 4GB RAM, Geforce 8600M GT (128MB VRAM), Boot Camp- 32bit Vista.

[rheck]

I am using POP to access my Gmail account in Mac Mail, so maybe you don't need to use IMAP?

There are several settings available regarding leaving retrieved messages on the server or not, etc.

My version of Mail is 3.5 for Leopard.
_________________
MBP 2.4 10.5.6; iMac G5 10.4.11; Powerbook G3/500 10.3.9.

[Huntn]

PoP appears to be more straight forward however IMAP does have some advantages.

And I'm finding I'm becoming enamored with GMail. What I really like about it is that all emails in the In Box, or All Mail boxes show if they have labels attached. If anyone is not familiar, labels is Gmail's version of smart mailboxes. This makes it real easy to scroll down the list to see if there is an email that you've not bothered to label and still want to read. And it now has an offline mode which allows you (as described) to download and access most recent messages. I plan on trying that when I discover how in the long run gmail treats messages once they are downloaded.

If you are using Smart Mailboxes in Mail, there is no way (I've discovered) to do the same thing or is there? In other words, lets say you make extensive use of smart mailboxes and you leave all of your mail in the in basket. There is no way (I've discovered so far) to visually identify what has been assigned to a smart mailbox and what has not.

My other big issue is filters/labels/smart mailboxes, there is no streamline way to make a single filter that in one command sends all of the email "to" *and* "from" an email address to the same placeholder (is there?). For a "family" mailbox, you have to set up 2 filters for every person for both their inbound and outbound mail. And Sent mail is not auto filtered. You have to run the filter on your "Sent" mail box on a regular basis to get those messages filtered.

Eudora could do it, why not Mail or Gmail for that matter?
_________________
"Something I missed, I don't know, something not in the plans!"

Hardware: - 2.2 Ghz 15" MBP, Mac OS 10.5, 4GB RAM, Geforce 8600M GT (128MB VRAM), Boot Camp- 32bit Vista.

[Huntn]

I'm still being plagued in Mail, seeing 4 copies of every email I download from Gmail in my Mail Smart Folders. They act like individual emails. I can delete one, but the others will remain. Anyone know of a way to control this? Only 1 copy of each email I receive is good enough.

The other thing I don't think I have yet figured out is how to set up a filter that will collect all the email from and to an individual and place it in the same folder. In Eudora this was a no-brainer. In Mail, when defining a filter, there is no "to" filter so instead I selected "from any recipient" using the email address (for the "to" function) and I use "from" for the from function. But it does not seem to be working for the messages I send to people. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

I realize I'm probably having some "operator" issues, but it's a little galling that Gmail does a better job of keeping my emails grouped, than Mail does. I have yet to find a "TO" filter in Mail. Does one exist?

Thanks!
_________________
"Something I missed, I don't know, something not in the plans!"

Hardware: - 2.2 Ghz 15" MBP, Mac OS 10.5, 4GB RAM, Geforce 8600M GT (128MB VRAM), Boot Camp- 32bit Vista.

[Huntn]

Gmail uses Labels and Filters to assign labels to categorize emails.
Mail uses Smart Mailboxes to categorize emails, but no labels.

Example:
In Gmail when you look at 30 new emails, you'll see the 28 of them are all ready been assigned labels (based on filters you've previously set up). You evaluate the other 2 and decide whether they need to be deleted or to set up a filter or if it is a one time message to manually assign a label to categorize it.

Mail- does not use labels, it just uses Smart Mailboxes. So when you have 30 new emails in your Unread Mail Smart Mailbox, there is no visual indication which of these new emails are covered by Smart Mailboxes, unless you can remember all of the Smart Mailboxes you have assigned. This makes it hard to pick out the new emails that are not covered by Smart Mailboxes, making it easier for new emails to get lost in the shuffle.

Are there any Apple Mail pros here who can think of a better way to setup Mail? Thanks!
_________________
"Something I missed, I don't know, something not in the plans!"

Hardware: - 2.2 Ghz 15" MBP, Mac OS 10.5, 4GB RAM, Geforce 8600M GT (128MB VRAM), Boot Camp- 32bit Vista.

[rheck]

I may have found the "To" filter you're looking for.

Try:
1. Select Mail > Preferences
2. Click the Rules button in the toolbar of the prefs window.
3. Select the mailbox for which you want to edit the rule settings.
4. Click the Edit button.
5. Click the + button to add a new rule filter setting.
6. Click the pop-up menu that says "From" and select "To".
7. Set your "Contains" field as you wish.
8. Set the action in the Perform the following actions menu.
9. Save your changes.

Hope this helps!
Ron
_________________
MBP 2.4 10.5.6; iMac G5 10.4.11; Powerbook G3/500 10.3.9.

[Huntn]

[rheck]

I found the "To" setting, but I didn't actually try it. I'm not sure what to use it for, because all my messages are sent to me...unless you are trying to direct your *sent* messages to separate folders.

My rules are all set using "From" to direct the messages to various folders. The messages from my Gmail account appear in my Gmail Inbox which appears in the left sidebar under the "Inbox" heading. I also have Hotmail and other Inboxes in there.

Not sure if this is helping. ?
_________________
MBP 2.4 10.5.6; iMac G5 10.4.11; Powerbook G3/500 10.3.9.