Mail Tip: Create an “Unread” Smart Mailbox in Apple Mail

I get a lot of email in my inbox. Sometimes so much that the new messages can float down past the viewable area of the screen, and once that happens, its very unlikely that I will go back to them. At least, it was, before I created an “unread” Smart Mailbox in Mail.

This Smart Mailbox will only show unread email, and is a life-saver if you have a great deal of email to get through.

All you have to do to create this is go to:

Mailbox>New Smart Mailbox

Click on the drop down box under the “contains text” and select “Message is unread” - you can name the Smart Mailbox whatever you like.

This is a very simple use of the Smart Mailboxes feature - and with a little experimentation you can do some really great things with it.

Submitted on September 14, 2008 at 1:56 pm - Mail Tip: Create an “Unread” Smart Mailbox in Apple Mail was written by Michael - There have been 10 comments - Categorized in Mail Tips

10 Responses to “Mail Tip: Create an “Unread” Smart Mailbox in Apple Mail”

Billy Cape

Best tip yet.
So much more useful that you would think.
I love this. Cheers Michael! & keep up AG. September 14th, 2008 at 2:51 pm
Phil

michael, michael... are there really so few tips out there that you have to recycle your own old ones?

http://www.applegazette.com/mac/quick-tip-apple-mail-unread-smart-mailbox/

shame on you! :> September 14th, 2008 at 2:56 pm
Michael

care to go farther on what cool things you do. I have an unread box what else can we do. September 14th, 2008 at 7:58 pm
Omer Zach

http://www.mactips.org/archives/2007/10/19/easily-browse-all-unread-emails/ September 14th, 2008 at 9:47 pm
Omer Zach

In the future, you might want to check whether the post you're writing already exists on this site, it drastically improves post quality, even if it decreases quantity.

Also, "select “Message is unreplied”" doesn't make any sense to me, nor does it correspond to the image. I think you meant "Message is Unread". Proofreading is good too. September 14th, 2008 at 9:50 pm
Michael

@Phil

I don't see anything wrong with posting a tip from AG over on MacTips if it doesn't already exist here (which I didn't think this one did - I searched for it before I posted it and didn't find it - the search here could use some improvement). I didn't just copy and paste the old text - I rewrote it. There are two different audiences and if a tip is a good one, I think it should be available on MacTips even if it has been on AG in the past

Does anyone disagree with that?

@Michael

Yes, we'll go further with more things you can do in Mail with Smart Mailboxes soon.

@Omer Zach

I did search for it. The search here isn't terribly good, and I didn't find it. September 15th, 2008 at 8:20 am
willis

The screen shot of mail has a vertical instead of horizontal partition between the message areas.

How did you do this ?!

Cheers September 16th, 2008 at 8:54 am
Sigurdur Armannsson

In my case unread smart folder would be an overkill I would never be able to manage properly. I get about 100 mails a day. A lot of these mails are from mail lists I have subscribed to (willingly or not). I have regular folders for such matters and use rules to sort away from the Inbox all mail that I know I don't have to manage or read right away.
This way my Inbox shows about 30 mails each day.
(The mail I really have to respond to I colour, using Mail Act-On, which colours and flags at the same time and another key to de-colour and unflag when finished replying. And I use a Smart Mailbox to gather all flagged mail. I could go on and on.. :D )

I don't mind if articles are posted again or cross posted. A lot of people are not digging in old articles and those tips come as new to them. September 18th, 2008 at 4:13 am
redstone

I agree with Sigurdur: repost good tips when you want to. It's your bloody site. And a darn good one. October 12th, 2008 at 7:18 pm
Brian

Go here for vertical partitions:
http://www.daneharnett.com/widemail/ November 1st, 2008 at 5:37 pm