8 email timesavers

Use the Mail app’s convenience features to keep things organized

Mail handles email from all your accounts in one place. You can set up mailboxes, either within each online account, or offline by hovering over On My Mac and clicking the +. You can organize messages in these by dragging them manually, or by using Mail Rules.

Using Mailbox > New Smart Mailbox, you can collate messages based on your criteria. Mail Drop lets you send large attachments. Read on to find out more. Adam Banks

Make mailboxes

Hover over an account name, click the +, or Ctrl-click its Inbox and pick New Mailbox, to add a mailbox. In your Inbox, drag messages to mailboxes to file them.

Set up Mail Rules

To file emails automatically, go to Preferences > Rules. Click Add Rule, set it to match a sender or subject. Pick Move Message as the action. Choose a mailbox.

Set iCloud rules

Mail Rules are only applied when Mail is open. With iCloud, you can filter messages at source. Sign in at iCloud. com, go to Mail, click the cogwheel and pick Rules to set up rules on the server.

Apply flags

You can also organize messages by flagging them. On the Mac, you can use multiple colors when you Ctrl-click on a message in the list, but note that on iOS all flags just appear as an orange dot.

Add VIPs

Ctrl-click a sender’s name in any open message and pick Add to VIPs, or click the star left of a person’s name when you hover over it. Messages from them are included in the VIPs mailbox.

Notify for VIPs only

Now that the most important contacts in your life have been set up as VIPs, you can go to Mail > Prefs > General and set new message notifications to appear only for those people.

Format chats

Mail clumps messages it thinks form a thread; select the latest one and scroll through the rest on the right. To list messages singly, uncheck View > Organize by Conversation.

Use Mail Drop

In Mail > Prefs > Accounts, turn on Mail Drop for your iCloud and other IMAP accounts. When you attach large files, they’re sent to iCloud; a link is included for non-Apple devices to download them.