10 Best Mac Mail Tips and Tricks you Should Use

If you are a Mac user, you must be familiar with Mac Mail, an email client that comes with Mac OS X.
If you use this email app daily, you might have already tried a number of its features. But if you feel like you spend too much time on emails, you might not use all its options and tools.

So, here we’ve prepared ten tips and tricks that can help organize your email in such a way that you spend less time in your inbox and increase your productivity.

#1 Customize your Apple mail toolbar

You can make much better use of Apple mail by customizing the mail toolbar, so that it meets your particular needs. Through customization, you can add many functions that are useful for your work. For example, you can add ‘Redirect,’ ‘Show and Hide Related Messages,’ and many other things.

Customizing the toolbar in Apple things is very easy and takes only a few minutes. Here’s how you can do it: right-click in the blank area of a toolbar and choose ‘Customize Toolbar.’ Think about the options you would like to include and simply drag them to the toolbar. When you drag a chosen tool, the icons will move aside so that there’s a room for a new button.

#2 Mark important emails as flags

The mail inbox often gets overwhelmed with all kinds of messages. And when you need to find a significant email quickly, you might spend a lot of time on that. Besides, very few emails require further attention.

So, to access important messages quickly, mark them as flags. Simply right-click on the email, and you’ll see the menu with flags. Choose the flag, and here you go: your most relevant message is flagged now.

You can see these flags in various colors. You might choose, for example, red color for the most important emails that need to be answered quickly, and other flags – for slightly less essential emails. Use any color you want and create your own correlation as to what color represents each email type.

#3 Add a professional email signature

If you would like your messages to be more professional and business-like, don’t forget to include an email signature into your message.

If you haven’t used it yet, you can see how it works, trying out a free email signature. You can also send out emails with and without the signature and then make a conclusion what works better. But you will surely see the difference.

If you use Mac Mail, you might want to try an email signature for Apple Mail. Create the email signature that meets your specific business purpose to show that you are an expert in your field.

#4 Set email check interval

The default setting in Apple Mail is to check for new messages every five minutes. But if this is not exactly what you need, you can change it and set up a different email check interval. Moreover, you might feel distracted by the flashing notifications, especially when you are at work.

So, to set email check interval, go to the Mail’s Preferences (General Section). You will have several choices there, from ‘Automatically’ to ‘Manually.’

If you choose ‘Automatically, you can select between several options: every minute, every five minutes, every ten minutes, every fifteen minutes, every thirty minutes, every hour. Just choose the interval that you feel will work best for you.

If you choose ‘Manually,’ it means that you will check for a new message after you click a ‘Get Mail’ button in the mail toolbar.

#5 Use powerful search in Mac Mail

Mac Mail has the search button, so if you need to find a particular email, you can use it. Click on the search field (top right of the Apple Mail) and start looking for the email you need. As an option, you can use the keystroke Command-Option-F.

Be as specific as possible when you are looking for a particular email. For example, when you type in November 2019, it will find all the emails that you received during that month. You can type in a specific date or the name of the sender, depending on what you are searching. You can also search for exact words, like ‘business meeting,’ ‘upcoming events,’ and so on.

Besides, you may use the suggestions that the Search bar displays and choose the one from the list (if that’s what you were searching) or ignore it (if it doesn’t match your search criteria).

#6 Block spam senders and emails

Receiving spam emails is always frustrating. Besides, it can also be dangerous to open such emails. Luckily, you can protect yourself from further receiving these types of emails by blocking them.

To block spam senders and emails, first, go to ‘Mail,’ ‘Preferences.’ Then choose the tab ‘Rules,’ and click ‘Add Rule.’ Select the full email addresses you want to block (in the field next to ‘Contains’) and choose ‘Delete message’ (under ‘Perform the following actions’). In the field next to ‘descriptions,’ write a description for a new rule (for example, BlockedUsers). Select ‘Ok’ and close the window.

By performing these simple steps, you can protect yourself from receiving any spam letters in the future.

#7 Use alerts for your emails

If you need to know when you receive some important messages, you can set up alerts in your Apple Mail, so that you read and respond immediately to these messages.

You can set up alerts in the way that you are announced about the emails in the inbox or all folders. Besides, you can restrict the alerts to specific senders in your address book or to the people marked as VIPs.

Setting up the alerts is also essential when you want to receive notifications of incoming responses to the emails you have sent.

To clarify as to what kinds of emails you would like to receive alerts for, you need to:
first, choose ‘Mail-Preferences’;
go to the ‘General’ tab;
under ‘New message notifications,’ choose the category for which you would like to receive message alerts; you can choose between ‘Inbox only,’ ‘All mailboxes,’ ‘Contacts,’ and so on;
then close the ‘General Preferences’ window.

After that, you need to create a rule that will define what types of emails you’ll get alerts about in Mac Mail. To do that:

– open ‘Mail-Preferences’;
– go to the tab ‘Rules’ and click ‘Add Rule’;
– under ‘Description,’ write for yourself the rule description;
– to trigger the rule’s actions, under ‘If… following conditions are met,’ select the criteria;
– from the ‘Move Message’ dropdown menu, choose ‘Send notification.’

In such a way, you can set up alerts for your emails as well as for any specific kind of emails you would like to be notified about.

#8 Add annotations on attached images

When you add an image or a PDF attachment in Apple Mail, you can write down annotations on the attachments. It’s very convenient, especially when you need to add some extra information.

To do that:
find and move a pointer over the image (or a PDF file) you added to the message;
in the upper right corner of the attachment, click the Action pop-up menu and select ‘Markup’;
Then add the annotations you need by using the tools.

You can also modify how much attachment is shown by moving the pointer near the edges.

#9 Use quick look feature

Mac OS Quick Look capabilities allow you to see the images by placing the cursor over the file’s name and pressing the space bar.

The same technique can be used within Apple Mail app. It allows you to preview the content of a web page link in the email. It can save your time, as you wouldn’t need to wait until the Safari web browser launches.

So, to quickly view the link within the Mail message, first, place the cursor over the link. You will see a triangle, then click on it. You will immediately see a Quick Look Window that will open the content of the linked website.

#10 Check your previous recipients

If at some point you need to find your previous recipients in the Mac Mail, you can do so quickly and easily.

All your previous recipients are stored until you completely clean them out. So, to view the list of all your past recipients, open Mail, then select ‘Window-Previous Recipients.’ This window will show you all the email addresses you have written to. So, in case you’ve forgotten a particular email, you can find it on this list.

If you receive a lot of emails, you might consider cleaning out the list from time to time.

Hopefully, these tips and tricks will save your precious time and help you organize your Mac Mail better.