Tech Stuff: Mail
When I switched the the Mac Operating System in late 2008, I also purchased a copy of Microsoft Office. I don’t use the Office components all that much, but I do use Entourage, the mail client that came with the set up. Microsoft has since abandoned the program in deference to Outlook, which they should have done. I don’t need Outlook exchange services anymore, and I have little need to Microsoft Office. I use LibreOffice when necessary. I’ve given Apple’s iWork suite a try, but I’m not wild about it. I’m upgrading my hardware, and the machine with Entourage installed will become a machine tucked into a corner and used for back up file purposes or if I need an optical drive (it has one; new machines do not — Mac shares these drives over the network very nicely). Long story short, I’m going to have to figure our Mail or find a suitable replacement.
Replacements all seem geared around GMail, which is nice, but I use a lot more than GMail. Now, if they mean they have similar features to GMail, that might be worth pursuing. I can’t tell from reading about them.
I have all my email addresses coming into Entourage. They all feed into a common inbox. I have rules set up that autofiles certain emails to where they belong, and I read them there. I have a lot of subfolders and subfolders of subfolders in my Entrourage box. When I read email on my Air, I read on Mail, and each account has a folder under the inbox, and I read from there. I’ve not created any subfolders (can I even do that?). Mail seems very interested in “Smart Folders” which seem to be virtual folders. I’ve been very leery of such things in the past and haven’t really explored what it might be able to do for me. Might now be the time? Perhaps I should learn more about OS X Mail and give it a chance. Maybe I’ll like it.
Mail — at least in Mountain Lion, which is what we’re using — can create regular folders as well as smart folders. Under Mailbox in the menu bar, it’s the option right above New Smart Mailbox. And rules will work for all your filtering needs, though you may have to tweak them.
I hated switching to Mail from Eudora, but I’ve mostly gotten used to it.
Alas, SmartFolders are all that seem to remain in Mavericks (I’ve read there’s any update that’s supposed to address some GMail interfacing, so maybe it will make some changes I like, too). I think I need to spend some time learning the app. There’s probably a way to do everything I want to do, but I haven’t made the effort to figure it out yet.