Apple mail rules

[doylee01]

Hello, I'm having a bit of trouble with apple mail. I set up a rule where any mail with a medium priority would be highlighted orange, however I have since decided that it wasn't a wise decision as a lot of the mail I recieve is medium priority and my inbox is starting to look a bit ugly. So, I deleted the rule, and when I go back to by inbox my messages are still highlighted orange. I have pressed apply rules and nothing has worked yet. Anyone got any suggestions?

Sorry if there's any bad spellings or gramatical problems I'm typing on my iPod touch 🙂

 

[mkrishnan]

The rules are single shot deals -- they take their action "permanently" on execution by modifying the stored copy of the message itself. What I mean by that is, when you remove a rule, the things that have happened as a result of the rule do not get undone. Newly received e-mails, after you removed the rule, should not be orange, though. If you want to un-orange those old ones, then you should just select all and do it manually, I think.

 

[doylee01]

Thanks, just finished doing it manually.

 

[mkrishnan]

FWIW ... you might look at the "Smart Mailboxes" feature:

http://www.43folders.com/2007/04/23/mail-smart-folders

Basically, these are dynamic -- they show filters of your mail in real time without changing anything. So you could for instance have a smart mailbox that parts out certain aspects of your inbox for immediate attention without having to flag or move the mail.

(FWIW I did use the color coding, though -- I used color codes for "personal" work e-mail, "listserv" work e-mail, junk e-mail, forum replies, etc, but each person has their own preset regarding how messy this looks)

 

[jamesdmc]

FWIW ... you might look at the "Smart Mailboxes" feature

Although I like the Smart Mailbox feature, I hate that 1) you can't use it to redirect a message from the inbox to another folder to keep your inbox clean; and 2) it can't drill down it's separation the way you can with a Mail rule.

For example, I work in field service and when I do a repair on a unit, I email a copy of the service report to headquarters and a copy to myself. I want to separate the incoming mail by 1) sender ---> 2) the company where I did the repair --->3) the serial number of the unit I worked on. And I want that email to be removed from the inbox and sent to a folder I've created for it. All the reports have the same subject line and come from the same sender. So the separation of messages have to come from text within the body of the email (the company name and the unit serial number). Smart Mailboxes don't allow for this.

I don't expect Smart Mailboxes to redirect messages the way Rules can, but it would be nice if they allowed more granularity in setting up a new mailbox.

Oh, and I don't use colors for the same reason the OP wanted to undo his rule.


James