Reading Email

Mail puts all the email you get into your Inbox; the statistic in parentheses after the word In lets you know how many of its messages you haven’t read yet. New messages are also denoted by colorful, liquidy dots in the main list.

Tip

The Mail icon in the Dock also shows you how many new messages you have waiting—it’s the number in the red circle, as shown in Figure 19-7.

Click the In folder to see a list of received messages. If it’s a long list, press Control- Page Up and Control-Page Down to scroll. Click the name of a message once to read it in the Preview pane, or double-click a message (or, if it’s selected, just press Return or Enter) to open it into a separate window.

Tip

Instead of reading your mail, you might prefer to have Mac OS X read it to you, as you sit back in your chair and sip your strawberry daiquiri. Highlight the text you want to hear (or choose EditSelect All), Control-click the selected text, and choose SpeechStart Speaking from the contextual menu. You’ll hear the message read aloud, in the voice you’ve selected on the Speech pane of System Preferences (Chapter 8).

To stop the insanity, choose SpeechStop Speaking from the same contextual menu.

Once you’ve viewed a message, you can respond to it, delete it, print it, file it, and so on. The following pages should get you started.

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