OS X Mountain Lion Portable Genius

Organizing with Mailboxes

In this section, I show you how to use mailboxes to keep your e-mail organized. You learn the basic functions of standard mailboxes, how to back up a mailbox, how to utilize Smart Mailboxes, and more.

Using standard mailboxes

Standard mailboxes keep your e-mail organized, and each account can have several. Table 10.3 lists some of the types of standard mailboxes that accounts can have.

Back Up Those Mailboxes!

It is always a great idea to keep a backup of your e-mails in case something happens to Mail, Mountain Lion, or worse, your Mac. You can restore your lost e-mails to their proper places if you’ve been making consistent backups of your mailboxes.

To back up a mailbox

1. Select the mailbox you want to archive.

2. Choose Mailbox→Export Mailbox.

3. Select the folder in which you want to save the mailbox archive, and click Choose.

4. An archive of the mailbox is created in the appropriate folder using the MBOX format.

To restore a mailbox, follow these steps:

1. Choose File→Import Mailboxes.

2. Select the Apple Mail radio button and click Continue.

3. Browse your Mac to find the archived mailbox you want to restore, select it, and then click Choose.

Creating custom and Smart Mailboxes

Mail lets you create your own mailboxes to suit your individual needs. You can make custom mailboxes that are named for different items or topics (such as Bills), ...