OS X Mountain Lion Bible

Summary

Apple's Mail is a full-featured e-mail application that works with all common e-mail systems, including web-based services such as Google Gmail, POP-based services commonly provided by web hosts, and both IMAP-based and Microsoft Exchange e-mail services common in business.

Mail provides a rich set of controls over how messages are checked, displayed, organized, and filtered. It also lets you access multiple e-mail accounts at the same time. Its Message Viewer layout allows for longer message lists and larger preview window sizes, which is particularly useful when viewing conversations composed of multiple related messages.

Mail's smart folders feature lets you create playlist-like folders that contain all messages that meet whatever criteria you specify, without moving the original messages from their standard locations in Mail's folders.

When creating and sending e-mails, you can add attachments, apply visual templates, and automatically append a default signature for yourself, as well as control how the original message you are replying to or forwarding is quoted in that reply or forward. When replying to an e-mail, you have the option of replying via Messages instead of Mail if the sender is one of your instant-messaging buddies.