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Toggle displayed fields in new Mail messages Apps
If you create a new message using Mail.app, the message window generally has five fields visible: To, Subject, From, Priority (where you choose the message level of priority), and a small drop-down box (to the left of the From field) where you can choose to make the Bcc, Cc, Reply-to and Priority fields visible or not.

In order to quickly turn on and off a field, just press Tab until this drop-down box is highlighted, then press one of the following keys:
  • b = make the BCC field visible or invisible
  • c = make the Cc field visible or invisible
  • p = make the priority field visible or invisible
  • r = make the Reply-To field visible or invisible
[robg adds: Note that there's about a one-second delay between pressing a key and seeing the change on-screen -- if you press the same key twice quickly, you won't see anything change. For this hint to work at all, though, you'll need to set Full Keyboard Access (on the Keyboard Shortcuts tab of the Keyboard & Mouse System Preferences panel) to All Controls mode. In doing some additional testing, this hint appears to work for the drop-down menus in many programs. In the Safari Add Bookmarks dialog (Command-D), for instance, you can pick the save location by selecting the drop-down with Tab, then typing a letter or two of the folder's name (with the same one-second delay you'll see in Mail). This may be obvious to some, but I didn't know you could activate an item on a drop-down menu without having the drop-down visible. It's not universal, though, as it doesn't work for the save location in the Save As dialog box.]
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Toggle displayed fields in new Mail messages | 6 comments | Create New Account
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Toggle displayed fields in new Mail messages
Authored by: narkee on Jun 04, '08 08:02:29AM

For some reason my drop down menu only displays the "bcc" and "reply-to" options. If I want to toggle the "cc" option, I have to go to customize...



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Tab does not get there for me
Authored by: googoo on Jun 04, '08 08:45:17AM

I cannot tab to the drop-down menu. When I tab between fields the cursor jumps from the subject straight to the message body. Perhaps you need to enable a Universal Access setting to be able to tab to the drop-down menu.

-Mark



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Tab does not get there for me neither
Authored by: MtnBiker on Jun 04, '08 10:17:58AM

Same here and can't find anything in the Preferences to change the tab behavior. But the Cmd-opt-B hint is useful.

There should be a setting for defaults. I usually just want To and Subject, but use cc and bcc occasionally. Tried Cmd-opt-C for cc. Seemed logical.

---
Hermosa Beach, CA USA



[ Reply to This | # ]
Tab does not get there for me neither
Authored by: robg on Jun 05, '08 06:50:59AM

Make sure you have enabled Full Keyboard Access to All Controls, as noted in my comment on the hint. If you haven't, you won't be able to tab to that field.

-rob.



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Toggle displayed fields in new Mail messages
Authored by: katzwebdesign on Jun 04, '08 08:50:23AM

Built in to Mail is the View Bcc Address Field (go to the View menu). The keyboard combo is Apple-Option-B. That way, you don't need to tab anywhere!



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Toggle displayed fields in new Mail messages
Authored by: ether on Jun 05, '08 08:53:00AM

Darn, beat me.

However, in addition to cmd-opt-B for BCC, you can use cmd-opt-R for reply-to.



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