I am on OS X 10.7.4, and I cannot get this to work.

The hint is not written in the clearest manner.

This method does not change the "background color of an email". When I read that phrase, to me that means that if you are composing a new email and you are typing text into the body, then "background color of an email" sounds like you are going to change the background color of the page that contains the text you are entering.

That is NOT what this hint does.

What it does is change the background color of any particular email shown in a LIST of emails. So for example if you have 6 items listed in your inbox, you can select one of those and use this method to change the background color of that row in the list into which you just dragged or selected the color. So the email message itself is not changed, just how it is shown in a list view in the Mail window.

Changing the background color of an actual email (the color of the background into which you enter the body text) is not what this Hint describes. To change THAT background you need to do something like use one of the pieces of "Stationary" that Mail has. However in my opinion, those are kind of goofy looking and unprofessional. Plus, they are buggy and don't do things like auto-resize very well.

Thanks for that. I wish I had seen your comment first (or that kirkmc had edited the hint name).

Wasted time.