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10.3: Create a visual 'sending account' indicator in Mail.app
Authored by: tlpowers on Nov 11, '03 11:45:15AM

I am not exactly sure how his tip is solving the problem of sending email from the wrong email account since I have not tried this, but here I offer some methods I use for this same problem and to enhance mail.app for my use:

Mail.app has some great ways to manage your email accounts. The first is to take advantage of the aggregate feature to view all of your inboxes simultaneously. Simply click on the "In" icon. Same holds true for the other standard mailboxes such as Trash, Sent, etc.

To properly identify which account an email belongs, select View=>Columns=>Mailbox menu which will display a new column with the account names as setup in the Account Preferences. Because of this, I keep my account names very short. Unfortunately, Panther changed this feature by appending the mailbox name to the front of the account name which requires the field to be wider, thus using unnecessary window real estate.

I also add the size column to help me identify those emails that are using up disk space so my .mac account will not fill up too quickly.

As for sending, mail.app chooses the sending account as follows:

1. Uses the account of the selected email when viewing your inbox or any other mailbox.
2. If you are viewing a mailbox with no emails, such as the outbox, and then click the Compose button, mail will use the default account which is the first account in your Preferences account list.
3. Replies and forwarded emails use the account which the original was received.

Finally, when you are in a compose window, regardless of how the email was originated, you will see a popup list of your email accounts just below the subject. You can choose which account to send using his list. You can also use it to forward and reply from a different account.



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10.3: Create a visual 'sending account' indicator in Mail.app
Authored by: Felix on Nov 12, '03 06:26:16PM

Many thanks, tipowers. I have seven accounts arrayed inside an "In" folder and have often wondered how Mail determines which account it defaults to when preparing an outbound message...but just never took the time to check the Mail Help files to find out. Your explanation was crystal clear and much appreciated.



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