MailΒ on the MacΒ is sometimes believed not to beΒ the most feature-rich email app available, but itβs baked rightΒ into OS X and is the default mail client. Itβs also more than good enough for the majority ofΒ people and offers some nice features that make it that little bit easier to compose and read messages.
In the latest version of OS X, El Capitan, it could be said that Apple hasnβt reinvented the wheel with Mail, but there are nevertheless someΒ welcome tweaks that should help make you more productive.
Apple has also asked developers this year to focus on some of theΒ recurring issues people have experienced with Gmail and other third party mail services, so are the improvements inΒ El Capitan worth that wait?
In this post, we give a brief rundown ofΒ the key new featuresβ¦
Swipe to trash and mark messages
iPhone and iPad users will already be familiar with swiping left or write on mail messages to mark them as read or send them to the trash. Apple has borrowed some of these cues from iOS, adding aΒ two-finger swipe in your messages list to trash (or archive) messages, or to mark them as either read or unread.
To trash a message, simply useΒ a two finger swipe to the left manoeuvre which shows the Trash icon. You can either click the red button that appears to complete the action, or continue a strong swipe all the way to the left to perform the delete.
If you would prefer to archive a message rather than delete it, this can be configured in Mailβs preferences. Go to theΒ Mail menu and chooseΒ Preferencesβ¦ or just use the ubiquitousΒ command + comma shortcut. Next, click on theΒ Viewing tab and there you will see the Swipe Left ToΒ option withΒ the choice of Trash or Archive.
Likewise, swiping two fingers to the right will mark a message asΒ read or unread depending on its current status. Just like the delete action, you can also swipe further to the right without having to press the blue button.
MinimiseΒ emailsΒ and compose with multiple tabs
In the past, it was something of a chore in MailΒ toΒ work on multiple emails at the same time, having to close a message (in fullscreen mode at least) and save to the Drafts folder before starting another. With El Capitan however, you can easily minimise the current email and start another.
To doΒ so when in fullscreen mode, clicking anywhereΒ off the mail message such as the background, slides your email down to the bottom of the screen as shown below. You can now compose a new message whichΒ opens a tabbed window with all current messages open.
If you want, you can also use the New Message (command + N) option from the File menu to add a tab with a new message, without having to minimise it.
To quickly switch between any of your tabbed messages, use shiftΒ + command + [ or ] to navigate left and right just as you would in Safari tabs.
Note that if you use the redΒ close icon in the corner of the email window,Β you will be prompted whether you want to save a copy of the message in Drafts. Pressing the red button again will then prompt you the same question for the subsequent still-open message.
More intuitive search
In much the same way that Spotlight now understands fairly natural language,Β Mail now allows you to search for emails usingΒ more intuitive search queries.
For example, suppose you wish to find all emails that you deleted today, simply enterΒ βemails received last month with attachmentsβ into Mailβs searchΒ box in the upper right corner.
Itβs worth experimenting with the search queries, as some are more readily understood than others. For example,Β βmessage does not have attachmentsβ does not seem to work, although others such as βmessages ccβd to meβΒ does.
You will also notice that typing in certain queries such as βEmail from Bill SmithβΒ will present a list of people matches, and selecting one of them then turns the search into anΒ old style query with a βFROMβ icon with a dropdown offering various options.
Better recognition of events in mails
One of the most useful, time-saving new features in Mail is its ability to automatically recognise events, that show up just below the subject line complete with a new add⦠button.
ClickingΒ addβ¦ pops upΒ a new event screen, allowing you to quickly add it to your calendar or ignore it. Thereβs also the option to choose which calendar youβd like to add it to.
Mail Activity panelΒ only appears during activity
In previous versions of Mail, there was a Mail Activity panelΒ below the folders list. It was possible to show and hide that panel, however in El Capitan that option has been done away with entirely. Instead, the Mail Activity status only shows up when Mail is actually doing something and disappears immediately afterwards, makingΒ the left side of the user interface slightly less cluttered.
For those that would prefer the activity panel to be visible all the time, unfortunately there arenβt any options or controls that allow you to dock it permanently. Some might see thisΒ feature as an improvement, but perhaps not everyone.
Summary
Apple has tweaked Mail in El Capitan with a couple of new features, and even though thereβs nothing earth shattering, the improvements are welcome and do serve to make the app more useful than ever. It perhaps wonβt replace some of the mail apps that power users prefer, but certainly for most people Mail is not better than everβ¦
Before you go
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For Admins that have to troubleshoot email issues, I think it is important to note that the Activity Window has also had a change. Previously, this window showed details of what processes were going on for each account, and it allowed you to kill a process that was βstuck.β Now the Activity Window doesnβt show much more, if anything, than what is displayed in the Activity panel. While some improvement may have been needed for the Activity Window (some would argue, for instance, that being able to kill a process might be creating problems rather than solving them), it is clearly a loss for anyone trying to troubleshoot multiple email accounts in Apple Mail to have this loss of detail. They have made the Activity Window essentially useless. I hope Apple reverses this in a future update.