Before I leave the beautiful shores of Mail Island — “GILLIGAN!”— I’d be remiss if I didn’t discuss one of its most powerful features: the ability to
Book I Chapter 14
Using Apple Mail
Automating Your Mail with Rules
create rules,which are automated actions that Mail can take. With rules, you can specify criteria that can perform actions such as
✦ Transferring messages from one folder to another
✦ Forwarding messages to another address
✦ Highlighting or deleting messages To set up a rule, follow these steps:
1.
Choose Mail➪Preferences and then click the Rules button on the toolbar.Mail displays the Rules dialog, as shown in Figure 14-9.
2.
To duplicate an existing rule, highlight it in the list and then click the Duplicate button. (For this demonstration, however, create a rule from scratch by clicking the Add Rule button.)3.
In the Description field, type a descriptive name for the new rule and then press Tab to move to the next field.4.
Click the If drop-down list to specify whether the rule will be trig-gered if any of the conditions are met or whether all conditions must be met.5.
Because each rule requires at least one condition, click the target drop-down list boxes to see the target for the condition.These include whom the message is from or to, which account received the message, whether the message is marked as junk, and whether the message contains certain content. Select the target for the condition.
6.
Click the Criteria drop-down list box to choose the rule’s criteria.The contents of this drop-down list box change depending on the condi-tion’s target. For example, if you choose From as the target, the criteria include Contains, Does Not Contain, Begins With, and so forth.
7.
Click in the expression box and type the text to use for the condition.For example, a completed condition might read Subject Contains Ocean-Front
Figure 14-9:
The Rules list.
This particular condition will be true if I get an e-mail message with a subject that contains the string Ocean-Front.
8.
Add more conditions by clicking the plus sign button at the right of the first condition.To remove any condition from this rule, click the minus sign button next to it. Remember, however, that every rule needs at least one condition.
9.
To specify what actions will be taken after the condition (or condi-tions) has been met, click the first Perform the Following Actions drop-down list box to see the action that this rule should perform.Then click the second drop-down list box and then select the action for the rule.
Choices include transferring a message from one folder to another, play-ing a sound, automatically forwardplay-ing the message, deletplay-ing it, and marking it as read.
Each rule requires at least one action.
10.
Depending on the action that you select, specify one or more criteria for the action.For instance, if I select Set Color as my action, I must then choose whether to color the text or the background as well as what color to use.
Like the plus button next to the conditions, you can also click the plus button next to the first action to perform more than one action. To remove an action, click the minus button next to it.
11.
When the rule is complete, click OK to save it.Here’s an example of a complex rule:
If the message was sent by someone in my Address Book AND the Subject field contains the text FORWARD ME, forward the message to the e-mail address fuadramses@mac.com.
This is a good example of an automated forwarding rule. With this rule in place and Mail running on Mac OS X, any of my friends, family, or co-workers can forward urgent e-mail to my .Mac account while I’m on vacation. To trig-ger the rule, all the sender has to do is include the words FORWARD MEin the message subject. And if the sender isn’t in my Address Book, the rule doesn’t trigger, and I can read the message when I get home. Mondo sassy.
Each rule in the Rules dialog can be enabled or disabled by toggling the Active check box next to the rule. You can also edit a rule by selecting it in the Rules dialog and then clicking the Edit button. To delete a rule com-pletely from the list, select it and then click the Remove button; Mail will prompt you for confirmation before the deed is done.
Chapter 15: Expanding Your Horizons with iDisk
In This Chapter
Setting up iDisk
Using files and folders on your iDisk Using public files
I
f you ask the average Mac owner what’s available on the Internet, you’ll likely hear benefits such as e-mail, Web surfing, and instant communica-tion via iChat AV, the Mac program for chatting with others. What you prob-ably won’t hear is, “Convenient, trouble-free storage for my files and folders.”You might have tried to use one of the dozens of storage sites on the Internet that allow you to upload and download files from a personal file area via your Web browser. Unfortunately, these Web-based storage sites are slow in transferring files, lacking in convenience, and typically offer only a small amount of space. As a result, most computer owners decide that the idea of online storage is neat . . . but impractical.
In this chapter, I show you what realonline storage is all about. I’m talking about iDisk,which is the online storage feature that’s integrated into the Mac OS X Finder. No jury-rigged Web site is necessary (although you can use one if you’re not on a Mac). I’ll admit that online storage won’t replace the hard drives on your Mac, but with a .Mac subscription, you can easily make use of online storage for backups and sharing files with your friends . . . from anywhere on the planet!
So how do you actually use iDisk? That’s the simple part! To use iDisk within Mac OS X, just do what comes naturally — it works like any other removable volume’s Finder window. You can copy and move files and folders to and from your iDisk, create new subfolders (except in the Backup and Software root folders, which are read-only), and delete whatever you don’t need.