Mail features you aren’t using: The Photo Browser

Want to attach an image to an e-mail message? Use Mail’s Photo Browser to grab a photo from your iPhoto library without launching iPhoto.I can’t tell you how many times I’ve wanted to mail someone a photo, and my first impulse was to launch iPhoto and then drag an image into Mail or use iPhoto’s Share -> Email command. But there’s a quicker and easier way. In Mail, just choose Window -> Photo Browser. A floating window appears instantly, showing the complete contents of your iPhoto library. Locate the picture you want, drag it into a message window, and you’re done.

via The seven most underused Mail features | Business Center | Working Mac | Macworld.

Mail features you aren’t using: Plain Text

This may be a bit of a personal bias, but I like to receive e-mail in plain text (so that I get to decide what font, size, style, and color messages use). I also like to extend that courtesy to others. Mail uses Rich Text by default for outgoing messages, but you can change this by choosing Mail -> Preferences, clicking on the Composing icon on the toolbar, and choosing Plain Text from the Message Format menu. (To change the format for an individual message, choose Format -> Make Rich Text or Format -> Make Plain Text.) To force incoming mail to display in plain text by default (which isn’t possible for all messages), you need to quit Mail, open Terminal (in /Applications/Utilities) and enter the following command: defaults write com.apple.mail PreferPlainText -bool TRUE. To switch to styled text (if available) when viewing a plain-text message, choose View -> Message -> Best Alternative.

via The seven most underused Mail features | Business Center | Working Mac | Macworld.

Mail features you aren’t using: Multiple From addresses

If an e-mail account has more than one valid From address (for example, if you use jk@example.com as an alias to joekissell@example.com), you can configure Mail to let you use any of those addresses when sending a given message from that account. First, choose Mail -> Preferences, click on the Accounts icon on the toolbar, select your account, and click on Account Information. Then, in the E-mail Address field, enter all the addresses you might use with that account, separated by commas. Close the Preferences window and click on Save. Now, when you compose a new message, you can choose any of those addresses from the From pop-up menu below the Subject field.

via The seven most underused Mail features | Business Center | Working Mac | Macworld.

Mail features you aren’t using: Activity window

Does Mail seem to take an awfully long time to check or send messages? If you’re curious to know what it’s up to behind the scenes, choose Window -> Activity (Command-0) to display a floating window showing each operation Mail is currently performing. You can stop any given activity by clicking on its Stop icon.

via The seven most underused Mail features | Business Center | Working Mac | Macworld.

Mail features you aren’t using: Connection Doctor

If you encounter problems sending or receiving mail, you don’t need to guess at the nature of the problem. Find out exactly what’s wrong by choosing Window -> Connection Doctor. Mail then checks each of your incoming and outgoing account connections, and displays a window with a plain English description of any problems it found, usually with advice for fixing them.

via The seven most underused Mail features | Business Center | Working Mac | Macworld.