My New Mac, Lion Edition

Using Rules to Sort Messages

Another way to organize messages is to use rules. A rule defines what type of message you want to look for, such as messages from certain email addresses, and then routes those messages to a separate folder instead of the Inbox folder.

Note

Smart Mailboxes contain links to messages physically stored in the Inbox folder. Rules physically move messages into a specific folder.

Creating a Folder for Sorted Messages

Here’s how to create a folder to hold messages sorted by rules:

1. Start the Mail program.

2. Select Mailbox ▸ New Mailbox. A New Mailbox dialog appears, as shown in Figure 47-5.

3. (Optional) Click the Location pop-up menu and choose a location in which to store your mailbox folder. (The default is On My Mac.)

4. Click in the ...