InformIT: Mac OS X Unleashed

Table of Contents

Mail

During the Mac OS X setup procedure (see Chapter 2, "Installing Mac OS X"), the installer prompts for a default e-mail account. Although this creates a single account for a single person, additional users and multiple accounts must be configured with Mail itself. For many people, the first task will be setting up a new account—this provides a perfect place to start.

Setup

Using Mail for the first time on a new user account opens a setup window to configure a new e-mail account, as shown in Figure 7.1.

Figure 7.1 The first time Mail is run, it forces an e-mail account to be configured.

There are six pieces of information required to set up an e-mail account:

Email Address— Your e-mail address (for example, johnray@mac.com).
Incoming Mail Server— The server that stores your e-mail. If you're using an iTools account, use mail.mac.com.
Mail Server Type— Most ISPs support the POP3 protocol for accessing e-mail. Apple's iTools servers include support for IMAP. Read further for more information on both protocols and their differences.
User Account ID— The username used to access an e-mail account. This is typically the text that comes before the @ in your e-mail address (that is, johnray is the account ID for johnray@mac.com).
Password— The password required to retrieve mail. Leaving this field blank will prompt the user to enter the password when needed.
Outgoing (SMTP) Mail Server— The server required to send messages. Users of iTools e-mail accounts can use smtp.mac.com.

If you are unsure of any of these fields, you should contact your ISP or network administrator. Do not attempt to use the mac.com hostnames unless you are using an iTools e-mail address—these are members-only servers and will deny access to those without an account.

POP3 Versus IMAP

If your e-mail provider supports both the POP3 and IMAP protocols, you're in luck! The POP3 protocol, although extremely popular, is not practical for people with multiple computers. I access the same e-mail account from a number of different computers—one at work, one at home, and another while on the road. Keeping all these machines in sync is virtually impossible with POP3.

POP3 (Post Office Protocol v.3) works much like it sounds: E-mail is "popped" from a remote server. Incoming messages are stored on the remote server, which in turn waits for a connection from a POP3 client. The client connects only long enough to download all the messages and save them to the local hard drive.

In this scenario, the server stores e-mail temporarily and handles short-lived connections—the burden of long-term storage and filing rests squarely on the shoulders of the client application. Unfortunately, after a message transfers from the server, it's gone. If you go to another computer to check your mail, it won't be there.

The more computers you use, the more fragmented your messages become. Some provisions exist for keeping messages on the server, but in reality it's a hassle and rarely works as planned. Although the same message can be downloaded to multiple machines, deleting it from one machine won't delete it from the others. The end result is, quite frankly, a mess!

IMAP takes a different approach. Rather than relying on the client for message storage, IMAP servers keep everything on the server. Messages and mail folders remain on the server unless explicitly deleted by the client. When new messages arrive, the IMAP client application downloads either the message body or header from the server, but the server contents remain the same. If multiple computers are configured to access the same e-mail account, the e-mail will appear identical between the machines—the same folders, messages, and message flags are maintained. In addition, the IMAP protocol supports shared folders between different user accounts and server-based content searches.

The drawback to IMAP lies mostly on the e-mail provider—supporting the additional features of IMAP and the added storage costs is often uneconomical on a large scale. If your ISP does not support IMAP, sign up for an iTools account. Apple's POP and IMAP service is fast, reliable, and free.

Adding Multiple Accounts

Mail supports multiple e-mail accounts for a single user. After setting up the initial account, you can add other e-mail accounts through the Accounts pane of the Application Preferences panel. Choose Preferences from the application menu; then click the Accounts icon. Figure 7.2 shows the Accounts pane of the Preference panel. Existing e-mail accounts are listed on the left.

Figure 7.2 Multiple e-mail accounts can be added through the application preferences.

The options available in the Accounts pane of the Mail Preferences panel include

Create Account— Add a new e-mail account.
Edit— Edit the selected account.
Remove— Delete the selected account.
Check accounts for new mail— Change the frequency with which all the e-mail accounts will be polled.
Play sound when new mail arrives— Select a sound that will be played when new messages arrive on the server. Pick Other to choose a sound file (AIFF) from your drive.

To add a new account to the list, click the Create Account button. An account information sheet will appear. This information sheet is divided into two tabs: Account Information and Account Options. The general Account Information tab can be seen in Figure 7.3.

Figure 7.3 Enter the new e-mail account information into this panel.

Use the Account-Type pop-up menu to set the account type; then fill in the fields as you did when creating the initial account during the install process. Instead of just IMAP or POP accounts, there are four options:

Mac.com Account— Configures a Mac.com IMAP account with the appropriate Apple defaults.
POP Account— Creates a basic POP3 account.
IMAP Account— Creates a basic IMAP account.
Unix Account— Assumes that the host computer (your Mac OS X machine) will be acting as a mail server and mail will be retrieved from a local mail spool field rather than over the Internet.

Near the bottom of the Account Information display are options for setting up Authenticated SMTP services. To connect using authenticated SMTP, click the Use authentication when sending mail check box, and then fill out the SMTP user and password fields.

What Is Authenticated SMTP?

The original SMTP protocol requires no authentication to send a message. Anyone could use any SMTP server to send any message (the origin of spam). Over time, servers developed advanced techniques to prohibit unauthorized use of the SMTP protocol, such as blocking by subnet or allowing users who have successfully checked mail to send mail from their IP address for a certain length of time.

This works, but it places some unreasonable restrictions on the user. Luckily, extensions have been made to the SMTP protocol that allow a username and password to be transmitted to the SMTP server when a connection is made. The server can then authenticate the user and allow unfettered access regardless of where or how the user is connecting.

Click the Account Options tab to fine-tune your account settings. Depending on the account type that you've chosen, the available options will change. Figure 7.4 displays the option panel for IMAP (or Mac.com) accounts.

Figure 7.4 Each type of e-mail account has different available options.

Each of the different mail account types has different available options under Account Options. Choices available on the Account Options tab when using IMAP include:

Enable this account— Includes the account in the available account listing. If not enabled, it is ignored.
Include this account when checking for new mail— If selected, the account will be polled for new messages at the interval set on the Preferences' Account panel. If not, the account will be polled only when the user manually checks his mail.
Compact mailboxes when closing— Cleans up the local mailbox files when exiting Mail. The benefit of using this is very slight and it can slow down the system when dealing with very large mailbox files.
Message caching— After a message is received on the server, the IMAP client has the option of immediately caching the text of the message on the local machine (cache all messages locally), caching read messages (cache messages when read), or never caching messages on the local drive (don't cache any messages).
Connect to server using port— The default IMAP port is 143. If your server uses a different access port, enter it here.
Account Directory— The local directory where the Mail application stores your messages.
Account Path Prefix— The IMAP prefix required to access your mailbox. This field is normally left blank unless a value is specified by your mail server administrator.

If you are using a POP account, you can control how messages are retrieved and when they are deleted from your account, among other things:

Enable this account— Include the account in the available account listing. If not enabled, it is ignored.
Include this account when checking for new mail— If selected, the account will be polled for new messages at the interval set on the Mail Preferences Account pane. If not, the account will be polled only when the user manually checks his mail.
Delete messages on server after downloading— When checked, the messages will be removed from the server. This is the default behavior for POP3 clients. Uncheck to leave e-mail on the server.
Show this account separately in mailboxes drawer— Rather than downloading into a user determined mailbox folder, a separate account entry and Inbox will be added to the Mail account drawer. (Remember, you can always edit these options if you don't like this arrangement.)
Download messages from this account into folder— Alternatively, Mail can download messages into a personal mailbox located at the top level of your Mail account drawer. Choose the folder from the pop-up menu list.
Prompt me to skip messages over # KB— Automatically skips messages that are over a set number of kilobytes. This is useful for keeping attachments from being downloaded.
Connect to server using port— The default POP server port is 110. If your server uses a different port, enter it here.
Account Directory— The local directory where the Mail application stores your messages.

Finally, users who are configuring a Unix-style mailbox can choose from these available settings:

Enable this account— Includes the account in the available account listing. If not enabled, it is ignored.
Include this account when checking for new mail— If selected, the account will be polled for new messages at the interval set on the Mail Preferences Account pane. If not, the account will be polled only when the user manually checks his mail.
Incoming mail directory— The directory where the Mac OS X mail server is storing messages. The default directory is /var/mail.
Account Directory— The local directory where the Mail application stores your messages.

After setting your account information and options, click OK to start using Mail.

The Mail Interface

Mail uses the special Mac OS X interface elements to create a unique and streamlined user experience. Figure 7.5 shows the Mail application, ready for action.

Figure 7.5 Mail has a modern interface that takes advantage of Mac OS X's special features.

If you've used an e-mail program such as Eudora or Outlook Express, you'll be completely comfortable with Mail's interface. The toolbar at the top of the window holds commonly used functions for creating, responding to, and searching for messages.

Reading and Filing

In the center of the window is a list of the active messages in each mailbox. The list columns (from left to right) display read/unread status, the number of the message received, sender, subject, and day/time sent. As with most list views, the columns can be sorted by clicking their headings.

If a message in the list is highlighted, the bottom of the window contains a condensed view of the message headers along with the message content. To open a message in a separate window, double-click its list entry.

To display the accounts and mail folders that have been added to the system, click the Mailbox toolbar button, or choose Show Mailboxes (Shift+Command+M) from the View menu. The mailbox drawer slides out from the side of the mail window. You can use the disclosure arrows to collapse and expand the hierarchy of mail folders. The number of unread messages is displayed in parentheses to the right of each mailbox.

To file a message, click and drag it from the list view to the folder into which you want to transfer the message. If the mailbox drawer isn't open, it will automatically pop open as the mouse approaches the edge of the window. Alternatively, you can use the Transfer option from the Message menu. Control-clicking or right-clicking a line in the message opens a contextual menu from which Transfer can also be accessed.

Pressing the Delete key, or choosing Delete from the Message menu, will remove the active message or selected group of messages from the listing. Deleted messages are not immediately removed from the system; they are transferred to a Trash folder. What happens from there can be configured from the Viewing pane of the Mail Preferences panel.

Toolbar Options

Like the Finder, the Mail application supports toolbar customization. The customization process is identical, For more information, see Chapter 4, "The Finder: Working with Fields and Applications." Open the customization sheet by choosing Customize Toolbar from the View menu. Figure 7.6 shows the available customizations.

Figure 7.6 Customize the mail toolbar with your favorite shortcuts.

From the top left to bottom right, the available shortcuts are:

Delete— Delete the selected message(s).
Reply— Reply to the author of the current message.
Reply All— Reply to all recipients of the current message.
Forward— Forward the current message (and its attachments) to additional recipients.
Redirect— Redirect the selected message; does not quote the original message's text.
Compose— Type a new message.
Mailbox— Open the Mailbox panel.
Get Mail— Retrieve new messages from available accounts.
Print— Send the active message to the printer.
Bounce To Sender— Bounce the selected message. To the original sender, it appears that the message never reached you! Useful for getting rid of spam. The original message is automatically removed after bouncing.
Show Headers— Display all the message headers, including the relay path in the message body.
Mark Read— Toggle the read/unread state on a message.
Flag— Toggle the flagged/unflagged state message.
Go Online— Take the active e-mail account offline. No further attempts to connect to the server will be made while in this mode.
Go Offline— Take an offline e-mail account back online.
Add To Address Book— Add the sender of the selected message to the Address Book application.
Address— Open the Address Book application.
Search Mailbox— Search the open mailbox's To, From, or Subject field by choosing it from the pop-up menu, and then entering the search text in the field.
Smaller— Shrink the text size in the open message.
Bigger— Enlarge the text in the open message.
Customize— Customize the toolbar.
Separator— Add a vertical separator bar to the toolbar. This is for visual purposes only.
Space— Add an icon-sized space to the toolbar.
Flexible Space— Add a space to the toolbar that grows and shrinks with the size of the window.
Default Set— Reset to the default set of toolbar icons.
Show— Use this pop-up menu to choose between Icon, Text & Icon, or Text-only toolbar modes. Command+clicking the toolbar button cycles through these modes.

Click Done to save the changes to the toolbar.

Composing Messages

To write an e-mail, click the Compose button or choose New Compose Window (Command+N) from the File menu. To reply to an existing message, select that message in the list view; then click Reply to start a new message or choose Reply to Sender (Command+R) from the Message menu. The composition window appears, as in Figure 7.7.

Figure 7.7 Mail supports styled messages and drag-and-drop attachments.

Three fields are provided for addressing the message. Use the To line for single or multiple addresses that serve as the primary recipients of the message. A comma should separate multiple addresses. The CC: line adds additional recipients who are not part of the main list. The primary recipients will be able to see these addresses. The Subject line is used to show the subject or the title of the e-mail.

Additional fields are accessible from the Message menu. Choose Add Bcc Header (Shift+Command+B) to add a Bcc header, or Add Reply-To Header (Option+Command+R) to add an alternative reply address. A Bcc (Blind Carbon Copy) works like a normal carbon copy, but does not allow the recipients to view each other's e-mail address or name. The Reply-To header is used to provide an alternative address for replying. For example, if I'm sending e-mail from my jray@poisontooth.com account and want replies to go to johnray@mac.com instead, I'd enter the Mac.com address in the Reply-To Header field.

To access a list of addresses, click the Address button in the toolbar and the Address Book application will launch. From the Address Book window, you can drag individual addresses, or multiple addresses, to the To/Cc/Bcc fields in the message composition window. Alternatively, highlight the desired addresses in the Address Book listing, and then click the Address Book's Send Mail button to open a new message addressed to the selected individuals. You'll learn more about the Address Book in the next section of this chapter.

To create the message itself, input the text into the content area of the window. The toolbar can be used to attach files or pick fonts and colors. You can also drag images and files directly into the message. Depending on the type of file, it will be added to the message as an icon (application, archive, and so on) or shown within the body (picture, movie).

Be aware that to receive rich-text e-mail, the remote user must have a modern e-mail program such as Outlook Express (or, better yet, Mail!). To create a message that anyone can receive, compose the content in Plain Text mode, selectable in the Format menu.

To send, click Send in the toolbar, or choose Send Message (Shift+Command+D) from the Message menu.

Toolbar Options

The message composition window can be customized just like the main mailbox view. When writing a message, choose Customize Toolbar from the View menu. The customizations are shown in Figure 7.8.

Figure 7.8 Customize the Compose toolbar with your favorite shortcuts.

From the top left to bottom right, the available shortcuts are:

Send— Send the current message.
Attach— Choose a file to attach to the current message.
Address— Open the Address Book application.
Print— Print the open window.
Append— Append the messages selected in the mailbox view to the contents of the current message.
Colors— Open the Colors panel.
Fonts— Open the Fonts panel.
Save As Draft— Save the message to the Drafts folder; it is not sent.
Smaller— Shrink the text size in the open message.
Bigger— Enlarge the text in the open message.
Make Rich Text— Toggle the current message to rich text mode.
Make Plain Text— Toggle the current message to plain text mode. Note that doing this removes all message formatting.
Customize— Customize the toolbar.
Separator— Add a vertical separator bar to the toolbar. This is for visual purposes only.
Space— Add an icon-sized space to the toolbar.
Flexible Space— Add a space to the toolbar that grows and shrinks with the size of the window.
Default Set— Reset to the default set of toolbar icons.
Show— Use this pop-up menu to choose between Icon, Text & Icon, or Text-only toolbar modes. Command+clicking the toolbar button cycles through these modes.

Click Done to save the changes to the toolbar.

Preferences

Mail's preference panels contain many of the hidden features of the program—including signatures and mailbox filters. Open the preference panel by choosing Preferences from the Application menu. The Accounts panel was covered earlier and will not be repeated here.

Fonts and Colors

The Fonts & Colors panel controls the default fonts that are used in the message list and message bodies. This panel is shown in Figure 7.9.

Figure 7.9 Choose the default message fonts and quote colors.

Options in the Font & Colors panel include

Message list font— Choose the Font and Size used in the listing of active messages.
Message font— Choose the Font and Size used in the body of messages.
Used fixed-width font for plain text messages— If checked, the system will use a monospaced ("typewriter") font for unstyled messages.
Plain text font— The font to use for plain text messages.
Color quoted text— Text included when replying is automatically quoted. If there are multiple levels of replies, each level can be set to a different color.

Viewing

The Viewing preferences control what happens to deleted messages, the amount of header detail that should be displayed, and the downloading of attachments. The Viewing preference panel is shown in Figure 7.10.

Figure 7.10 Control where deleted messages go before they die.

Options in the Viewing panel include

Move deleted mail to a folder— If checked (default), deleted messages are moved to a folder, chosen from the pop-up menu.
Erase deleted mail when— Choose the frequency with which deleted messages are removed from the system.
Download all images, animations, and other HTML attachments— If checked, HTML messages will download all embedded images, JavaScript, and so on, which can present a security risk.
Show header detail— By default, only a few headers (From, Date, To, Subject) are shown. Using this pop-up menu, you can choose to hide all headers, show everything, or create a custom list of headers.

Although not obvious in the settings, the deleted message folder, if using an IMAP account, is stored in a network folder. You can undelete a message while it is in this folder by dragging it to another folder, or choosing Undelete (Shift+Command+U) from the Message menu.

Composing

Choose where your message drafts and sent mail are saved. The Composing preference panel includes a variety of esoteric settings, displayed in Figure 7.11.

Figure 7.11 Choose the location for draft messages, spell checking, network address lookup, and reply options.

Options in the Composing panel include

Save unsent mail in— Choose a folder (local or network based) to store message drafts.
Save sent mail in— Choose a folder (local or network based) to store mail that has been already sent.
Default message format— Select between Rich Text and Plain Text as the default new message format. If you are communicating with a wide variety of people on unknown operating systems, it's best to stick to plain text.
Check spelling as I type— When checked, misspelled words will be underlined in red in the message composition window. Control-click (or right-click) the word to display a list of suggestions.
List private group members individually— If including a group from the Address Book application and this option is checked, the members of the group will be listed in the message header separately.
Lookup addresses in network directories— LDAP directories are supported directly within the mail application; use the Edit Server List to add an LDAP server.
Use the same format as original message— When replying to messages, use the same format (rich/plain) in the reply.
Always CC myself— If checked, you will receive a copy of any reply you send.
Include the original message— When replying, include the contents of the original message in the reply. The original message will be quoted.

Although the Address Book sports a fancy LDAP search interface, you can perform basic searches from within Mail. Clicking the Edit Server List button will open the LDAP server entry sheet, shown in Figure 7.12.

Figure 7.12 LDAP servers allow searching directly from the Mail application.

Click Add Server to add a new server to the list. Fill in the service name, host name, and search base for the server. To activate the server, make sure that there is a check mark in the Use check box.

Signatures

Everyone needs a signature—something to identify them as individuals or at least to tell others who you are! The Mail application handles multiple different signatures with ease. The Signatures panel is shown in Figure 7.13. The available signatures are listed on the left side of the panel.

Figure 7.13 Create multiple signatures within the Mail application.

Options in the Signatures panel include

Create Signature— Create a new signature file. A text-entry panel will appear to type or paste a new signature. If you paste in a rich-text clipping, click the Make Plain Text button to convert it to plain text.
Edit— Edit an existing signature.
Duplicate— Duplicate an existing signature.
Remove— Delete a signature.
Select Signature— Choose the signature you want to use by default.
Choose signature when composing email— If checked, a Signature pop-up menu is added to the message composition window. From this pop-up, you can add all of the stored signatures.

Rules

Rules (filters) can perform actions on incoming messages, such as highlighting them in the message listing, moving them to other folders, or playing special sounds. The rules panel is shown in Figure 7.14.

Figure 7.14 Rules can automate the process of going through your messages.

Each rule in the list is evaluated once per incoming message (unless the Active box is unchecked). In fact, multiple rules can act on a single message. To change the order in which the rules are applied, drag rule entries in the list to the order you want.

There are four options for manipulating the rule list: Create Rule, Edit, Duplicate, and Remove. The function of each option is self-explanatory.

Rule creation is simple. Each rule is a single step that looks at portions of the incoming message to determine how to react. Figure 7.15 demonstrates the rule creation process.

Figure 7.15 Unlike other e-mail programs, Mail's rules are simple to create.

When creating a new rule, first enter a description—this will be used to identify the rule in the listing. Next, decide on the criteria that must match the incoming message. The search criteria are the header field to use in the comparison, what comparison to use (contains, begins with, and so on), and the text to look for.

For example, to match a message from my mac.com account, I'd use From, Is equal to, and johnray@mac.com.

To finish the rule, set the action(s) that should run if the criteria match:

Set the color— Set the highlight color for the message.
Play Sound— Play a system (or custom AIFF) beep sound.
Transfer to mailbox— Transfer the message into one of your system mailboxes.
Forward/Redirect/Reply message to— Send the message to another e-mail address. Click the Set Message button to enter text that will be included with the message being sent.
Delete the message— Delete the message. Useful for automatically getting rid of common spam messages.

Click OK to set and activate the rule.

Menus

Wrapping up our Mail application overview, we'll look at the menu options. Most of these options have already been covered somewhere in the chapter, but there are a few obscure options you may be interested in.

File

The File menu is used to create a new message, or multiple "views" into your mailboxes. It can also be used to save a message as a draft before sending.

New Message (Command+N)— Create a new message.
New Viewer Window (Option+Command+N)— Open another mailbox viewer. The main Mail window is called the Viewer window.
Close— Close the frontmost window.
Save As (Shift+Command+S)— Save the current message in an external file.
Save As Draft (Command+S)— Save the current message as a draft.
Restore From Draft— Restore a message from the saved draft.
Import Mailboxes— Launch an assistant to import mailbox files from Outlook Express, Netscape, Emailer, or other applications.
Page Setup (Shift+Command+P)— Configure the printer.
Print (Command+P)— Print the frontmost document.

Edit

The Edit menu performs as one would expect. Besides the usual Paste selection, it also offers the ability to Paste as Quotation, automatically quoting the text in the clipboard. The menu also includes spell checking and search-and-replace options. Please see Chapter 6's review of Stickies for more information on these common features.

View

The View menu changes the way in which messages are listed in the mail program. Users can sort, display message sizes, and display messages marked for deletion.

Sort— Choose the column by which the mailbox viewer window is open.
Show Deleted Messages (Command+L)— Show messages that are marked as deleted. When not using a Trash folder, messages are hidden from view after being marked as deleted.
Show Mailboxes (Shift+Command+M)— Show the mailbox tray.
Hide/Show Number Column — Hide message numbers in the mailbox list.
Hide/Show Flags Column— Show or hide the message flags in the listing.
Hide/Show Contents Column— Show or hide information about each message's attachments.
Hide/Show Message Sizes— Show the size of messages in the viewer listing.
Focus On Selected Messages/Show All Messages— Focus hides all messages except those selected in the mailbox viewer. To restore the view of all messages, choose Show All Messages.
Hide Toolbar— Hide the toolbar in the active window.
Customize Toolbar— Customize the toolbar for the frontmost window type.
Hide/Show Status Bar (Option+Command+S)— Toggle the message count status line on and off.

Mailbox

The Mailbox menu is used to create or modify local or IMAP-based mailboxes. Mac OS X will automatically switch between local and remote mailboxes depending on your account configuration.

Go Offline/Online— Log off all e-mail accounts and do not attempt to check for mail.
Take <account name> Offline— Log out of a specific e-mail account.
Get New Mail (Shift+Command+N)— Check for new mail in all accounts.
Get New Mail In Account— Get new messages from a specific account.
New Mailbox— Create a new mailbox. If an IMAP account is selected, the mailbox is created on the server.
Rename Mailbox— Rename the selected mailbox.
Delete Mailbox— Delete the selected mailbox.
Empty Deleted Messages (Command+K)— Empty the trash. Removes all deleted messages.
Rebuild Mailbox— Reloads the current mailbox. Occasionally, Mail will get out of sync and the message list will be displayed incorrectly. Choose this option to fix the problem.

Message

Use the Message menu to operate on the message currently highlighted or being displayed. This menu can be used to clean up replies by removing attachments or appending additional messages.

Send Message (Shift+Command+D)— Send the current message.
Reply To Sender (Command+R)— Reply to the current message. If you have text selected when choosing this option, only that text will be quoted.
Reply To All Recipients (Shift+Command+R)— Reply to everyone who received the original message.
Forward Message (Shift+Command+F)— Forward an existing message to another address.
Redirect Message (Shift+Command+E)— Redirect an existing message to another address. Similar to Forward Message, but does not quote the original message.
Bounce To Sender (Option+Command+B)— Bounce the message to the sender and remove it from the mailbox.
Add Sender To Address Book (Command+Y)— Add the sender to the Address Book application.
Mark As Read/Unread (Option+Command+M)— Flag a message as read or unread.
Mark As Flagged/Unflagged (Option+Command+G)— Toggle message flag status.
Delete (Delete)— Delete the selected message(s).
Undelete (Shift+Command+U)— Undelete the selected message(s). You must first use Show Deleted Messages from the Edit menu to use this option.
Show All Headers (Shift+Command+H)— Show all the message headers in the content view.
Show— Show the message in one of several different formats, including Raw Source.
Add Bcc Header (Shift+Command+B)— Add a Blind Carbon Copy field to the composition window.
Add Reply-To Header (Option+Command+R)— Add a Reply-To field to the composition window.
Transfer— Transfer the message to another mailbox.
Transfer again (Option+Command+T)— Transfer a message to the last mailbox accessed.
Apply Rules To Selection (Option+Command+L)— Manually force the rules (filters) to be applied to the selected messages.
Attach File (Shift+Command+A)— Attach a file to the message in the composition window.
Remove Attachments— Remove any attachments in the message being composed.
Append Selected Messages (Shift+Command+I)— Add selected messages to the end of the message being written.

Format

The Format menu is used to change to the text style within a message you are composing. The following options are available for your use:

Font— Choose a font and other style information for message composition.
Text— Set the text alignment (left, right, center) for the active message.
Text Encodings— Change the encoding style used for the message; used for international/cross-platform communication.
Make Plain/Rich Text (Shift+Command+T)— Toggle between plain and rich text modes. Remember, toggling a rich text message to plain text mode removes all formatting information.
Increase Quote Level (Command+')— Add a level of quotes (>) to the selection.
Decrease Quote level (Option+Command+')— Remove one level of quoting (>) from the selection.

Window

The Window menu operates as it does in other applications—providing quick access to open windows. In addition, it provides an Addresses selection for quick access to the Address Book application (Option+Command+A), as well as an Activity Viewer (Option+Command+V). Seen in Figure 7.16, the Activity Viewer shows what Mail is doing. Each account access is shown, along with a description of each action that is taking place. To cancel or stop an action, click the Stop button.

Figure 7.16 The Activity Viewer provides information on Mail's network tasks.

Using Mail should be painless for most users, but the application is not without its drawbacks. There are some incompatibilities in the message encoding (MIME/Base64) that result in messages being irretrievable on certain systems (Groupwise servers, for example). In addition, the integration with the Address Book application is awkward at times. If you're interested in alternatives to Mail, take a look at Eudora (http://www.eudora.com), Mulberry (http://www.cyrusoft.com), and PowerMail (http://www.powermailtech.com).

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