Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Use Data Detectors
Mail includes a feature called Data Detectors, which intelligently identifies strings of
text that match patterns like street addresses, dates (even vaguely stated dates, like
“next Tuesday” or “breakfast tomorrow”), phone numbers, and flight numbers—and
then lets you do appropriate things with them. With Data Detectors, you can quickly
add an entry to Contacts, schedule an event in Calendar, look up a location in the
Maps app, track a flight, and so on.
Data Detectors are so inconspicuous that you might not notice them unless you know
where to look. They work only on messages you've already received or sent, not on
new messages you're composing (even if they're stored in Drafts).
In any such message on a Mac, if you see a chunk of text that looks like one of the
kinds of data I just mentioned, move your pointer over it. If Data Detectors considers
it to be an appropriate kind of data, a dotted box will appear around it, with a down-
ward pointing triangle on the right. Click the triangle to display either a contex-
tual menu with one or more options, or a popover with additional controls, depending
on the type of data.
In iOS 7 Mail, all text that Data Detectors identifies as possibly useful is blue and un-
derlined, just like a URL. Tap one of these link-like strings to pop up relevant controls.
