Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
4. Close the Preferences window.
Your new signatures are now available for use in outgoing messages.
To apply a signature to an outgoing message (or to change the one Mail has applied automat-
ically), choose it from the Signature pop-up menu when composing a message. Unlike some
email applications, which append signatures after you click Send, Mail displays the signature
as editable text, so that you can change or delete it manually if you like.
Keyboard Shortcuts
You can assign keyboard shortcuts to nearly any command in Mail. To do this, go to System
Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > App Shortcuts. Click the plus button, choose Mail
from the Application pop-up menu, type the name of the menu command in the Menu Title
field, click in the Keyboard Shortcut field, and press the keystroke combination you want to
use. Then click Add.
There's just one problem, which occurs if you try to do this for any of the mailboxes on the
Move To or Copy To submenus. Both the Move To and Copy To submenus contain exactly
the same commands, and by default, OS X keyboard shortcuts are tied only to the name
of the command, not to the submenu name. That means you'll have a hard time predicting
whether a given keyboard shortcut will copy or move messages (and indeed, the behavior
changes, depending on which action—copy or move—you performed most recently). To solve
this problem, type the full path of the menu command, with -> to represent submenus, as in:
Message->Move to->Travel
(with no spaces before or after
->
).
If you want even more flexibility in assigning keyboard shortcuts, opt for a third-party key-
board shortcut tool such as
Keyboard Maestro
or Mail Act-On (described just ahead).
Plug-ins
Dozens of third-party Mail plug-ins exist. These enable you to change unwanted behaviors,
add new features, and enable significant new customization options. For example, plug-ins
can stop spam, encrypt email messages, offer advanced message filing options, change the
way attachments are handled, modify Mail's method of quoting text in replies, and much
more.
I won't attempt to catalog all the available Mail plug-ins here, but allow me to refer you to
lists that other people have compiled and maintain:
Maximizing Mail: Add-ons for Mac OS
X's Mail app
at Macworld, and
Apple Mail Plugins and Tools
.
I mention a few of my personal
favorites in notes and tips throughout this topic.
