Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Tip:
The suggestions in the Search field depend on where you're searching. If you
selected a single mailbox before starting your search, Mail offers suggestions based
solely on the messages in that mailbox. If you search everywhere (more on this just
ahead), you're more likely to get a wider variety of tokens.
You're not restricted to using just one token. You can add more tokens if you like, and you
can also include additional text (
Figure 14
). Just remember that whatever you enter in the
Search field, Mail searches for messages containing
all
those terms.
Figure 14:
A search can include multiple tokens along with arbitrary text.
Mail searches only for messages that match
all
the search terms.
Watch Out for Mail's Search Logic
As you enter search terms, a match occurs only if the letters you entered are at
the
beginnings
of words in the message or headers. (With “InterCapped” words like
iTunes, Mail treats the uppercase letter as the beginning of a new word.) If you enter
more than one string, it looks for messages that have words beginning with all the
strings you entered—in any order. For example:
•
If you enter
car
, Mail will match “car repair” or “carry a tune”—but not
“Icarus,” “reduced scarring,” or “living vicariously.” (But, if you enter
bits
,
Mail will also match “TidBITS” and “AgileBits,” since the “bits” parts of
those names start with a capital letter.)
•
If you enter
in case
, Mail will match “case in point” or “an iPad in its
case”—but not “tiny briefcase” or “Casey's new single.”
Also, be aware that even when you search entire messages, Mail ignores headers that
are ordinarily invisible (such as Content-Type, Message-ID, and Return-Path).
Adjust Search Scope
Besides offering search suggestions, Mail makes another change to its interface as you begin
typing a search term. The Favorites bar changes subtly (
Figure 15
) to provide controls for
restricting or expanding the range of the search (for example, just one mailbox or all mail-
boxes).
