Can't Manage Emails - No Folders for Mail? Need alternative.

I've had my iMac about 2+ weeks now and am struggling with running my business on it. My first problem is Mail. I used the plugin to load my hotmails and they work, but I need to create about 4 folders for each hotmail.

What I can't seem to do:

1. There is only ONE separate "Sent" folder for all email addresses. I need "sent" folders under each address.
2. I need to put folders under each email address. Need to create folders for "paid" "problems", etc. for each email and store them. I'm currently dumping everything I need to save into "drafts" of which there is only ONE.
3. Basically, I need a simple email program that's as similar to Outlook Express as possible. I just checked out Thunderbird but I only see support for POP and IMAP. Not Hotmail.

Any suggestions as to what I should do? IDK about Entourage, but I think I need to buy Office to get it and I don't think I need all that (tho' Google spreadsheets sucks in it's slowness).

Create smart mailboxes. Click mailbox/new smart mailbox, then set the rules as required. You can specify messages sent, recieved, include from Trash...

Bear in mind, though, that these messages will not actually reside in these folders, there only there virtually.

I'm not sure what that's supposed to do for me. It looks like a message rule and creates a folder that's not under the particular email account. It sits about 4" down the page.

I want to manually dump emails into their various folders. I just want to create folders for my email accounts. Not rules.
AND - If I create a detached folder such as "paid" to save these emails - it won't let me drag the email into that folder. Weird.

OK, just trying to help. If you just want to drag messages to particular folders, just create the folders.

It won't let you drag a message to a smart folder because the messages AUTOMATICALLY appear in the smart folder based on the rules you've set.

It might take a while to set the rules, but you'll save heaps of time in the long term because you won't have to do any dragging and dropping.

Still, it's your life, your business. What do I know?

I cannot make rules for every potential oddball email.
Obviously 'Mail' is never going to work for me.

I checked out Thunderbird and cannot figure out how to get hotmails to work on it. Does anyone know if Entourage would act like Outlook Express and allow folders to be created under each hotmail? And allow dragging of mail to those folders?

Have you looked at other mail programs? I use Thunderbird - it has multi-account capability with what you appear to be looking for (each account can have its own sent, trash, inbox, user-created folders, etc)

update: since you and I posted at the same time, I didn't see your comment about Thunderbird. If hotmail allows for pop or imap access, it should work ok. I don't see why Mail.app would allow you to access hotmail and not Thunderbird (technologically speaking, that is).

I loaded some special thing to make hotmail work on t-bird, but it's not working. Says 'cannot connect to local server host. The connection was refused'. Oh god I regret my decision. Nothing works.
Yes, I'd love to find the proper program. I loved Outlook Express. It was perfect.

Try this. Note: mailbox = a folder

Create a new mailbox. Name it. Highlight that mailbox in the sidebar. Create another new mailbox. Name it. A triangle will appear next to the first mailbox - clicking this reveals all the mailboxes within that mailbox. You can create as many as you like, and drag/drop to your heart's content.

If this isn't what you want, I'm misunderstanding you.

meagain said:

I loaded some special thing to make hotmail work on t-bird, but it's not working. Says 'cannot connect to local server host. The connection was refused'. Oh god I regret my decision. Nothing works.
Yes, I'd love to find the proper program. I loved Outlook Express. It was perfect.

Click to expand...

Go here then;

http://www.microsoft.com/mac/downlo...ook2001.xml&secid=50&ssid=1&flgnosysreq=False

Liam - It says Outlook is only for 10.2 or earlier. I have 10.4.8.

Martin - Are you saying to create mailboxes but USE them as folders?
In Mail, I have "Inbox" with a triangle. Under which is all my accounts. I'd love to separate them all so basically they have their own triangle deal, but IDK. Maybe I don't have mail set up correctly?

I have it set up how you want. It's just what it did when I had more than one account! Under sent I had two mailboxes for each account, same under trash, inbox, etc. I just then created my own folders account 1, account 2, etc and have countless sub fodlers which I drag and drop to.
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Yes. Mailboxes are just folders. Just create your own mailboxes, and mailboxes within mailboxes.

Don't panic. You'll get there in a minute.

Oh boy.

OK, I have purple folders that are useless. I'm going to delete them.
I have what appears to be a black/grey CD icon with an @ sign in it next to each email account. I can make folders inside them. I can drag emails to them. This works.

My screen looks thus:

1. At the top: Inbox (with triangle) with all my emails under that inbox. I cannot add subfolders to the individual emails.
2. Under that: Drafts
3. Sent - with emails listed under this.
4. Trash - with emails listed under this.
5. A bunch of useless purple folders that I'm going to nuke.
6. Dark circle icons with @ signs for each mail acct. These have triangles. I can create folders under these.

It sure isn't pretty. So is this the only way to do it in Mail? Do I have it right? I wish I could have each email act as it's own 'inbox' with the subfolders under it, but I can't even get the trial of Entourage to work so LOL. Course, now I can't even open Entourage despite it sitting in the dock.

What I would do is open a new mailbox for each mail you require. The folder name can be the email address, so your subfolders can be "paid" "problems", etc.

I think you have smart mailboxes, which it seems you don't want.

Click in the pale blue sidebar to the left.
On the menubar at the top, click mailboxes, and select new mailbox. (NOT new smart mailbox)
Name it.
A blue folder should appear in the sidebar with this name.
Highlight that new folder.
On the menubar at the top, click mailboxes, and select new mailbox.
Repeat as necessary.

Martin - I'm utterly beside myself at this point. Losing it. I'll go try the above now. Meanwhile, darned Entourage test drive won't let me type in a password for any account. It wants me to but when I click on the box to type - nothing happens. IDK if 'test drive' won't allow this or it's just yet another of the zillions of bugs I've stumbled across in most everything I try to do in my new Mac. But I hope I can get Mail working nicely enough first. I'm actually physically ill at this point. LOL! I'm serious.

OK. Look, take a break. I'm trying to work out a way for this to be automated. I'm sure you can do this in Mail.

I got it! Awesome!

OK... Now I have the blue folders/emails and am able to create folders under each. GREAT! But:

1. I still have my Inbox with those emails under it. I copied & dumped the emails for each account to the new 'blue folder' version, but can't seem to nuke those under 'inbox.
2. Is there a way to organize the order of the blue folders? Like my main acct is at the bottom but can't seem to move it to the top.
3. What do the folders/sections with the round dark disks w/@ signs signify? I have no idea how they even got there at this point. I think I don't need them.

This is going well! Oh - I just got an email in the old Inbox section. I probably have to create a rule or something?

I can't work out how to automate it but I think what I suggested before will do the trick. When you get an email just create a new folder (mailbox) named with the email address in question. Then create subfolders within it.

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1. Right-click / delete should do it, I would've thought.
2. Organise view options using the View dropdown on the menubar.
3. Erm, dunno.