Smart mailbox

I have set up smart mail boxes and expected them to remove the email from my inbox and put them in the smart mailbox based on the criteria i selected. Apparently they are just mirroring the inbox because they are still in inbox and when they are deleted in inbox they disappear. What I am wanting to do is to automatically direct emails in to mailboxes rather than having them stay in the inbox. How do I do that?

Instead of opening a "Smart Box" open a "New Mailbox". Then when you drag an e-mail into the new box (which will appear in the lefthand column) that e-mail will leave the Inbox.

BTW If you look at the time of this message you might think I am awake in the wee hours of the AM. It is 7:50 PM here in my home outside of Boston, MA, USA!

Smart Mail Box

Thanks,

I am aware of dragging emails to a particular mail box. I am looking for the email to automatically go into the smart box when it comes into Mail,
Any suggestions?

Yeah, I don't use Smart Mailboxes - never figured out what good they were either.

Just need regular Mailbox and then create rules.
I imagine the rules will work with Smart Mailboxes also.

Easy way, after you create a Mailbox where you want something to go - instead of your inbox...

Highlight an email that you want to go there.
Open up Preferences - Rules - Add Rule - Give it a title, I have one called Misc Junk
I name the rules the same as the mailbox I want them to go into.

The first box - I leave as "any"
Then in the conditions box use "From" and "Contains"
If you had that email highlighted - it will automatically fill in the 3rd box.

Here's a pic of my Misc Junk
You'll notice I shorten the name down - takes care of some of these sites that like to use multiple domains to send you mail without the need to make a rule for each.



When you're done at the bottom, make sure you put in what/where you want it to do with that email.

And it's a little confusing - but just click the plus sign next to any existing line to open a new line to add other senders to this rule.

This is a boon if you're subscribed to someone that sends a half ton of emails - like Amazon (have 110 unread emails from them right now).

edit:
You can set up whether your Mail icon in the Dock counts unread mail in these boxes or not.
I keep all these Mailboxes for stuff that "does not" need to be looked at except when "I" feel like it.
So I don't have it count these.

This is back on the General tab - Dock unread count.

Thanks Bobtomay. Perfect

Smart Mailboxes are not mailboxes at all, which is why they don't do what you're expecting.

They are saved searches that display all emails that meet that criteria, but do not move them from wherever they are sitting. They seem to work best, I find, when used in coordination with the rules/mailboxes combo Tom suggested above.

For example, I have a smart mailbox that displays any emails that are unread. As soon as I read them, of course, they no longer appear there -- since they no longer meet the criteria.

Another example of a good Smart Mailbox would be "show me any email that includes a cc to [our family lawyer]" -- I used this after my father died to quickly gather all emails (that might be from a variety of people) that had to do with his estate.

Once you realize that Smart Mailboxes are just a customised VIEW, rather than a conventional mailbox, I'll bet you'll find several uses for them.

I am glad this topic came up. I have e-mails that come in almost daily from the same source. Going to Preferences then Rules as shown above, then to Add a Rule, if I have that e-mail I referred to already selected, it automatically shows up in the contains box, ie. I do not have to type in the e-mail address. When that e-mail came in today it went directly to the newly created Smart Box and not into my Inbox. This is what Bruce was looking for and now I know how to do it, too. Thanks to B and Chas!
What I had been doing before was what I talked about in my first comment above. This Smart Box method will save me time.

Many thanks.