Moving Mail Messages

I have a bunch of folders on my MacBook Pro Retina 15" (OSX 10.9.4) I am looking for a way to automate moving messages to about 12 (out of maybe 40) folders. I.e., I read the message in Inbox, then move the message to a named folder by pressing one key. Applescript? Automator? Something else? Thanks

Are you moving them to another folder within Mail or to a folder somewhere else on the Mac?

No, I'm staying entirely within Mail. For example Inbox -> Planning. Both mailboxes are within Mail.

I am not aware of a way to assign a key combination to "move to such-and-such folder" action...
I, however, use Rules extensively, so hardly ever see anything in Inbox, as everything gets sorted into their respective folders "on arrival" - but this is not exactly what you're after, is it?

No, unfortunately it isn't. I, too, use rules, but there are a bunch of messages I really have to read so I leave them in the inbox and sort them after reading. I use SpamSieve to get rid of the spam (over 800/Day). I can use Move and then select the mailbox, but I'd really rather just have a single key because the list is so long.

Wouldn't the Smart Mailbox feature do what you need. I have a Smart Mailbox set for things that come in from iTunes. I also have one that pulls in all mail that comes in today. Smart Mailboxes are created similar to Smart Playlists in iTunes. See the Smart Mailboxes feature of this article.

Note: When a smart mailbox is created mail that is moved into one of the boxes is still marked as unread tille you read it.

Smart mailbox? I don't think so, but perhaps I don't completely understand them. My problem is DISTRIBUTING emails after reading, not collecting them. They all go to my inbox. I read them and then based on what they say, I move them to other places. I am a state legislator. I may decide that something belongs in "Constituent Issues" or it might go in "Legislative Email". It might belong in a folder called "Northern Pass", which pertains to one very specific issue. There is probably nothing in either metadata or the title which can be used to classify it.

Your right. Don't think that quite does it. I'lll have to do some more thinking on this. Keep checking back.

Thanks anyway. There is an add-on published by InDev called "Act-On" which has a number of features, one of which does this for 10 folders, but I've had quite a bit of problems with it and have judged it not quite ready for prime time!

I was a developer for 20 years, but for Windows, not Apple. I don't have any Objective C skills. The fact that InDev was able to do it, led me to believe that there might be another way. I don't have any Applescript skills either, but I could probably learn them if I had to.

I think I just figured it out. I added the folders to my "Favorites bar". Now I can just drop the email on the button and it goes into the folder. Simple.

I think this can probably be done with AppleScript though I am no scripture by any means. I wonder if http://lutherfuller.com/MailWing.html would do the job for you. It has a 30 day demo. The part that I am not sure about is the delete feature. I think that it is moving mail to appropriate folders then clearing the Inbox.

Edit: Your post must have come up as I was typing, Glad you got that sorted out. Leave it to me to bypass the dead simple solution.