Build your own Priority Inbox with Apple Mail

Historical text from HellasProject (2009–2014). It is not current advice or a present-day service.

Last month Google released Priority Inbox, a system that learns which messages matter to you and highlights them automatically over time. It is in beta and Google is turning it on slowly for all users. If you are impatient and want Priority Inbox with Apple Mail instead of Gmail, you will like Ben Brooks’s guide.

Ben explains how a combination of rules can act like Priority Inbox for Mail. He has a few basic rules ready, such as one that recognizes messages from Apple and one that pulls backups straight away. Other rules are smarter.

For example, he wrote one that looks at whether his work email is in CC and then checks whether his name appears in the body. If not, it highlights the message red and files it. That marks it as less important at a Priority Inbox level.

Another rule searches for messages from people on a list he defined as “Important” and flags them. The rules are fairly smart but have limits. Combined, they make a fairly strong priority system.

You can read more in the rest of his post.

Source: Shawn Blanc & TUAW