Take Control of Apple Mail is your complete guide to Apple’s Mail app. In this book, Joe explains core concepts like special IMAP mailboxes and email archiving, reveals Mail’s hidden interface elements and gestures, and helps with common tasks like addressing and adding attachments. He also offers tips on customizing Mail, including a nifty chapter on how simple plugins and special automation can dramatically improve the way you use Mail. Joe also covers finding that message in the haystack with Mail’s natural-language search, improving the messages you send, how digital signatures and encryption work in Mail, and—perhaps most important—an award-winning strategy for avoiding email overload.
You’ll quickly find the information that’s most important to you, including:
- Key changes in Mail for Sonoma, Ventura, iOS 17/iPadOS 17, and iOS 16/iPadOS 16, such as automated handling of two-factor verification codes, link tracking protection, discontinuation of plugin support in favor of extensions, unsending messages, scheduling messages to send later, following up on messages awaiting replies, reminding yourself about important messages in your Inbox, getting notifications for missing attachments and recipients, and more
- How to take advantage of the new Mail privacy features Mail Privacy Protection and Hide My Email
- Getting through your email faster with gestures
- Using advanced search techniques to find filed messages
- Using third-party add-ons to significantly enhance how you use Mail
- The whys and hows of sending attachments
- Using markup features to embellish, and even sign, outgoing attachments
- Defeating spam with the Junk Mail filter—and what to do if you need more firepower
- Understanding special mailboxes like Sent, Drafts, and Junk
- Using notifications to stay apprised of incoming messages
- Taking charge of email organization with rules and other measures
- Backing up and restoring email
- Importing email from other apps, older versions of Mail, or another Mac
- Deciding whether you should encrypt your email, along with detailed, real-world steps for signing and encrypting messages
- Taking Mail to the next level with AppleScript and Automator
- Key skills for using Mail in iOS and iPadOS, such as working with incoming and outgoing messages, using attachments, and configuring accounts
- Fixing problems: receiving, sending, logging in, bad mailboxes, and more
Although this book primarily covers Mail in Sonoma, Ventura, Monterey, Big Sur, Catalina, Mojave, iOS 17/iPadOS 17, and iOS 16/iPadOS 16, the majority of it is also applicable to earlier versions.
Take Control publisher Joe Kissell has written more than 60 books about technology, including many popular Take Control books. He formerly wrote for publications such as Macworld, Wirecutter, and TidBITS. He lives in Saskatoon with his wife and their two sons.
What’s New in Version 6.1
Version 6.1 of this book expands coverage to macOS 14 Sonoma and iOS 17/iPadOS 17, while dropping coverage of iOS 15. Significant changes are as follows:
- Described the few, minor features Apple added to Mail in Sonoma (see “Mail Changes in Sonoma”) and iOS 17/iPadOS 17 (see “Mail Changes in iOS 17 & iPadOS 17”)
- Updated “Mail’s Disappearing Features” to mention a couple of additional items
- Added a sidebar, “What About Read Receipts?,” that explains why Mail doesn’t offer this feature
- Updated “Checking for Authenticity of Branded Messages” to reflect different wording in Sonoma and iOS 17/iPadOS 17
- In “Opening Incoming Attachments,” discussed small changes in how Mail handles non-graphical attachments starting in Sonoma
- Included a clarification in “Message Filters” about using that feature in Mojave
- Revised most of the chapter “Extend and Automate Mail” to explain what Apple’s removal of plugin support in Sonoma means and what alternatives exist in the form of extensions
- Added a new topic, “Free Up Disk Space Used by Mail,” which helps you deal with certain situations in which Mail consumes too much disk space
What Was New in Version 6.0.1
This tiny “bug fix” release added a clarification about which versions of Mail support Time Machine for restoring individual messages; see “Mail’s Disappearing Features” and “Use Time Machine.” It also added a small correction regarding the creation of rich links; see “Composing Messages with Rich Links.”
What Was New in the Sixth Edition
Version 6.0 updated the book to cover macOS 13 Ventura, iOS 16, and iPadOS 16:
- As described in “Settings vs. Preferences,” updated the book to account for the fact that Ventura replaced System Preferences with System Settings and replaced Mail’s Preferences window with a Settings window
- Added lists of Mail changes in Ventura and in iOS 16 & iPadOS 16
- Added topics describing numerous new features in Ventura and iOS 16/iPadOS 16:
- Undoing Sending a Message
- Scheduling a Message
- Following Up on Messages Awaiting Replies
- Reminding Yourself About Important Messages
- Getting Notifications for Missing Attachments and Recipients
- Composing Messages with Rich Links
- Checking for Authenticity of Branded Messages
- Use Smart Search
- Added advice about opening incoming attachments
- Included significantly more detail about using Mail Privacy Protection and its component features; see “Use Mail Privacy Protection,” as well as the note in “Train Your Junk Mail Filter”
- Updated certain details about changes to Mail plug-ins, especially Mailbutler
- Added Mail Archiver X to the list of options in “Archive and Search Messages”
- Updated the instructions for macOS in “Unsubscribe from Mailing Lists”
- Added yet another tip about how to quote effectively
- Updated the chapter “Use Mail in iOS & iPadOS” to cover the new features mentioned above, as well as significantly expanding and improving the Manage Notifications topic
- Explained in “Address a Message to a Group” how to create or edit a group (list) in iOS/iPadOS
- Dropped explicit coverage of iOS 14, while continuing to cover iOS 15 and iPadOS 15
Posted by Joe Kissell on June 12, 2020
I joined Chuck Joiner on MacVoices in a two-part interview to discuss the fifth edition of my book Take Control of Apple Mail.
In Part 1, I talk about some of the bugs and design flaws in Mail for Catalina.
In Part 2, I stay hydrated while talking about plugins, security issues, and the challenges of email for ordinary users.
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