Organise mail with tags

A tag in Mail is a saved rule, such as "everything from acme.com" or "subject contains invoice". Mail shows every message that matches, and new mail that matches turns up in the tag by itself. You can also put a message in a tag by hand, or take one out.

Tags never move anything on your mail server. A message stays in your inbox, can sit in several tags at once, and deleting a tag changes nothing about your mail. That makes tags safe to try: make one, see what it catches, and change it.

The point of tags is Unsorted: the mail that no tag has claimed yet. Each tag you make takes messages out of it, so the pile that still needs a decision gets smaller and easier to face.

Before you start

• Connect your mailbox. See Connect your email account.
• Plans. Tags are part of every plan.

The tag list

The column on the left of Mail lists:

• All mail: your inbox, with how many messages are loaded and, in your accent colour, how many are unread.
• Unsorted: the messages no tag has claimed, with the same two counts.
• Tags: each of your tags, with its colour, its name, the desk it is about if it has one, and its counts. Click the desk's name to open the desk.
• New tag: makes a tag.
• Suggested: tags worth making, read from the senders who fill your inbox.

Click any of them to show only that mail in the message list. The title above the list changes to the tag's name, with a count such as 12 of 80 loaded messages. Click All mail to see the whole inbox again.

Make a tag from a suggestion

When your inbox has enough mail to see a pattern in, Mail suggests tags under Suggested, biggest first. Each one is a sender who has written at least three of the messages that are still unsorted:

• An organisation, named after its email domain, for people writing from a company address. For example, mail from anyone at acme.com is suggested as Acme.
• A person, by name, for people writing from a personal address such as a Gmail or iCloud address.

Rest the pointer on a suggestion to see why it is there, for example 8 messages from acme.com, 3 still unread.

1. Click the suggestion. The New tag window opens with the name and the From rule filled in.
2. Change anything you like, then click Create tag.

To hide the suggestions, click the × beside Suggested.

Make a tag from scratch

1. Click New tag in the tag list.
2. Type a Name.
3. Pick a Colour, so you can find the tag at a glance.
4. Fill in the rule. Separate several terms with commas; any one of them matching is enough.
   • From — name, address, or a whole domain: for example acme.com, sarah@, the conveyancer.
   • Subject contains: for example invoice, Ridge St.
   • Unread only and Has an attachment: tick either to narrow the tag further.
5. If the mail is about one piece of work, choose its desk or task under About a desk or task (optional). See Link a tag to a desk.
6. Check the box at the bottom. It says the rule in plain words, such as from acme.com · about invoice, and how many messages it catches right now, such as 6 of the 80 messages you have loaded.
7. Click Create tag.

How the rule matches

• From matches any part of the sender's name or address, so acme.com catches everyone at Acme, and sarah@ catches Sarah at any company.
• Subject contains matches any part of the subject.
• Capitals do not matter.
• When you fill in more than one part, a message has to match all of them. For example, from Acme and with "invoice" in the subject.
• A tag with no rule at all holds only the messages you add to it by hand.

Tag a message by hand

Rules do most of the work. Tagging by hand is for the message a rule missed, or the one it caught by mistake.

1. Rest the pointer on a conversation in the message list. A tag button appears at its top right. Its tooltip reads Tag this message.
2. Click it. A list of your tags opens, with a tick beside each tag the message is already in.
3. Click a tag without a tick to put the message in it, or a tag with a tick to take the message out.

Taking a message out sticks, even when the tag's rule would catch it. In a conversation, this tags the newest message.

Start a tag from one message

In the same list, click New tag from this sender. The New tag window opens, ready to collect all the mail from that sender:

• For someone at a company address, the tag is named after the company and catches the whole domain.
• For someone on a personal address, the tag is named after them and catches their address.

Link a tag to a desk

Under About a desk or task (optional), choose the desk or task the mail is about. The window explains: Linking it means this mail and that work are the same subject. The desk keeps its own copy of this view.

Once a tag is linked:

• The desk's name appears under the tag in the tag list. Click it to open the desk.
• A new Inbox widget on that desk follows the tag's rule, and its rule line reads, for example, Following the “Acme” mail tag.

If you delete the desk, the tag stays and simply stops being about it.

Change or delete a tag

1. Rest the pointer on the tag in the tag list and click its settings button. Its tooltip reads Edit and the tag's name.
2. Change what you need and click Save.

To delete it, click Delete tag in the same window. The tag goes straight away, and no mail moves anywhere.

When a tag or Unsorted is empty

Click Show all mail to go back to the whole inbox.

Tips

• Start with your biggest senders. Take the top suggestions first: they take the most out of Unsorted.
• Use a domain for a company. One tag with client.com in From catches everyone who writes to you from that company, including people you have not heard from yet.
• One tag per piece of work. Link it to the desk, and the desk's Inbox widget follows the same rule. See Keep a client's people, mail and chat on their desk.
• Search inside a tag. With a tag selected, search looks only at that tag's mail. See Search your mail.

Common questions

Can a message be in two tags? Yes. An invoice from a client can be in both the client's tag and an Invoices tag.

Does tagging change anything in my email app on my phone? No. Tags live in PlexiDesk and move nothing on your mail server.

Why does a tag show fewer messages than I expected? Tags count the mail Mail has loaded. Click Show more at the bottom of the message list to load older mail.

Can I go back to the inbox from a tag? Click All mail at the top of the tag list.

Related tasks

• Mail in Plexii
• Search your mail
• Inbox widget
• Suggested tidy-up for your inbox
• Keep a client's people, mail and chat on their desk