Better Visibility of Apple Mail's Flagged Mail

June 20, 2009 6:40 AM

Can I get a list of all my flagged e-mails from Apple Mail to appear somewhere more visible?

I've been a Mac user for nearly two years now, and one thing has been bugging me for a while now.

I use Apple's Mail client with GMail and if I get an important e-mail that requires attention at some point, I'll flag it. However, depending on the volume of e-mail that I deal with, the flagged stuff can often get lost. And, using GMail, I have to manually go into the 'starred' folder in order to see all the mail that I've flagged.

What would be ideal - a desktop or dashboard widget that can display a list of all e-mail that has been flagged.

Essentially, I just need to be able to have more visibility of the flagged mails, as I can become very forgetful! I've already trawled Google looking for Applescripts and so forth that can do this, with no avail. I'm not an Applescript guru so don't even know if it's possible?

Many thanks for any help!

posted by gkhewitt to computers & internet (4 comments total)

I just created a smart mailbox called "Flagged", with the settings "Message is Flagged" and "Message Type is Mail". All my flagged mail shows up in that mailbox.
posted by kosmonaut at 6:51 AM on June 20 [1 favorite has favorites]

A trick I've recently taken to using to highlight important messages within a mailbox is to select the message, The from the Format menu choose "Show Colors" (shift+command+c) and choose a nice bright color. This will then highlight the background behind the message title in the list.

This is better for one or two specific messages to which you need to refer regularly than a whole mailbox full, but it makes it pop out pretty well.
posted by Devils Rancher at 7:19 AM on June 20

You could make a smart mailbox like kosmonaut suggested and then add a badge to the Mail dock icon with Mail Badger so you would have a "secondary" count on the icon showing "mail that really requires attention."

This assumes that you're in some way "inbox zeroing" your flagged mail, not just leaving lots of stuff flagged for long periods of time.
posted by bcwinters at 7:35 AM on June 20

Perfect - just what the doctor ordered.

I always unflag stuff when I'm done. I've now made a smart mailbox for the flagged stuff and have Mail Badger showing this discreetly in the dock icon.

Thanks!
posted by gkhewitt at 8:44 AM on June 20