A Guide to Using Email Flags in Mac Mail
Alex Simmons | Oct 22, 2023 | 7 mins read
Table of Contents
We’re all familiar with the daily email grind that can eat into our work hours. If you’re a Mac user relying on Apple Mail for your email communication, you’re in luck. The Mail app allows you to customize many things to tailor it to your email management workflows and inbox habits.
One of the things you can customize within the Mail app on your Mac computer is its sidebar. Although Apple Mail doesn’t allow for extensive sidebar customization, there are some things you can adjust to your liking.
In this article, we’ll show you how to customize the Mac Mail sidebar to match your aesthetic preferences and inbox habits.
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Message flags in Apple Mail are the closest thing to pinning emails – a feature that isn’t available on Mac Mail. Flags are visual markers you can apply to emails to help organize and prioritize them. These flags serve as reminders or indicators of the status, importance, or urgency of an email.
Apple Mail has flags in different colors that you can assign meaning to:
For instance, you can use the red flag to mark urgent emails, the orange flag to mark emails that contain important information, and the blue flag to mark emails that require follow-up.
Using flags to organize and prioritize emails can help you better manage your inbox and avoid drowning in emails and missing important information, urgent updates, or pending follow-ups.
Here’s why flagging emails in Apple Mail may be handy:
Flagging emails in Apple Mail is very straightforward and can be done in a few clicks.
To flag an email:
To use flags in Mac Mail, right-click the email you want to flag. In the drop-down menu, go to Flags and select one of the seven available flag colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, and gray. This will apply the flag you chose to the email.
You can also open the email you’d like to flag, click on the flag icon located on the menu, and select the flag.
To unflag an email:
Sometimes, you may want to remove a flag from a previously flagged email. For instance, if you mark urgent emails with a red flag, you may want to remove it once the email has been handled.
You can do that by right-clicking the email you’d like to unflag, scrolling to the Flag option, and clicking on the x symbol. You can also open the email you’d like to unflag, click on the flag icon located on the menu, and select “Clear Flag.”
To change the flag of an email:
At times, you may need to change the status of the email, which may require changing the color of its flag. For example, if you’ve already followed up on an email marked with a blue flag, you may want to change it to the completed status by marking it with a green flag.
You can do that by right-clicking on the email whose status you’d like to change, scrolling to the Flag option, and clicking on the flag color you’d like to change.
Naturally, your next question may be: can I customize flags in Mac Mail? Unfortunately, you cannot entirely customize message flags in Apple Mail. However, while you can’t customize the colors of the flags, you can rename them.
When you start flagging emails, a folder for each color flag will automatically be created and will show up on the toolbar.
For example, if you flag an email with a red flag, a folder named “Red” will be created. It’ll appear under the Flagged mailbox on the toolbar (if it’s hidden, just click on the arrow on the left side of the mailbox’s name).
You can rename this folder to match your preferences and give the red flag a specific meaning, such as “Urgent” for emails that require your immediate attention.
Here are the step-by-step instructions on how to rename the flag folders:
Although flagging emails in Apple Mail is as simple as choosing the flag color you’d like to mark it with, you may want to learn some tips and tricks to get the most out of this feature. Here are some things you can do to use Apple Mail flags efficiently and streamline your email management processes.
Create a consistent flagging system to categorize emails based on priority, importance, status, or action required. For example, you could use the red flag for emails that require immediate response, the blue flag for emails that need approval from your manager, and the green flag for emails that confirm the completion of a task or project.
Once you establish a system that’s convenient for you, make sure to stick with it.
Take advantage of Apple Mail’s smart mailboxes to create custom views based on flagged emails. Once you start flagging emails, Apple Mail will automatically create smart folders based on the flag color.
So, all the emails marked with the orange flag will be automatically sorted into a folder named “Orange.” As we mentioned in the section above, you can – and should – rename these folders to assign a specific meaning to each flag color.
Apple Mail’s default keyboard shortcuts are a great way to flag and unflag emails without having to navigate through to the menu or right-click emails. You can use the Shift-Command-L shortcut to flag an email. You can then use the same shortcut to unflag it.
Combine flags with rules for automated email sorting to streamline your email management. For example, you can create a rule to automatically flag emails from a specific sender or containing certain keywords. This allows you to reduce the time you spend manually sorting and flagging emails.
Reserve flags for emails that genuinely require attention, action, or organization. It’s not necessary to flag every single email in your inbox. If you do, it’ll likely cause even more chaos than not flagging them at all.
If you rely on Apple Mail to manage your emails on your Mac computer, customizing the sidebar can help you improve your email organization and productivity. While the default sidebar in Mac Mail is functional and handy, you may want to tailor it to your needs.
Although the Mail app doesn’t allow for extensive sidebar customization, you can better organize the order of the folders, add and remove folders from favorites, hide the sidebar from view, resize it, and change its color and font size.
❓How do I use flags in Mac Mail?
To use flags in Mac Mail, right-click the email you’d like to flag, scroll down to the Flag option, and select the flag color you’d like to mark it with. You can also open the email you’d like to flag, click on the flag icon located on the menu, and select the flag.
❓Can you name flags in Mac Mail?
Although you can’t directly change the name of the flags in Apple Mail, you can rename the flag folders. When you start flagging emails, Apple Mail automatically creates flag folders in the Flagged mailbox. You can rename these folders to add meaning to each flag color.
❓What does red flag mean on Mac Mail?
In Apple Mail, you can assign each flag color any meaning you want. Typically, the red flag indicates urgent or important emails, but you can use it however you want.
I have always been fascinated by the world of SaaS and technology. From a young age, I found myself drawn to the endless possibilities that email technology offers. The ability to connect with people across the globe and streamline communication processes is something that truly excites me. As a passionate individual, I am constantly seeking new ways to leverage SaaS and email technology to enhance productivity and drive innovation.
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