First of all, thank you so much for all of the feedback on my recent Mac Treat, Wave That Flag (In Mail) I haven’t yet been able to reply to every email yet (as I like to do), so I thought I’d address some of the common questions here.
Q. Is the name-changing option only available on iPhone and not the Mac?
A. Actually, it’s the other way around — the Mac OS is the only place I’ve found that I can rename the flags. On iOS, only one color flagging is offered anyway (not the array of colors), so it wouldn’t even really be helpful, considering that this tip helps one differentiate between your flag colors! If you’re having trouble making it work, make sure when you’re in Mail that you’re clicking on the flag color list on the lefthand side of the main Mail window, and not the toolbar at the top. (See image)
Q. How do you right-click on the flag to change it?
A. See above for the first part of the answer — make sure you’re clicking in the right place to begin with. And as for right-clicking, you can either hit the right side of your mouse* or select Ctrl-click to see the right-click menu options. I have also found that you don’t need to necessarily right-click on the flags at all to be prompted to change the name. Just like renaming files and folders in Finder, you can click once to select the one you want to change, and then click a second time to prompt the text box to become editable. (Note that deliberately clicking two times on the source isn’t the same as a fast “double-click.” A double-click won’t do anything.)
Q. How can you get the colors on your iPhone or iPad?
A. Again, unfortunately, this isn’t an option in the current version of iOS. I hope that it’s something Apple adds to the next one, though, because that would make the Mail app infinitely more useful for me while on-the-go!
Q. Is there a way to change the envelope color in the Mailbox column?
A. I’m not currently aware of a way to do this, but there could be a hack or plugin out there that does it. If you know of one, let us know at hello@smalldog.com!
Q. How do you change the flag/color of incoming messages?
A. This has more to do with using Rules in Mail, so I’d experiment with the options there — if you want the colors to change once a message is read, that may be trickier (or impossible?), but again, using Rules could be the answer. As I referenced in my article, I have a rule set up for incoming invoices that not only adds the green flag but also gives the message a light green background to help it stand out. Those indicators don’t go away once read, but I track my actions (i.e. whether or not I’ve replied to approve it) by making sure the messages have the Reply arrow next to it.
I hope this clears some of the questions up, but if not, feel free to let me know! (And for those of you who I haven’t replied to yet, look for a response from me shortly.)
Thanks for reading!