nads58 wrote:
If I use archive mailbox and save to an external hard drive, is there any way to look at those emails on the external drive at a later date without bringing them back to my computer's hard drive? (where I have very limited space)
no, there is no way to do that. mail archives are not searchable or viewable unless you import them back to Mail. yes, that's a definite limitation.
You can circumvent this to some degree as follows.
put the messages you want to archive in a local mailbox in "On my mac". now go to homedirectory/Library/Mail/Mailboxes and copy the mailbox folder corresponding to the mailbox you've just made anywhere you want to store them like an external drive. You can now delete the mailbox you've made from inside Mail if you like. Spotlight will still search messages in the backup folder in the usual way and you'll be able to open those messages in Mail. you can also quiklook them by opening the mailbox folder in finder. also, if you need to you can import the .mbox folder back into Mail.
