Lion: Missing Mail search commands?

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Level 1

134 points

Lion: Missing Mail search commands?

I note that the Mail search commands in Lion are different from those in Snow Leopard.

The main problem is that there buttons in the Menu bar labeled Sent, Flagged, etc., but no "To" or "From," nor is there a way to distinguish among Mailboxes to filter the search. I can view To and From in the message pane but that's not a real help. I didn't see any controls in Mail -> Preferences to add the missing items.

These are so obvious, I must be missing something. Or is Lion missing something? What's the fix?

MacBook Pro, OS 10.6.8 | Apple User Since 1981

Posted on Jul 23, 2011 3:31 AM

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Answer 1

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William-Boyd-Jr

Level 6

10,578 points

Jul 23, 2011 7:23 AM in response to Bob Jacobson

Just drag those mailbox folders into the "shortcuts" area.

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Answer 2

macvos

Level 1

20 points

Jul 25, 2011 2:21 AM in response to Bob Jacobson

In the search field, type from: or to: and then your text. A little arrow near from or to appears and you can change the fields to be searched.

Oh, and if you click 'All' in the shortcuts bar (default), Mail will search all your mailboxes, not just the ones in the shortcuts bar.

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Answer 3

Sep 21, 2011 9:57 AM in response to Bob Jacobson

Not sure if this helps, but if you ignore the SEARCH function entirely and instead, create a new SMART MAILBOX, you see that process offers a whole list of (predetermined) criteria to choose from. Make your choice from that and it should find the appropriate messages you are looking for.

Perhaps I am missing somehing here, but it seems to work a great deal better than the surprisingly poor SEARCH function built into MAIL 5.0 in Lion.

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