Mac Mail query

[Dave2002]

In the versions of Mac OS X which I use mail messages appear in the Dock if they have been opened. Sometimes this is useful, but over time there tend to be many "opened" messages in the Dock. Is there any way of closing a whole bunch of those in the dock quickly?

What would also be useful would be to group some of these together, but then somehow file them in a folder so that they could all be opened/closed at the same time. I'm not aware of any way of doing this, so I usually just open/close these things one at a time when I get round to it. There doesn't seem to be any way of selecting the docked messages to close them without opening them, hence the query.

This is in Mountain Lion, but I think the situation is the same in El Capitan and Snow Leopard - though I'm not using those right now so can't check.

[french frank]

over time there tend to be many "opened" messages in the Dock.

Could you explain what you mean by messages being 'in the Dock'? I just have the Mail icon in the Dock, showing the number of notifications (unopened messages), according to how I've set it (Inbox and Junk folders). Is this some useful gizmo I don't know about?

[Dave2002]

Could you explain what you mean by messages being 'in the Dock'? I just have the Mail icon in the Dock, showing the number of notifications (unopened messages), according to how I've set it (Inbox and Junk folders). Is this some useful gizmo I don't know about?

Yes - I didn't notice them for some time. If I look to the right hand side of the Dock, towards the Trash can, I can see a whole lot of white rectangles, each with the Mail icon attached to the bottom right. Each of these represents an email message I have previously opened. There may be other open windows there - such as a Safari window - which has the SaFari icon attached, or a BBC Downloader window, with a player icon. These also represent windows in their respective applications which haven't been closed. The applications can be opened with the relevant window visible by clicking on these in the Dock.

Try opening a few mail messages but don't close them, then look at the Dock.

[french frank]

Try opening a few mail messages but don't close them, then look at the Dock.

Well any message, document or webpage that you've opened and minimised rather than closing will appear there temporarily, won't it? I suppose I just never have need to keep lots of email messages open at the same time: I read them then close them or reply.

Apart from Trash and the Documents and Downloads folders the only other folder I keep that side of the Dock is one I created called Office Blanks which has a blank Word and blank Excel document which I find an easier way to access than opening Word or Excel and then choosing from the array of templates they offer :-(.

I don't really know why your messages appear in the Dock at all, unless you have set up a single folder called Emails, in which case you just open it, View in Folder and Zap them all from there.

[french frank]

PS No I opened several emails and don't have anything in the Dock. Can you just View Options for one of them and then Remove from Dock?

[Dave2002]

PS No I opened several emails and don't have anything in the Dock. Can you just View Options for one of them and then Remove from Dock?

Odd. This is going to take me some while to check my own machine(s). I've looked in Mail preference, and also at the Dock preferences - can't see anything which might turn the current behaviour on or off, which makes me surprised you can't see this. Could be an OS version thing, though I doubt it. I'll try to check that next.

Thanks for testing.

[Lordgeous]

I dont get this in the dock (useing 10.8.5).

[Dave2002]

I dont get this in the dock (using 10.8.5).

Interesting - thanks. That's the version which is on this machine - I've not checked the others yet.

[Dave2002]

Interesting - thanks. That's the version which is on this machine - I've not checked the others yet.

I think I've sorted this now, plus discovered a couple of other features I didn't know.

If the "Minimize windows into application icon" isn't ticked, then Mail windows get "put" (an icon appears) in the dock when minimised. If it is ticked then they get "put" in the application in the dock - actually they simply disappear, though if the Genie effect is on the visual effect is to go to the application. Mail treats each open email as a separate window. Even if the Minimize box is ticked, it is still possible to access the messages which were open from the Windows menu within the Mail application.

At first sight (to me, at anyrate) it looked as though Mail was somehow special in this behaviour, but it isn't. Many modern applications use tabs as well as windows, and some users will tend to use tabs rather than windows. Mail (at least in the OS version mentioned - on this machine 10.8.5) only seems to have windows, hence the clutter if each window is minimised and icons appear in the dock. This also happens for other applications, such as Firefox, but the clutter is usually less because of the tabs within each window.

If the box is checked, then there is minimal clutter within the dock.

The double click to minimise option is also quite useful - and saves having to move the cursor to the top left to minimise windows.

The "Show indicator lights for open applications" is perhaps of dubious use - and maybe even too subtle to make sense.

[MrGongGong]

Thanks for this
I was noticing this also (on 10.10.4)

[french frank]

Thanks for this
I was noticing this also (on 10.10.4)

My iMac (6 months old) is 10.2, and so is my Air (bought last week). How does that relate to 10.10.4 ?

[Dave2002]

Has anyone figured out what the "Show indicator lights" option really does?

I played around with it, and it seemed at first to only put the indicator lights on in windows which are "in focus", but further experimentation suggested that behaviour was pretty much the default anyway. Maybe it's more obvious on a large sceen with several windows showing at the same time - and it may, of course, also be OS version dependent. I'll try on other versions and machines with larger screens later on.

[MrGongGong]

My iMac (6 months old) is 10.2, and so is my Air (bought last week). How does that relate to 10.10.4 ?

I should have said Yosemite 10.10.4

[french frank]

Has anyone figured out what the "Show indicator lights" option really does.

I may have misunderstood - I thought it was referring to the black dot under the icon in the Dock to show the application was open?

[french frank]

I should have said Yosemite 10.10.4

Right - I thought people were referring to Mail, but couldn't see how to update that anyway