9thport ruby, rails, sysadmin, os x, and other stuff

organizing mail faster with keyboard shortcuts in snow leopard os x 10.6

I have been recently reading the book called Upgrade Your Life: The Lifehacker Guide to Working Smarter, Faster, Better, by Gina Trapini. In the book there are tons of suggestions on how to save time and headaches in your life. For myself, I have found the hacks to very rewarding! Somethings in my life are very tedious and need to be streamlined. Recently, I found that my email system needed a nice ironing. So, I did some quick google searches and did not find much help on how to move message really easy via the keyboard. Thus, I set out to find my own solution. That solution is keyboard shortcuts for os x mail. This helps in saving time, and here is how to implement it for one folder:

To make a short cut for moving a message to a folder:

1. open system preferences
2. select "keyboard" module
3. select "keyboard shortcuts"
4. select "application shortcuts" on the left side
5. add a new entry for the "Mail" application
6. make the menu title to be the exact spelling and capitolization as the folder you want to move messages to
7. choose a keyboard shortcut (tip: use cmd+alt+ctrl+(letter) to avoid overlap)
8. relaunch mail to recognize the shortcut(s)

update: I have noticed that sometimes, mail does not recognize the keyboard shortcut until after you have used the menu item. This is very upsetting.

Choose a message and hit your keyboard shortcut. Volia! I hope you saw your message dissapear. If not, I suggest you try picking a new keyboard shortcut and relaunching mail or making sure the shortcut is recognized. To verify if your shortcut is being recognized, try the following:

1. open your mail application
2. select the "Message" menu
3. select "Move To" menu
4. find the folder you are targeting with your shortcut
5. check to make sure your menu has your shortcut next to it (refer to the screenshot below for an example)