Creating smart folders
A smart folder looks like a folder and sits in the sidebar, but instead of containing mail, it shows every email that matches its conditions. “With attachments from the last 7 days”, “everything from my accountant”, “tag Clients with a red flag”: collections like these stay permanently in view as a smart folder.
The mail stays where it is. A smart folder moves nothing: the same email can appear in any number of smart folders while living in its one real folder.
Creating one
Section titled “Creating one”The + next to the Smart Folders heading in the sidebar opens the Create Smart Folder dialog:
- Start from a template such as Today, This Week, With Notes or Large Attachments, or from scratch.
- Enter a Name and, if you like, a Color.
- Put together the Conditions (see below). The dialog shows live how many emails currently match.
- Confirm with Create Folder.
The smart folder then appears in the sidebar. Its context menu lets you edit, duplicate or delete it, and you change the order by dragging.
Conditions
Section titled “Conditions”A smart folder has its own conditions, independent of the search operators:
| Area | Conditions |
|---|---|
| People | From, Sender name, To, Cc, Any recipient |
| Content | Subject |
| Time | Date received: before or after a day, or within the last minutes, hours, days or weeks |
| Attachments | Has attachments, Attachment filename, Attachment MIME type, Attachment file extension, Size |
| Organization | Flag color, Tags / labels, Mailbox / folder, Mail account |
| Notes | Has note, Note text |
The Match Mode decides how the conditions work together: ALL must be met (and), ANY one is enough (or), or NONE may match. With Limit to Account the smart folder covers only one account, otherwise all of them.
A smart folder does not know about read state. For “everything unread
from …”, use a saved search
with is:unread.
A few proven patterns:
- Today list: Flag color red, meaning everything you put on your own desk.
- With notes: Has note, so nothing you jotted something down about gets lost.
- Space hogs: Has attachments and Size above 5 MB.
- Boss filter: From contains the company domain, for example
@company.example.
The counter
Section titled “The counter”Next to every smart folder you see how many emails it contains. The counter updates by itself as soon as new mail arrives or you move, delete or flag emails. Under Settings → Mailboxes → Sidebar Listing you can hide it or also show the number of unread emails.
Smart folder or saved search?
Section titled “Smart folder or saved search?”Both show a collection of emails that stay where they are. They differ in what they can do:
| Smart folder | Saved search | |
|---|---|---|
| Creating | + next to Smart Folders | Save search button in the search field |
| Criteria | its own conditions, including tags, flag colors, notes, size | everything the search field can do, including search text, read state and in: |
| Combining | ALL, ANY or NONE | always all criteria together |
| Counter | updates by itself | only on request, as of the last run |
Rule of thumb: what you want to keep in view all the time and can describe by tags, flags or senders becomes a smart folder. A search you repeat now and then stays a saved search.
Free-plan limits
Section titled “Free-plan limits”Without Pro, five smart folders and five saved searches are available. Existing ones keep working after Pro lapses, new ones have to wait until there is room again.