How to Set Up New Email Alerts in Apple Mail

You can set up Apple Mail in Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) or later to announce new emails depending on where they land. Alerts can apply to the inbox or all folders. You can also limit alerts to senders in your address book or to people you marked as VIPs. Advanced settings let you create a smart mailbox with selection criteria to announce the emails you want to know about.

How to Get Apple Mail Notifications for VIPs, Contacts, Inbox, Smart Folders, Rules or All Messages

To specify what kind of mail you want to receive desktop alerts for in Notification Center:

1. Select Preferences under the Mail menu.

   You can also press Command+, (comma) on your keyboard.

2. Go to the General tab.

3. Select the desired category for which you want to receive new message alerts under New message notifications:

   • Inbox Only: receive alerts only for new messages arriving in your inbox.
   • VIPs: get alerts only about messages from people you have marked as VIPs.
   • Contacts: get notifications of messages from people in your address book (you cannot pick individual contacts for notification).
   • All Mailboxes: have notifications show up for all new messages arriving in your email accounts.
   • A smart folder: be alerted to all new mail arriving in that smart mailbox. Using the folder's selection criteria, you can create a set of email notification rules.

How to Add Desktop Notifications to Incoming Message Rules in Apple Mail

To make any incoming message rule in Apple Mail alert you to the messages its criteria select:

1. Select Preferences from the Mail menu, or press Command+, (comma) on your keyboard.

2. Click the Rules tab.

3. Highlight the rule to which you want to add notifications and click Edit.

4. Click the plus sign next to an action under the Perform the following actions heading.

5. Select Send Notification from the Move Message drop-down menu.

6. Click OK.

To add a new rule that notifies you about the emails that match its criteria:

1. Click Add Rule.

2. Type a short title that will help you recognize the filter's criteria and proposed feats under Description.

3. Pick the desired criteria for triggering the rule's actions under If ___ of the following conditions are met.

4. Select Send Notification from the Move Message drop-down menu under Perform the following actions.

5. Repeat for other rules you want to set.

6. Click OK.

How to Turn Off Apple Mail (or All) Desktop Alerts

To disable all Notification Center alerts for the rest of the day, click the Notification Center icon in the menu bar while holding down the Option key.

Click again while holding down Option to enable alerts again at any time.