You're even smarter than your rules, of course, and you can color messages as well: you can switch emails colored by filters back to white or quickly highlight urgent mail in, say, red (or green).
Highlight Any Email with a Background Color in Mac OS X Mail
To change a message's background color in Mac OS X Mail's message list:
- Open a folder or smart folder containing the desired message.
- Make sure the message whose background color you want to change is selected.
- Select Format | Show Colors from the menu.
- If you do not see Show Colors in the Format menu, select Format | Hide Colors instead and then Format | Show Colors.
- You can also press Command-Shift-C, possibly twice to have the Colors window disappear and reappear.
- Pick the desired color.
- Choose white to reset the background color to, well, white and remove highlighting colors, say set by a filter.
Remove Color Highlighting from a Message in Mac OS X Mail
To return a message's background color to white after you have highlighted it manually or a Mac OS X Mail rule applied highlighting no longer needed:
- Open the folder or smart folder that holds the message or search for it.
- Make sure the message whose background color you want to reset to white is selected.
- Select Format | Show Colors from the menu
- Select Format | Hide Colors instead followed by Format | Show Colors if you do not see Format | Show Colors initially.
- Click white.
- Go to the Crayons tab.
- Click Snow (typically in the lower right corner).
(Updated May 2012)
