If you practice chain mail and organise your messages into folders , you might find that some of your pamphlet have a white folder picture , while others have a blue booklet icon . For instance , if you ’ve ever imported messages into Mail , they twine up stored in a white folder named Imported . And yet , if you create folders on your own , they ’re blue — ordinarily . Although it may seem random as to which people of color winds up on which pamphlet , there ’s actually a method acting to the foolishness … and believe it or not , it ’s actually covered in Mail ’s help file .
As explained in Mail ’s help , a blank booklet can only contain other folders , not case-by-case messages . Blue folders , on the other helping hand , have no such restrictions . So why is a given folder white or disconsolate ? This is pass to vocalise a piece strange , but a give folder in Mail is white if it does n’t exist . I sleep with what you ’re thinking—“It must exist , I can see it ! ” And that ’s true , it does be . But unlike the blue booklet , it does n’t exist as an actual letter box folder ; it ’s simply a leaflet . you’re able to see this for yourself in the Finder .
Navigate to your exploiter ’s Library - > Mail - > Mailboxes folder . You ’ll see an entry for each top - degree folder you have in Mail . If you have any white folders , you ’ll see that the folder ’s name miss the .mbox extension — this means that it ’s just a folder , and not a real mailbox . As such , that folder can not be used to store content , since it ’s not a mailbox , but it can store other folder . For example , below left is a section of my folder listing in Mail ; to the right is the list as realize in the Finder .
The two green - highlighted entries correspond to the two white booklet in the leftmost image . remark that neither folder has the .mbox extension . The puritanic pamphlet , on the other hired hand , do have the extension , and can be used to store both messages and folders — they are true postbox brochure .
So now that you know what it mean when you see a whitened folder , how can you create your own ? And why might you want to habituate them ? White booklet are nice because they prevent you from misfiling a message during a retarding force - and - dip operation — you ca n’t by chance unload the message on the top - grade brochure , as it wo n’t accept the incoming message . or else , you might want to use white to call out a folder or two , since Mail wo n’t let us assign coloration to pamphlet . ( That ’s how I utilise them . ) If you require a white mailbox pamphlet , there are two ways to create them : the easy manner and the not - quite - so - well-to-do way .
The easy way
The well-heeled way to create a white postbox booklet is to create two new mailbox folder in one step . You do this through the Mailbox - > New Mailbox dialogue , branch the two mailbox with a forward slash . Just as in Terminal , the slash is a route delimiter , specifying where in the hierarchy the postbox need to be created . Say you wanted to create a fresh white Vacations pamphlet , and within that , a sub - folder name 2006 . Call up the New Mailbox dialog , and type
Click OK , and you ’ll find a new white top - level Vacations folder in your lean of letter box , with a normal puritanic 2006 booklet within it . you could now move folder into and out of ( or create new folder within ) the Vacations booklet as you see fit .
The not quite so easy way
Another mode to make a white mailbox is to delete a mailbox . Huh ? Using the same example as the well-heeled way , first create a new Vacations mailbox . poster that it ’s blue , mean it can hold both folders and message . Now select the Vacations postbox , and create the 2006 booklet within it — the folder will mechanically be economise there , since you ’ve pick out the Vacations folder first . Notice that it , too , is blasphemous .
Now for the knavish part . Control - select Vacations and select Delete from the pop - up carte du jour . tick Delete again in the confirmation window that appears . Bingo ! Now you ’ve got a white Vacations brochure . ( If you really desire to edit it , echo this process , and it ( and any subfolders it contains ! ) will be deleted . )
manifestly , the first method acting is easy , but the 2nd does workplace , and might in reality be a routine simpler if you ’re building white folders that are profoundly buried in an be folder structure .
So there you have it — the low - down on what the blue and blanched Mail folder ikon mean , and how to make blanched ikon of your very own .
