[Stephanie]

I'm going to be working from home starting in the fall, and I would like to keep the work email accounts separate from my personal email accounts. I know Mail.app can handle multiple accounts, but I want to be able to have Mail open to deal with personal stuff without having to see business stuff outside of working hours. Or vice versa, open the work stuff and leave the personal stuff closed.

I know I could set up a second, separate user account on my mac, but that would mean separating everything, and really it's just email that I want to keep separate. I want to be able to 'turn off' the work email at a certain point and not have to think about it.

If there were a quick and easy way to toggle those accounts 'on' and 'off' within Mail.app that would be neat, but I haven't figured that out yet so my next thought was to install an alternative email client to use for the business stuff. Then I could just launch that at 9am and close it at 5pm.

There are two email accounts that I'll have to handle this way, one using IMAP and one is on an office exchange server.

Can anyone suggest an alternative email client that I could try?

Or a better way of toggling those two accounts 'on' and 'off' without disabling my personal email?

Thanks!

 

[DavidH]

You can toggle each of your email accounts on and off in the Apple Mail App.
Go to Preferences and then to accounts and in the Account Information Tab for each account you will see a Check Box that says "Enable this Account" on your Email Client.
To turn it back on simply toggle the Account back on when you are ready to use it.

Give it a try, this maybe the simplest and easiest solution for you.

DavidH

 

[Rob]

I would recommend Seamonkey. It's the modern version of old Mozilla/Netscape with a combined browser/email suite.

There's Mac and PC versions, and they're both great. Email is solid. You could use the browser for your work too.

IMAP and POP3 can be setup easily, but I'm not sure how well it would work with office exchange server.

 

[pm-r]

Oh, if only Eudora had been kept alive and updated, such a setup was so easy to do, but alas...

What about setting up Smart Mailboxes in Mail, and have them configured separately for your personal email and work email?

Such a setup can be seen but modified for your use at:

Turning Mail.app Into the Best Mac Email App | Mac.AppStorm

And maybe using AppleScript or some of its ready made scripts:

MacTech | The journal of Apple technology.

or
https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/9178/mail-scripts

 

[macintosh doctor]

I'm going to be working from home starting in the fall, and I would like to keep the work email accounts separate from my personal email accounts. I know Mail.app can handle multiple accounts, but I want to be able to have Mail open to deal with personal stuff without having to see business stuff outside of working hours. Or vice versa, open the work stuff and leave the personal stuff closed.

I know I could set up a second, separate user account on my mac, but that would mean separating everything, and really it's just email that I want to keep separate. I want to be able to 'turn off' the work email at a certain point and not have to think about it.

If there were a quick and easy way to toggle those accounts 'on' and 'off' within Mail.app that would be neat, but I haven't figured that out yet so my next thought was to install an alternative email client to use for the business stuff. Then I could just launch that at 9am and close it at 5pm.

There are two email accounts that I'll have to handle this way, one using IMAP and one is on an office exchange server.

Can anyone suggest an alternative email client that I could try?

Or a better way of toggling those two accounts 'on' and 'off' without disabling my personal email?

Thanks!

if the other is on exchange
you can use the webmail interface which will be a perfect answer for you..
full mail client interface and it all remains on the server

 

[broad]

Sparrow — Get mail done ??

 

[pm-r]

Hmmm...??? Didn't Google acquire Sparrow in July 2012, and I understand its development is now going downhill.

Also:
"RalphDickens1933 reviewed on 09 May 2013
No exchange support is a big problem for enterprise users. ..."

Just saying...

 

[broad]

There are two email accounts that I'll have to handle this way, one using IMAP and one is on an office exchange server.

.

 

[broad]

Hmmm...??? Didn't Google acquire Sparrow in July 2012, and I understand its development is now going downhill.

Also:
"RalphDickens1933 reviewed on 09 May 2013
No exchange support is a big problem for enterprise users. ..."

Just saying...

ps i have no idea whether "its development is going downhill" and, beyond what you'd find in a google search, neither do you im sure.

the ?? after the link implies its just a suggestion as opposed to a firm endorsement. i would have thought that would have been obvious.

 

[IllusionX]

exchange servers are very well handled from mail.app as long as your company server is setup properly.

and you can also simply "take account offline" when you don't want to receive emails from that specific mailbox.

 

[Stephanie]

Thanks everyone for all the suggestions. I'm going to try out a few of these and see how it goes.

I know about the 'enable account' option but knowing me, I'll consistently forget to turn them on in the morning or off in the evening hehe. I wonder if that could be controlled by an applescript or automator thing.

Cheers!

 

[broad]

Well if you can remember to open a different email client I would think it wouldn't be much of a stretch to remember to enable an account, no?

Ps I love the location in your profile. Befuddled is my favourite word to describe one of the posters in this thread

 

[CubaMark]

Not sure if this is of use to you, since it's iOS-only (iPhone / iPod Touch / iPad):

Get 1GB extra Dropbox space just for using Mailbox

You remember Mailbox, right? The free iOS app that was set to revolutionize the way we e-mail. With options to snooze and postpone e-mails from being visible in our Inbox, it was sure to be a hit! And it was; after a long list of users waiting to gain access to the service, Dropbox decided it needed to acquire Mailbox.

Fast-forward to today, and you'll find an iPad version of the app along with Dropbox integration (naturally) within the app. And with the Dropbox integration in mind, if you connect your Dropbox account to Mailbox, you'll automagically gain 1GB of free storage on your Dropbox account,

(CNet)

 

[pm-r]

Thanks everyone for all the suggestions. I'm going to try out a few of these and see how it goes.

I know about the 'enable account' option but knowing me, I'll consistently forget to turn them on in the morning or off in the evening hehe. I wonder if that could be controlled by an applescript or automator thing.

Cheers!

How about any of these:

Mail (Mountain Lion): Use scripts as rule actions

https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/13387/enable-|-disable-mail-accounts
"Enable | Disable Mail Accounts is an AppleScript-based solution..."

MacTech | The journal of Apple technology.
"AppleScript Essentials Introduction to Scripting Mail"

https://github.com/dustinrue/ControlPlane/issues/181
"Feature Request: Enable/Disable Accounts in Mail.app depending on the context"

Automatically disable unused accounts in Mail - Mac OS X Hints
self explanatory.