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Using Multiple Reply Addresses In Mail

TMO Quick Tip - Using Multiple Reply Addresses In Mail

by , 7:30 AM EDT, September 25th, 2006

If you have a single email account that has multiple email addresses feeding into it - maybe an aliased email address or email that forwards from other addresses to your primary email account - you can configure Mail so that the one email account you check appears as if it is each of the aliased or forwarded accounts that feed into it.

For example, let's say your email account is zaphod@heardofgold.com, and ford@betelgeuse.com forwards to that address. Any email sent to ford@betelgeuse.com appears in your zaphod@heartofgold.com mailbox, but you want the replies you send for Ford's email to actually show Ford's address instead of Zaphod's. Although it's easy to do, Apple didn't make it easy to find out how to add the extra addresses in Mail. Here's how:

  • Launch Mail. It's usually in your Dock, but it is also hiding in your Applications folder.
  • Choose Mail > Preferences.
  • Click the Accounts button.

  • Select the account that you want to add extra reply-to addresses to.
  • Select the email account you want to add the extra reply-to address to. In this case, I'll choose Zaphod.
  • Click the Account Information tab.
  • Add the extra reply-to email addresses to the Email Address field. Separate each one with a comma.

  • Don't forget the comma between each email address.
  • Close the Preferences window. Be sure to click the Save button when asked.

Any time someone sends an email to the forwarded address, Mail will automatically set the correct reply-to address for you. If you are creating a new email and want it to appear as if it came from the forwarded account, just choose the appropriate reply-to address from the Account pop-up menu. The Account pop-up menu sits just below the Subject field in the New Message window.


Each email address appears in the Account pop-up menu...

...just choose the one you want.

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Observer Comments

Show: Subjects Only | Full Comments
Close Name:Will C Posts: 239 Joined: 12 Oct 2003
Subject: Hey!

That was useful - thanks I did not know that.

Close Name:Guest
Subject: Thanks, awesome tip!

Jeff, thanks! I have my own domain name with one email account that I check and multiple forwarding addresses, so this tip was extremely useful.

Close Name:renaudsavignard Posts: 1 Joined: 25 Sep 2006
Subject: Multiple Reply Addresses In Mail

Thanks for this great tip !

I hoped this could be the solution to my issue -unfortunatly it's not !-, which is the following : most of my messages are forwarded to my .mac account by my company's server, with my professional mail adress, let's say "renaud.savignard@company.com".
I can't set it as a mail.app account, as I can't log to this Domino server.
But I would like to reply from my mac with "renaud.savignard@company.com" as the sender's adress.
Any idea ?

Close Name:madgunde Posts: 66 Joined: 02 Dec 2004
Subject: Re: Multiple Reply Addresses In Mail

Quote
renaudsavignard wrote:
But I would like to reply from my mac with "renaud.savignard@company.com" as the sender's adress.
Any idea ?

This hint will allow you to do that. Just choose 'renaud.savignard@company.com' from the drop down menu when composing your email. It's not automatic, but it works.

Close Name:Patricio Posts: 14 Joined: 24 Jun 2001
Subject: Exactly what I needed

Thanks for this tip! I have an email forwarding address that doesn't have its own server. I had configured it as a separate account in Mail so I could send from it, except that every time Mail was launched, it would spent a minute or two trying to access a server that wasn't there (and thus wouldn't quit completely until it had done so). This has solved that problem!

Close Name:Rainy Day Posts: 607 Joined: 07 Jun 2005
Subject: Another way to skin that cat

Quote
Patricio wrote:
I have an email forwarding address that doesn't have its own server. I had configured it as a separate account in Mail so I could send from it, except that every time Mail was launched, it would spent a minute or two trying to access a server that wasn't there (and thus wouldn't quit completely until it had done so).


Another solution is to tell Mail.app not to check for mail on the bogus server. I think that’s under the “Advanced” tab.

Close Name:Guest
Subject: This procedure and .Mac

Has anyone got this (or a similar workaround) to work with a .Mac account. When I try and edit the "Email Address:" field, Mail fills it in with my .mac address only, and ignores what I entered.

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