Mac Mail Smart Folder to organize HR applications?

Question

hi all.
i am looking at purchasing filemaker for our business and am wondering if this might not be more easily solved WITHIN Mac Mail.
one problem we have is with incoming resumes and portfolios via email. normally this is an EMAIL and a COVER LETTER (doc or pdf) and a PORTFOLIO (in pdf format). i am wondering if there is some step by step instructions or perhaps some help or ideas that we should look at on how we might organize this info in Mac Mail or if it makes more sense to try to do this in FileMaker or even something else like one of the Devon products.
right now we are printing these out and it is really inconvenient.
a couple items i am noticing is that the FILENAMES of the attachments do not always have the applicants name in it and the cover letter is not always a separate file but is sometimes in the /body/ of the email (we currently use Mac Mail and Sparrow). also, while in the past we have tried to organize pdf's on the HARD DRIVE after we have downloaded it, /most/ of the incoming emails do in fact have a HEADER in the email that associates the applicant with the JOB POSITION. this would help a great deal in the sense that if we could use this it would "pre-sort" the applicants and we could then SORT FURTHER by adding tags or information after the information was already in a database.
any help would be appreciated.
TIA

Answer 1

hi. thanks.
i have two problems with this.
the first is that the emails that came in do not have any particular identifying information in them and there are emails for at least a year but probably going back three years. i don't want to have to search through all my emails in order to find these. i want to organize them in my computer instead of having them organized in paper as they are now.
so if i could get into an attachments folder i could take them out and cross reference them against the paper versions once i grab them. this would be much easier than searching for them one by one i think. i mean, i should start a new thread for this question but i also have .doc files and likely other files and Mail Search does not seem so robust.
so. once thing i was wondering with the post was whether there was a way to sort these as they COME IN and moving forward have filters set up to catch them. this way if someone does not put the correct header on the mail (i.e. they are not paying attention) their email does not go into the folder but if they do their email does go into this folder and this way i have an /automated/ way of keeping up moving forward.
so #1 would be to figure out a way to get caught up (finding where Mail stores attachments if i can access them would be of help) and #2 would be to find a way to sort these automagically. i have posted to FileMaker to see if FileMaker can find these emails and portfolios as they come into Mail but the more i think about it the more helpful it would be to sort them when they come in as email attachments.
it is sort of a nightmare to find these and sort them even moving forward in "real time".
THANKS