Organizing multiple email accounts with multiple folders

Question

I'm a new mac user trying to figure out this whole new mac thing. I've used outlook and later on Mozilla Firefox for my emails.
I'm trying to figure out this mac mail app since I keep hearing use the mail and the phone book apps already in the system, they work great. They seem to, yes, but I'm having problems wrapping my head around how am I supposed to organize my emails in a coherent way in this apple mail app. Like every thing else mac it seems overly simplified, not necessarily a bad thing, but very frustrating.
Here's the folder structure I'm trying to recreate:
Email Acc 1
subfolder-Facebook
subf.-Ebay
subf.-GoogleAcc
subf.-yahoo group1
Email Acc 2
subf.-Facebook
subf.-yahoo group2
etc, etc, etc...
I have about 10 different email accounts I communicate through and each of them has their assigned Facebook account, incoming yahoo group messeges, etc..
I started setting up my accounts and then realized that all the inboxes were grouped together, then all the outboxes, I saw one shared junkmail, cringed and stopped. I tried playing around with the smart boxes, rules, etc, and I can't seem to be able to split up all the inboxes etc.
HELP!
subf.-yahoo group3

Answer 1

SizzlingChicken,
This whole mac thing is taking some getting used to There are certain aspects I'm really liking and others that seem so strange.
What, you wanted to stay in Kansas?? When it seems strange, lean towards a default "Am I over-thinking this?" I can't guarantee that this will be the case in all situations, but many of the "Switcher" issues I see fall into this category. I'll try to throw in a few "general purpose" bonuses at the end of this reply to help you on your way.
I noticed the Sent folder is also split up based on the accounts which will be nice for since I some times need to back track through sent messages from the different accounts.
Yep. This is one very good reason not to move messages out of their default locations. You'll always have "To" and "From" info to determine origins, thread, purpose, etc., but there's nothing like having them organized the way they come in. Especially with the number of accounts you're dealing with.
Maybe you could explain to me the advantage of using a smart mail box?
Have done, I think. If you have additional questions, let me know.
I might not even need to use the Entourage
EEEEEK!!!!
Of course Mail works seamlessly with iCal and Address Book. And with the Finder!!!! I'll give you an example of the power you're dealing with, here. Open Text Edit (yeah, I know it doesn't make sense. Just do it). Begin typing email addresses, any email addresses (make them up, if necessary), separated by commas. No spaces, just commas. When you have typed enough to entertain yourself, triple-click the text to select it all. Click and hold the selected text, then drag it out to your Desktop.
Normally, dragging selected text out to the Finder creates what we call a "text clipping," which is like a portable and semi-permanent clipboard. This clipping can be non-destructively dragged into any other application window to paste in its contents. I use them all the time for these discussions. In this case, however, the Finder uses the "Data Detectors" built into OS X to make the determination that these are email addresses, and that this is a list of them. The resultant file, dragged out to the Desktop, gets a ".mailoc" extension, meaning it is a "Mail Location." Quit Text Edit. Now, double-click the ".mailoc" file. Lift your jaw, and close your mouth.
On to the bonus goodies. Perhaps the best advice I can give to you is to learn and use your keyboard shortcuts. The same in Windows pale in comparison. First off, those in OS X actually make sense. Generally speaking, your keyboard modifiers operate in a logical way: "Command" for issuing commands, "Option" for various options, and "Control" to control something. For the most part, this latter translates to choosing items from a contextual menu. It is the same as a "right-click" in Windows.
For now, let's just consider one function of the "Command" key. We all know what "Delete" is for. It is intended to be used in applications to remove text or items, or to backspace (which amounts to the same thing). If we select a file and press Command-Delete, though, we issue the command to "move this file to the trash." Give it a try. But wait, that's not all! You can also elevate the command, just like we "elevate" text to upper-case, by also pressing the Shift key. Move an unwanted file to the trash, as described. Then, press Shift-Command-Delete. Cool!
Now, try the same paradigm with the keyboard shortcut for "quit" (Command-Q, of course).
Scott