Priority levels in Apple Mail

If you came to the Apple Mail application from Microsoft Outlook, you may be wondering how to attach a high priority setting to your emails. If you use priority settings often or just wish more convenience, here’s how to customize Apple Mail for quick access to priority levels.

It’s too bad Apple didn’t include the priority levels as an option in the Customize Toolbar settings in Mail. Until that happens, you have to go to Message → Mark and choose from Low, Normal or High Priority each time you create a new email. That’s fine if you don’t attach priority settings frequently but no worries, we can customize Mail to speed this up.

Click the New icon button as if you are creating a new email message. Note the small Action pop-up menu located to the left of the Subject field. It’s the one with three horizontal lines and the standard downward-pointing arrow.

Click on this to display the pop-up menu choices and select the menu item labeled Customize…. Now you should see the priority level pop-up menu on the right. It’s the one with the exclamation point. Select the checkbox next to it to force the priority level button to appear on all future emails. Now seting priority levels is only a click away.