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How Do I Save Emails Onto the Desktop?

I am using Sierra 10.12.6, and the latest versions of Apple Software. How can I quickly save emails in a Word-processor format like Pages to a folder on my desktop? I want to decrease the # in MAIL, and don’t want to leave them in MAIL format. I have 2,235 messages in my inbox, for example, including photos of myself . Delmar H. Knudson
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Delmar H. Knudson

Comments: 3 Responses to “How Do I Save Emails Onto the Desktop?”

    7 years ago

    It depends on what sort of format you really want. The easiest way to do this is to simply drag-and-drop. If you drag and drop a message from Mail to the Desktop (or, better yet, to a folder in a Finder window) you get a .eml file. That is essentially a text file and you can open it in almost anything. Try it and then open the .eml file in TextEdit, for instance. But if the email contains HTML, which many now do, then reading it in text format won't be easy.

    However, you can simply open the .eml file in Mail, and it shows it correctly. Any good email client should do the same. So saving in .eml format isn't a bad idea.

    On the other hand, you could export the email as a PDF. File, Export as PDF will do that. Or, File, Print and then save as a PDF. Then you get a nice-looking PDF file. But it would be missing some of the email headers -- not sure if you care about that. Selecting multiple emails and then exporting should give you each as a file. Printing should give you all of the files in your select as a single long PDF.

    But you also mention photos. Is it the message you want to save, or the photo attached? There is a File, Save Attachments menu option that will allow you to export the attachments. So you may want to do that instead.

    Shirley
    7 years ago

    That's easy. Just go to the File Menu and select "Save As." You can retitle the document if you need to and save it to your Document file in folder for the subject. The saved email will retain the date, sender and any active links.

    Shirley Allan
    7 years ago

    Should have said you can save it to your desktop but that is not where you store saved documents. If the email contains a photo, drag the photo to the Photos Icon in you dock.

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