How to Customize the Apple Mail Toolbar

You can customize the Apple Mail toolbar to prioritize the tools and features you use most. Remove buttons you don't need or never use, and add those you do.

For example, you can customize the toolbar to mark unread emails, hide related messages, or print an email thread. There are dozens of tools and features that can be added, customized, and rearranged.

How to Customize the Apple Mail Toolbar

Follow these instruction to modify the macOS Mail toolbar to your liking:

1. Select View in the Mail menu bar and choose Customize Toolbar in the drop-down menu.

   

2. In the Customize Toolbar window that opens, select an item or an entire set of items and move it to the Mail toolbar by clicking and dragging it to the toolbar until you see a green plus sign, then let go.

   

   Remove items by dragging them from the toolbar to the Customize Toolbar window. You can also rearrange the order of items by clicking and dragging them around in the toolbar.

   Use the Space and Flexible Space items to group items in an order that makes sense to you.

3. At the bottom of the window, next to Show, select how you want the items to display in the toolbar.

   Options are:

   • Icon and Text
   • Icon Only
   • Text Only

   

4. When you're finished, select Done to save your changes and close the window.

   

How to Customize the Mail New Message Toolbar

Mail has a separate—but similar—toolbar for the new message screen.

1. Click New Message in the Mail application to open a new message screen.

   

2. With the new message screen open, select View in the Mail menu bar and Customize Toolbar in the drop-down menu.

   

3. The options in the window that opens are are similar to the options for the application, and you apply them the same way. Click and drag at item to the toolbar at the top of the new mesage screen and drop it in place. If necessary, the URL field shortens to accommodate your choices.

   

4. Select Done to save the changes.