Delete Mail Message Without Opening Next Email

When you delete an email in Apple Mail, the next email will automatically be revealed. While this can be convenient, sometimes I know that I don't want to read an email and don't want to mark it as read. Here are three solutions:

If this is a one time thing, use Option-Delete. However, be forewarned that this will permanently delete the message.

If you want to always manually open each mail message, close the preview pane by double-clicking on the divider. Then, to open a message, hit Cmd-O or Return.

Finally, if you accidentally mark a message as read, you can simply hit Cmd-Shift-U to mark it as unread. It will stay marked as unread until you open it or re-preview it.