Not as far as I know. I used to rely on a bug in Mail that read flagged messages as unread in Smart Mailboxes, but that was fixed a couple updates ago.

Ironman,

I spent quite a while looking for a way to do this too, and it doesn't seem to be possible.

What I did instead was use Mail Act-On :D to send the message to a specific folder (in this case "Reply To") and mark it as unread. That way I always know if there is something in the "Reply To" folder -- the unread count would appear next to it. In truth the messages were read, but marked as unread for the purpose of viewing the count.

It's not ideal, but the only way I've been able to get a message count.

Sounds like time to send a suggestion/request to Apple, before it's too late for Leopard.

DONE!

I went to Apple's webpage and went to the feedback form and sent them a message. Hopefully, with all the new features they are pouring into Mail they will include the message count feature we speak of.

Evan, good idea with Mail Act-On.

I'm currently using Mail Act-On as well.

I could have it mark items as unread as I sort them into my action folders, the only downside would be my Smart Folder for unread items would be off a bit.

But, I guess you could have the 'Unread Mail' Smart Folder exclude messages from the action folders so I won't see those. Yeah, that sounds like the ticket for now....

I found this website which explains how to give any folder a message count next to it (of all items - read or unread) http://pianomansam.wordpress.com/.

The general idea is that you change the mailbox type in the plist file so that, in this instance, the smart folder thinks it is something else. I have changed my smart folders to type 4, so that they think they are draft mailboxes.

One effect is that the mailbox icon changes, but pianomansam explains how to fix this as well.

I have also found that sometimes the counts do not update unless I click on the mailbox, but I am looking at how to fix that.

HTH.

Ironman, hope you’re still tracking this thread. I posted about how I was using MailTags, Dockstar, and Mail Act-On to implement a tickler file system. Sounds like it might be just what you’re after.