Lion Mail: Drag to Select vs. Drag to Move I'm using Mail in Lion in three-pane full screen mode. Let's say I put my pointer over a message in the middle pane. I push the touchpad with my thumb to click and hold, and start to move the pointer with my index finger in the direction of the new folder where I want to file the message. Mail does one of two things:


Begin to highlight a range of messages, or
Begin to move the selected message to another folder.


I can never tell which one I'm going to get. I almost always want (2), but maddeningly often I get (1). What am I doing to cause the ambiguity? How do I clearly signal my intent to the UI?
Selecting happens when you start dragging in the empty part of a line and have a major vertical movement. You can prevent message moving from happening by immediately starting to drag across after clicking.

Moving happens when you start in the text part of a line. Moving is also easier invoked when your major movement is in the horizontal axis. If you click and hold on a spot for a moment and then start dragging message moving will be invoked.