Apple's latest desktop operating system won't officially be released until sometime this fall. But now that the public beta of OS X Yosemite is open, both developers and a large number of Mac owners are able to preview the new OS.

For those who've just started using the beta or are anticipating its launch, we've got some tips on how to best take advantage of the redesigned OS and its many new features.

In this edition, we take on the new features in the beta version of Apple's native email client, Mail.

Apple left the Mail interface largely alone, just tweaking its colors, textures, and fonts to match the rest of Yosemite. The application's mail window is composed of three columns, a Mailbox panel on the left, a list of emails in reverse chronological order in the center, and whatever email you have selected in the largest panel on the right. Navigational buttons are located at the top left of the Mail window, while a Search bar is on the upper right. This should all be familiar.

One of the first new features I wanted to check out in Yosemite's Mail app was Markup. As I anticipated, the ability to markup photos and documents right in the Mail environment was not only handy, it was kind of fun. For example, after attaching a photo, you click a dropdown arrow in the upper right of the image to bring up a menu bar of markup options. You can do things like draw right on the image, selecting color and stroke width, and you can add text, create shapes, and insert speech bubbles or arrows.

You can also use this feature to sign PDFs and documents within Mail, which means (hallelujah!) you don't need to wrangle a web or third party PDF editor just to scribble your digital signature onto a form. Just click that dropdown arrow and you can create a text box on the document, sign with your finger, or use your Mac's camera to take a photo of your signature on a piece of paper and insert that into the document. Yosemite is still a beta product, so I did experience some small bugs with Markup (an inability to change text color), but nothing I'd expect to make it into the final product.

Screenshot: WIRED

Mail Drop is another new feature in Yosemite. No longer do you have to worry about sending oversize attachments. Mail Drop will automatically upload large attachments to iCloud instead of Gmail, Yahoo, AOL or Exchange (or whatever your default mail account belongs to), and if your recipient also uses Mail in Yosemite, they'll download the attachment normally, and if not, they'll get a download link that's accessible for 30 days. These attachments don't count towards your iCloud storage limits, which is great. Smaller attachments are sent as normal.

The searching function in Mail, while not a new feature, is also incredibly useful. When you start typing something into the search box, it automatically starts populating a dropdown menu with suggestions (including autofills) of possible contacts, followed by emails that include those characters in their subject line. And as you type, the list of emails that populate the middle column of the interface immediately starts whittling down to possibilities that include those characters. Through a number of different types of searches, I was able to find my target email or contact far more quickly than I would in other email services like Gmail. I could see this saving me a lot of time.

Unlike OS X Mavericks, the Yosemite preview thus far seems to play just fine with my Gmail account. Sometimes it takes a second to load up the thousands of Gmail messages into the Inbox in Mail, but otherwise it acts reliably. Microsoft Exchange accounts also synced without a hitch.

For users that were frustrated with Mail in Mavericks, Yosemite may have the Mail you've been looking for. And for those that didn't use the client in the past, features like Markup and search may be enough to make you a convert. Full performance and third party compatibility issues are still yet to be seen, since Yosemite won't be finalized until later this fall, but from the preview, it's definitely a step up.