[yankel]

Hi, I have a new iMac. I have a newbie question, so please excuse my stupidity.
My home page is set to my igoogle and gmail account. I find no dificulty in using my gmail. Is there any reason for me to be using the mail program that comes on the Mac that is located in row of icons on the botton of my monitor? Is it better or easier in any way?
Thanks in advance for your help.

[NobleMatt]

id say so, i use OS X mail for hotmail and g-mail, makes accessing mail a lot easier. i havent used browser access for hotmail in a long long time, i'd give it a go for sure, u can always go back to not using it.

here is googles guide to setting up OS X Mail:
http://mail.google.com/support/bin/a...y?answer=81379

and welcome to the forums

[yankel]

Thanks Crazy.
What is the advantage of using the OS X mail program over what I am using now?

[NobleMatt]

just ease of access and attachment management, it auto updates so al long as mail is running it will notify you of any new e-mail in the dock, saves you going onto google and logging in like that, i cant really compare to google mail as i only signed up for it last night but much easier to access my hotmail using Mail than safari.

plus if you have more then one e-mail account you can do it all through one app. all i can say is have a go and see which you prefer, all comes down to personal preference

[idykenano]

Mail is pretty easy and quick to use. As has been said before, Mail will automatically check and notify you of new email. I'm almost always on my computer doing school work, but I don't always want to switch to mail when I get something new so I have appetizer installed. Appetizer previews the new mail in a little bubble over my current one.
Mail Appetizer
Another cool thing I also appreciate is that whenever I want to send an email with an attachment I can find the attachment in Finder and drag it over the Mail icon on the dock and presto! a brand new email with the attachment.
With Mail it is super easy to use the integrated address book, which means whenever you get a new email account all of your addresses stay in one place.
Welcome!

[tinkered]

If you are like me and still like to be able mail from the web front when not near my personal computer I would set up the account to leavel mail on the server for 30 day or even more. I leave mail on the server for 90 days.

[JKT]

If it is a GMail account, then use IMAP and you won't have to change any settings to leave things anywhere (however, the downside is that GMail's IMAP implementation is terribly confusing to set up with Mail).

[Spheric Harlot]

Integration with other applications is much better.
Also, it makes it much easier to use different formatting.

Note to admins:


Need bigger text.

kthxbye.

[turtle777]

Not enaf lolspeek.


kthxbai.


-t

[Ted L. Nancy]

Lack of web browser like feeling in your email.

[jamester]

Originally Posted by JKT 

...(however, the downside is that GMail's IMAP implementation is terribly confusing to set up with Mail).

Could anybody elaborate on this? Would the default Google instructions suffice, or are there different settings I should be using for setting up Mac Mail in 10.5.6 to use IMAP Gmail?

Any particular tips? Does it handle the "All Mail" folder eloquently?

Thanks

[jrafter]

Gmail is fast and stable for me with IMAP on Mail.app.

I deal with the All Mail folder by unsubscribing to it. On Gmail's webmail page, go to:

Settings > Labs > Advanced IMAP Controls > Enable
Settings > Labels > All Mail > Show in IMAP > uncheck

I also uncheck the Spam folder.

By the way, Gmail now has offline capability (also enabled under Labs) that works similarly to IMAP, and syncs seemlessly on my Mac.

Hope this helps!

[jamester]

It did help. I ended up just using Gmail's new instructions for Leopard's Mail 3, but then I went crazy and renewed my MobileMe account. Gmail is once again relegated to the web, where I feel it fits extremely well, and my new MobileMe is my main Mail.app account. (I know I can download 'em both to Mail, but I prefer to keep Gmail on the web, I think, after trying it for a bit.)

[all2ofme]

I've been an avid Mail.app user for the last while but have just about had it with strange issues of mail not appearing correctly or appearing without certain details (Sender, Recipient etc.). It doesn't misbehave often, but when it does it drives me nuts.

The only reason I'm even considering ditching it, though, is that Gmail is so nice to use on the web. I've got a GMail Apps account and it works bootifully. If I had a Hotmail account (or any other type that either forced me to use POP or with a nasty interface) I'd not even have thought about leaving Mail.app behind.

Downsides to moving completely to Gmail:
- ease of attaching files (not a massive deal, it's not that much harder)
- Address Book integration (I don't like Gmail's auto-add Address Book - I've honed my Address Book to be a fine beast, thanks very much, and don't want every recipient added to it
- Integration with other desktop apps (Aperture etc - exporting photos directly to an email is really nice)
- Being able to remove attachments from an email but not delete the email itself. Getting 6MB photos I want to keep is fine, but AFAIK were I to be using Gmail by itself I'd have to delete the email along with the photos if I wanted to save space.

That's it, I think - hope that helps.