Designed specifically for e-mail, Mail offers you the ability to manage all your e-mail from a single, easy-to-use inbox, even when you’re not connected to the Internet, and without being bombarded by advertisements. It’s compatible with most e-mail technologies, including IMAP and POP3, as well as most popular e-mail services, such as Yahoo! Mail, Gmail, and AOL Mail.
Snow Leopard operating system even makes it easy to access more than one e-mail account. You can simply add all your accounts to the Mail application, and you’ll be able to access everything from one central location.
Setting up an e-mail account
Mail walks you through the process of setting up an e-mail account step-by-step.
1. Open the Mail application, either from the Dock or from inside the Applications folder.
2. Type your full name, e-mail address, and password in the Welcome to Mail window, and press Create.
If you have a .Mac account, Mail checks your account, and then displays an account summary. Verify that your settings are correct, and press Create to finish setting up the account.
If you have a different type of account, the Incoming Mail Server window appears.
3. Choose the type of account you have (POP, IMAP, or Exchange) from the Account Type drop-down menu. If you’re not sure about what type of account you have, consult your ISP (Internet Service Provider).
4. Type a description for your account, such as My Home Account or Work E-mail.
5. Type your e-mail provider’s incoming mail server address in the Incoming Mail Server text field (for example, mail.domain_name.com).
6. Type your account name in the User Name text field. This is usually the text that appears before the @ sign in your e-mail address.
7. Type your password in the Password text field, then press Continue. 8. In the Incoming Mail Security window, follow the instructions from your ISP to select the proper security settings. Press Continue.
9. Type the outgoing server address for your account in the Outgoing Mail Server text field (for example, smtp.domain_name.com).
10. It might take a second or two before Mail verifies your information and displays an Account Summary. If you see an error message stating that Mail could not contact your e-mail server, press the Go Back button and verify that your information is correct before proceeding. Press Create to finish.
Adding an e-mail account
1. From the Mail menu, choose Preferences.
2. Select the Accounts tab to display information about your current accounts.
3. To create a new account, click the plus sign (+) button in the bottom-left corner of the window.
4. Repeat steps 2. to 10. from “Setting up an e-mail account” as required.
Viewing your mail
Mail displays your Mailboxes (Inbox, Drafts, and Sent by default) in a column on the left side of the window, and messages in the Message Viewer pane on the right. The Mail interface simplifies viewing your mail.
1. To display a list of all messages that have been sent to you, select the Inbox.
2. If you have more than one e-mail account set up, you can also click the triangle next to the Inbox to see (and access) all your accounts.
3. To view a specific message, either double-click an entry to view the message in its own window, or drag the small dot at the bottom center of the window upwards to reveal a message pane and select a message to view it in the pane.
It’s a simple process to add an additional e-mail account to Mail.
Junk mail
You should use the Junk Mail feature in Mail, especially if you’re receiving a lot of junk mail (also called spam). Mail filters junk mail by default, but you can also train the application if you want to change the way it deals with your unwanted e-mail.
1. When you first use Mail, the Junk Mail feature goes through a training cycle. If Mail thinks a received message is junk, its information appears in brown type in your Inbox. The message appears in brown type if Mail thinks it is Junk mail.
2. If a message is marked as junk but shouldn’t be, press the Not Junk button to train the Mail application.
3. If a message isn’t marked as junk but should be, press the Junk button to train the Mail application.
4. Choose Mail > Preferences, and click the Junk Mail tab to make changes to the Junk Mail filter. For example, you can make certain types of messages immune to junk mail filtering by selecting the item checkboxes below the line. The following types of messages are exempt from junk mail filtering.
5. If, after a few of weeks of training, you feel that Mail is adequately fl agging your junk mail, select the Move it to the Junk mailbox radio button in the Junk Mail preferences. This creates a Junk mailbox in the left column, and Mail then automatically moves junk mail to this mailbox. You should check your Junk mailbox periodically to make sure that you aren’t missing anything important.
6. If you want to disable junk mail filtering, deselect the Enable junk mail filtering check box in Junk Mail Preferences.