Tip #3514 - New Gmail Feature
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Q:
Has anything new been going on with Gmail lately? I'm just trying to stay
on top of things.
A:
Well, I have good news for you and everyone else who uses Gmail. There
actually is something very new and exciting going on over at Google right
now, in accordance to the Gmail e-mail program. Another new Gmail feature
has recently been released and let me tell you, Google is really geared
up for this one. Let's check it out!
First of all, I'm
going to take a guess and say that most of you who use Gmail also use
at least one other e-mail client along with it. Now, don't get me wrong,
there's nothing wrong with that. We here at WorldStart actually recommend
it. It's good to familiarize yourself with more than one e-mail program.
That way, if anything goes wrong with one of them, you'll have another
to fall back on.
So, tell me, has there
ever been a time you wished you could sort of join all your e-mail accounts
together? Well, wish no more, because that is now possible thanks to Gmail.
Gmail will actually check for the e-mails you receive in your other accounts.
You can have it do this for up to five other e-mail accounts and this
includes both new and old messages. From now on, you'll be able to read
all the e-mail you ever get all in one place. How cool is that?!
Now, before you go
hog wild and sign up, you need to make sure that your other e-mail clients
do support the POP e-mail access. Unfortunately, not all free e-mail services
do that these days, so you'll need to check on that first. You should
have no problem with most of the more common ones, like Yahoo!, Hotmail,
etc., but I just wanted to warn you about it before you went any further.
Okay, to get started
with this awesome new feature, log in to your Gmail account and click
on the Settings link. Click on Accounts
and then under the "Get mail from other accounts"
section, go ahead and click on the "Add another mail account"
option. You'll then need to type in the e-mail address you use for the
other account. Once you're done with that, click on Next Step.
Next, enter in the password you use for the other account.
Next, you'll have
to make some decisions. First, you can choose to "Leave a
copy of retrieved messages on the server." If you're only
going to be using your Gmail account to access all of your e-mail, you
can leave this one unchecked. On the other hand, if you're going to want
to access your e-mail through the other clients, you'll probably want
to select this option. Next, you can choose to "Always use
a secure connection (SSL) when retrieving mail." This is
definitely one you'll want to checkmark. The next option is "Label
incoming messages." If you want to label all of the e-mails
you get from your non-Gmail account, you'll want to select this option.
This is helpful in keeping track of where your e-mails come from, if that
matters to you. The last option is "Archive incoming messages."
If you, for any reason, want to archive some of your e-mail messages from
your other accounts, you'll want to choose this one too.
Once you're done with
all of that, click on the Add Account button. Gmail will
then go through its little process and it will tell you when your other
account has been successfully added. Once it does, you will have the option
of setting that other account as a From address. This
allows you to compose an e-mail through your Gmail account, but to the
recipient, it will look like it's coming from your other account. This
is helpful if your recipients don't really know about your Gmail account.
With the other address there, they will know right away who the e-mail
is from. If you'd like to do this, click on Yes and it
will be set up for you.
That's it! You can
then go back and add other e-mail accounts if you'd like as well. Remember,
you can use up to five different accounts. Once everything is set up,
Gmail will then check your other accounts on a regular basis. You will
see all of your new e-mails in your Gmail account. How convenient is that?!
Now, if for some reason
you don't like the way things are going, you can always back an account
out through the Accounts link on the Settings
page. All you have to do is click Delete next to an account
and it will be taken care of. It's all as easy as pie. Google surely does
think of everything, don't they?!
~ Erin
P.S. - If you don't
yet see this option in your Gmail account, be patient. Google is working
on making this new feature accessible for everyone, but it's going to
take a little time. It's only available for a limited amount of users
right now, but keep an eye out for it. It's coming your way soon!
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