Using Gmail with Other Email Programs and Accounts

Here's another neat thing about Gmail. Google lets you send your Gmail messages to any POP email program, or forward your messages to another email account. Both of these options let you read your Gmail messages in Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express, as you like.

Reading Gmail in Another Email Program

You don't have to access Gmail from your web browser. Google lets you retrieve your Gmail messages through any POP email program, such as Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express, Eudora, or Mozilla Thunderbird.

Tip

Because programs like Outlook allow you to put email into folders, this is one way around the lack of support for foldering in Gmail. However, keep in mind that any messages moved from your Gmail account into a folder in a separate email client won't be accessible if you access Gmail via the Web.

To do this, you have to enable POP email for your Gmail account. Follow these steps:

1.	From the Gmail inbox, click the Settings link at the top of the page.
2.	When the Settings page appears, select the Forwarding and POP tab, shown in Figure 21.27. Figure 21.27. Setting up POP downloading and Gmail forwarding. [View full size image]
3.	In the bottom half of this page, check the Enable POP for All Email option.
4.	Pull down the When Messages Are Accessed with POP list and select either Keep Gmail's Copy in the Inbox (so that all messages are still accessable from Gmail over the Web), Archive Gmail's Copy (so that all messages are also sent to Gmail's All Mail list), or Delete Gmail's copy (so that messages do not appear on the Gmail website).
5.	Click the Save Changes button
6.	Open your POP email program and create a new account for your Gmail messages. When prompted, enter pop.gmail.com as the incoming mail server, and smtp.gmail.com as the outgoing (or SMTP) mail server.

From now on, you should be able to retrieve your Gmail messages from your existing POP email program.

Forwarding Gmail to Another Account

You can also forward your Gmail messages to another of your email accounts. This is different from reading your messages in another program, in that copies of your messages are sent to your other email address. You then retrieve these copies of your Gmail messages whenever you check the mail in your other account.

To set up Gmail forwarding, follow these steps:

1.	From the Gmail inbox, click the Settings link at the top of the page.
2.	When the Settings page appears, select the Forwarding and POP tab.
3.	In the top half of this page, check the Forward a Copy of Incoming Mail To option.
4.	Enter the address of your other email account into the email address box.
5.	From the pull-down list, select how you want to handle the original Gmail messagesKeep Gmail's Copy in the Inbox, Archive Gmail's Copy, or Delete Gmail's copy.
6.	Click the Save Changes button.

Either of these options, by the way, are great for when you're on vacation. You can forward your Gmail to whichever account you read when you're away from homeor simply use your other email program to read your Gmail messages at your leisure.