The iPad Pocket Guide: Communicate Using Mail
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Email is a prime candidate for liberation from the desktop. A lot of what I do occurs via email, whether I'm corresponding with friends and relatives or tossing around ideas for upcoming projects. But there's no reason all of that has to happen in front of a computer. Even using a laptop can be a bother when all you want to do is check to see if someone replied to one of your messages.
Using the Mail app on the iPad, you can quickly read and reply to messages and dash off notes you may have otherwise ignored because of the hassle of doing it on the computer. Mail also handles incoming file attachments, making it a gateway for sending and receiving files wirelessly.
Set Up Mail
Most likely, you already have email accounts set up on the computer you use to sync with the iPad. You can also set up an account on the iPad itself—for example, you may want to use a MobileMe account on the iPad for personal mail that isn't synced to a work computer.
Sync mail accounts from a computer
Mail accounts you've set up in Mail on the Mac, or Outlook 2007, Outlook 2003, or Outlook Express under Windows appear in iTunes.
- With the iPad connected to your computer, select its name in the sidebar and then click the Info tab (Figure 4.1).
Figure 4.1 Mail accounts listed in iTunes
- Click the checkbox for Sync selected Mail accounts, and then enable accounts you wish to access on the iPad.
- Click the Sync button. The accounts' settings are added to the iPad's Mail app. Syncing transfers only the account settings, not any of the messages on your computer.
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Set up an account on the iPad
If a mail account you want to use isn't set up on the computer you sync to, it's easy to add it directly on the iPad. Mail can automatically configure accounts from MobileMe, Gmail, Yahoo Mail, and AOL, as well as Microsoft Exchange accounts, provided you have your account name and password.
- Go to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars.
- Under the Accounts heading, tap the Add Account button.
Tap a service name that matches your account.
If you get your email from a different provider, tap the Other button, and then tap the Add Mail Account button.
- Enter a name for the account, the email address, and the password (Figure 4.2). The Description field automatically uses the address, but you can edit it separately if you prefer.
Figure 4.2 Enter account information.
Tap the Save button. After the system verifies the information, the account appears in the Accounts list and you're done. You can ignore the rest of the following steps. If, however, you're setting up a MobileMe account, tap the Next button.
If you're setting up an Other account, enter the account type (IMAP or POP) and the incoming and outgoing mail server information that your provider gave you when you signed up.
- For MobileMe accounts, you can also set up over-the-air syncing of contacts, calendars, and bookmarks. Make any of those services available by tapping their On buttons. (See Chapter 9 for more on syncing personal information.)
- Tap the Save button to finish setting up the account.
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