Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Master Mail Concepts
As I said in the
Introduction
,
this topic isn't about basics, as such. However, as I've correspon-
ded with many Mail users over the years, I've discovered that there are certain concepts that
Apple hasn't made self-explanatory, and that therefore tend to trip people up. In order to un-
derstand and act on much of the rest of this topic, you need to grasp a few concepts that are,
perhaps, unnecessarily confusing. In this chapter I walk you through the ones I consider most
important.
Most of the items in this chapter pertain only to the Mavericks version of Mail, but if you're an
iOS user, be sure to read
Special Mailboxes
, much of which is also applicable to iOS.
Account Setup
Setting up new accounts in Mail has gotten easier in recent versions, especially if you're using
one of the major email providers Mail already knows about (iCloud, Exchange, Google/Gmail,
Yahoo, and AOL)—almost the entire procedure is automated. However, there are still a few
gotchas, especially if you're using a different provider.
Pick a Preference Pane
For starters, there are two places where you can add, edit, or remove accounts: in Mail >
Preferences > Accounts and in System Preferences > Internet Accounts.
Why two places, and when should you use which?
• The reason for the Internet Accounts pane of System Preferences is twofold. First,
many account types (including iCloud, Exchange, and Gmail) include more fea-
tures than just email, and affect more apps than just Mail, so Internet Accounts
provides a central location where you can enable or disable individual data types
like Mail, Calendars, Contacts, and Notes for each account. Second, some account
types (like Twitter and Facebook) are used by OS X but not by specific, built-in
apps, and so it makes sense to provide one central location to set up all these ac-
counts.
• The reason for the Accounts pane of Mail preferences is, of course, to make
it more convenient to add an email account when you're already working in
Mail—and because in older versions of OS X, this was the
only
place to set up
email accounts, so Apple is simply keeping the method many users are accus-
tomed to.
