eScapeWiki | Documentation / E Mail Apple Mail

Setting Up Apple Mail

Apple Mail is the e-mail client that comes bundled with Apple Mac OS X. While there are other e-mail clients available for OS X, we strongly recommend that you use the bundled client. Apple provides free technical support for all of OS X for the first year after your Macintosh is purchased and their website is full of useful documentation and troubleshooting information.

These instructions will work best with Mac OS X 10.4, also known as Tiger. If you have another version of OS X, these instruction will be close to what you see but may not exactly match what appears on your display.

You may want to print these instructions out so that you can refer to them while you setup your new account. It is important to complete all of the steps spelled out below to get the most from your new e-mail.

Open Apple Mail and choose the "Preferences" option from under the "Mail" menu.

The Preferences window will open. Select the "Accounts" button from the button-bar at the top of the window (it's the second from the left).

We will be adding a new account to your Apple Mail...

Click on the plus sign ("+") in the lower left-hand corner of the Preferences window (which is now titled "Accounts"). Mail will now walk you through the steps of setting up the new account.

Adding a New Account

The General Information form will appear. Select "IMAP" from the "Accout Type" pull-down menu.
Next, type in a descriptive name for your new account in the "Account Description" field. This could be something like "Work" or "My E-Mail" but make sure you don't already have an account with that description.
Type your full name into the next field and your new e-mail account into the last. Press "Continue" to move to the next step.

The Incoming Mail Server form will appear. Type "secure.escapecs.com" into the "Incoming Mail Server" field.
Your user name on the mail server is usually set to match your e-mail account. Type your user name (including the @ sign and the domain name) into the User Name field.
Lastly, type your password into the Password field. Press "Continue" to move to the next step.

The Outgoing Mail Server form will appear. Type "secure.escapecs.com" in the "Outgoing Mail Server" field.
Click the checkbox that reads "User Authentication" and then type your full username and password in the fields provided.

Mail will summarize the settings for your e-mail account. SSL should be set to "on" for both the incoming and outgoing mail servers, Mail figures this out on its own. Your summary form should look similar to the picture below. Press "Continue" to finish setting up the account.

Mail will setup your account and inform you that everything is working. If you have any problems at this step, review the instructions above and make sure everything looks correct. If you continue to have problems, send an e-mail to Miles describing in detail the error message that you are seeing.

Make Sure You Can Always Send Mail

You will be returned to the "Accounts" window. Select your new account from the list on the left-hand side by clicking on it once, the details of this account will now be displayed on the right-hand side. Click the "Server Settings" button at the bottom of the window, underneath the "Outgoing Mail Server (SMTP)" heading. Details about your outgoing mail server will appear.

Mail will be connecting to the outgoing mail server with SSL, but will be using the traditional SMTP port of 25. This port is often blocked by ISP's. Change this to "465" and then press the "OK" button to save the change.

Organizing E-Mail into Folders

Close the "Accounts" window. You will now be looking at the main Mail window. On the left hand side of this window is a list of mailboxes and the various folders that are in each mailbox. Select your new e-mail account from the list on the left, if there is a disclosure triangle to the left of this account, click on it to display the folders in your e-mail account.

Organizing one's e-mail is a challenging task. Your e-mail account will require constant care and pruning. An important tool for managing your e-mail is organizing it into folders. To create a new folder, click the plus-sign ("+") in the lower left-hand corner of the main Mail window.

The "New Mailbox" window will appear. In Apple Mail, a sub-folder of your mailbox is also referred to as a "mailbox." The "Location" pull-down menu will already be set to your new e-mail account. If your new e-mail account lacks a folder named "Trash," go ahead and create one now. If not, name your new folder something that will be useful, like "Client Messages" or "Important". Press the "OK" button to create the new folder.

Select the folder under your new e-mail account named "Trash." Click on the "Mailbox" menu and then slide down to "Use this Mailbox For" and then over to the "Trash" option.

You have now instructed Mail to store all of your trash in this folder. The folder will now disappear and will be listed under the Trash icon. All of the trash folders for all of your e-mail accounts appear under this one item. When you delete a message, Mail will now place it here.

Repeat this process for the other types of folders (Dafts, Sent, and Junk), creating the folders if you need them.

Make Sure You Always Receive Mail

When all of these folders have been created and Mail has been told how to use them, once again select "Preferences" from under the "Mail" menu. Press the "Accounts" button to bring up your account information and select your new e-mail account from the list on the left-hand side. Select the "Mailbox Behaviors" tab.

This tab displays information about where Mail is storing your e-mail and how it deals with some particular types of messages. All of these types of messages (Drafts, Sent, Junk, and Trash) should be stored on the server. You can now tell Mail how long to retain your Sent, Junk, and Trash messages.

We strongly encourage you let Mail delete old messages from these folders. The very nature of these messages is to accrue over time and, if neglected, they will rapidly use up all of your available e-mail space.

Set these options to your liking, and then close the Accounts window. Once again, you will be looking at the main Mail window.

Avoid Exceeding Your Message Quota

Select your new e-mail account and then control-click on its label and choose "Get Info" from the context menu. You can also select your account by clicking on it once and then pressing command-I to bring this window up.

Quota information for your e-mail account will be displayed in the "Account Info" window. It lists your various folder and the amount of disk space each one is taking up on the server. The bar at the top indicates how much of your disk space allotment is being used. If the amount used reaches 100%, you will no longer be able to receive new e-mail messages. People who send you e-mail will receive a cryptic reply and you will not receive their message. The e-mail server will let you know when you get close to that limit, but you should try to keep your usage below 90% at all times.

That's it, your new account is now set up! You have now completed a fairly arduous configuration task and have greatly enhanced your knowledge of the Macintosh. Treat yourself to the sugary beverage of your choice, I recommend Coca-Cola. Bravo!