Just when we thought that Gmail was stagnating, the big G rolled out upgrades that delighted power users: IMAP access, and a speedier, developer-friendly interface. As makers of the Better Gmail Firefox extension, we were psyched to get a personal heads-up from Gmail’s Product Manager, Keith Coleman, alerting us to the revamp so we could update the extension. In addition to wrangling third-party developers to update their code, Coleman took time out of his busy day to answer some of our burning questions about the recent changes at Gmail. After the jump, hear what he has to say about IMAP, LDAP, Greasemonkey, the iPhone, and other third party Gmail clients, apps, and development.
Accessing Gmail via IMAP with Outlook cramping your email style? If you find yourself waiting too long for your Outlook inbox changes to sync back to the mothership, a few settings can speed up the process. By setting Outlook to download message headers only, retrieve new messages less frequently, and work offline, your Gmail in Outlook experience can be smoother and faster. What Gmail/IMAP/Outlook techniques are working for you? Let us know in the comments.
Microsoft Outlook Running Slow with Gmail IMAP ? Speed It Up [Digital Inspiration]You already know how to turn Thunderbird into the ultimate Gmail/IMAP client, but lots of folks are using Microsoft Outlook on a daily basis (whether by personal or company choice.) The How-To Geek runs down how to set up Gmail in Outlook 2007 using IMAP and what actions in Outlook do what in Gmail (flag in Outlook = star in Gmail, for example.) Outlook’s Large Mail search folder is a great way to clean out your Gmail account, too.
Use Gmail IMAP in Microsoft Outlook 2007 [the How-To Geek]Gmail’s IMAP support roll-out this week had nerds all atwitter about the possibility of synchronised email access across devices, computers, and clients. IMAP is far superior to regular old POP for fetching your messages and maintaining your folder list whether you’re on your iPhone, office or home computer. If IMAP’s got you curious but you’re not sure what desktop application to use with Gmail, consider the extensible, fast, cross-platform and free Mozilla Thunderbird, our beloved Firefox’s little sibling. Here’s how to get the full Gmail experience in Thunderbird with IMAP.
Yesterday the big news for Gmail users was that Google is rolling out IMAP support for its email program. We told you what Gmail IMAP means for you (and your iPhone) and today there are even more tips for optimising your new improved Gmail.
While Google brought in folder support as part of its GMail IMAP implementation, the Google Operating System blog had a tip for a better visual representation of nested folders in Gmail by using the Folders4Gmail Greasemonkey extension:
“Many people want folders or hierarchical labels in Gmail, but this is as close as you can get. Those who really want support for folders will feel more comfortable using an email client instead of Gmail’s web interface: you can easily create new folders and use drag&drop to move messages to a folder, even if the folder is actually a label in Gmail’s internal representation.”
I’m still waiting for IMAP to be rolled out to my Gmail account. If you’ve gotten it, let us know how you’re finding it in comments.
If you’ve set up Gmail IMAP using Google’s instructions, you may have noticed a couple of snags—namely that your Sent Mail, Drafts, and Deleted Mail aren’t necessarily matching up as you’d expect between your email client and Gmail. To remedy this, you’ll have to tweak a few advanced configuration settings in your client, and weblog 5ThirtyOne has the details. On the iPhone, for example:Open ‘Settings’ > ‘Mail’ > [Your Gmail IMAP account]> ‘Advanced’ Select ‘Drafts Mailbox’ > ‘On the Server’ > ‘[Gmail]Drafts’. Return to the ‘Advanced’ view. Select ‘Sent Mailbox’ > ‘On the Server’ > ‘[Gmail]Sent Mail’. Return to the ‘Advanced’ view. Select ‘Deleted Mailbox’ > ‘On the Server’ > ‘[Gmail]Trash’. Return to the ‘Advanced’ view.
If you prefer your deleted email client messages to archive in Gmail rather than go to the trash (which seems like a more Gmail-like solution), there’s one change.
Rather than mapping your Trash folder to Gmail’s Trash, you’ll want to select the “All Mail” mailbox—effectively removing the email from your inbox but not deleting it from your Gmail account altogether.
Also, in order to apply multiple labels to a message from your email client, you’ll need to copy the message to every folder corresponding to the Gmail label you want. The post details the improved methods for setting up Gmail IMAP on both Mail.app and the iPhone, but these same basic steps should work with any desktop email client of your choosing. That said, Google still hasn’t enabled our IMAP access, so if you give this a try, let us know how it works for you in the comments.
How-to: Proper Gmail IMAP for iPhone & Apple Mail [5ThirtyOne]As reported late last night, some Gmail users are seeing IMAP support appear in the settings area of their account. This morning Google confirmed: IMAP just launched, and if you’re not seeing it yet (like we’re not, boo-hoo!) you will soon, as they are “rolling it out to everyone in the next few days.” What does IMAP mean and what’s the implication for you iPhone users? Image by News Blog.
