A few tips to get started with Gmail.
This will mainly be a Mac-oriented article providing directions on how to tweak Gmail to work well with Apple Mail (otherwise called Mail.app) – although these instructions can definitely be used on other operating systems and other e-mail clients as well.
First off: despite some apparent lack in functionality (such as support for return receipts), I stick to Mail.app for what I would call its transparency. It does what I need it to do and visually integrates (obviously) with Mac OS X. I don’t miss return receipts, mainly because I never used them anyway, being one of those people who consider them a bad e-mail practice. Not to mention that they work only a fraction of the time, since in most cases they rely on a voluntary action by the receiver.
More on return receipts and their limitations
Second: after Gmail introduced IMAP a few months ago, I signed up for Google Apps, which meant that I could move my personal and professional e-mail addresses to Gmail, enjoying the extra space and the fact that I wasn’t forced to run my own e-mail server like I used to. I was also able to switch to Gmail those of my clients who needed e-mail service, with the benefit of reduced costs and improved reliability.
More on IMAP and its advantages over POP
The only real issue with Gmail, as e-mail-client users very well know, is its off-standard treatment of IMAP. It makes absolute sense on the web interface, which works great, but less so on clients, which are not (yet, if ever) prepared to accommodate Gmail’s unusual features.
The most common complaint is that “Gmail keeps too much stuff.” Sure, its motto is that you’ll never need to delete messages again, but that’s clearly hyperbolic marketing. The web provides client users with plenty of instructions on how to make sure that Gmail actually deletes messages when you press the Delete key or on how to deal with other quirks. (Such articles are usually outdated, as the current version of Gmail works as expected “out of the box.”)
Most articles on Gmail-to-client practices will also recommend not to store drafts, sent mail, junk and trash on the server, since Gmail will tend to store more stuff than needed. This might have been true in the past, but not anymore. Plus, the advice to keep everything offline except your Inbox can work for someone who uses e-mail only on one computer. But what about those of us who need to check mail from more than one machine, and still prefer not to use the web interface on a daily basis? Having one computer on the desk and an iPhone in your pocket makes the outcome of this advice less than desirable.
Here is a bit more on why it’s OK to keep all your e-mail online, that is synchronized with Gmail’s IMAP server. Later I’ll discuss how not to be overwhelmed by it (and not to let it swallow up all your disk space).
Drafts
Gmail’s auto-save function constantly creates new copies of the draft you’re working on. When this function was still young, people saw their Drafts folder swell up with all these different versions of the same message. That’s how they started giving the advice of keeping the Drafts folder offline. This is not necessary anymore, as Gmail keeps the newest versions in the Drafts folder, and trashes all the old ones.
Junk
I have to say that Gmail’s junk filter is pretty good. The reason why I keep this folder synchronized with the server is that if I move a false negative there (that is, real junk that made its way into my Inbox), I want Gmail to know and learn from its mistakes. It usually works. This way all my machines will benefit from this action, and not just the one I was using when I flagged one message as spam.
Trash
Keeping the trash synchronized means that Gmail will actually flag messages as deleted, and remove them from both the Inbox and All Mail. It might have worked differently in the past, but not anymore. Keeping the trash offline, on the other hand, might have just the opposite, non-desirable result.
Sent mail
Now, sent mail is a different issue in Gmail. Technically, you don’t need to have it synched, because Gmail automatically saves a copy of anything you send through its SMTP server. My advice would still be to keep it synchronized (that is, to use Gmail’s Sent Mail as your client’s sent-mail folder), and to do so with no fear of duplicated messages: Gmail detects duplicates, so even if both Gmail and your e-mail client save a copy of a sent message in the same folder, it will not appear twice on your computer or on the web. I will explain later how not to let your local sent-mail folder bloat up, while still keeping your sent messages safe on the remote server.
The real issue: All Mail
OK, as much as one can like Gmail’s archiving functionality and its All Mail folder, having gigabytes of old, useless e-mail on your computer is sometimes a bit too much. The problem is that All Mail does exactly what its name says: it stores everything you’ve ever received or sent that you haven’t deleted – except what’s in the Trash or in the Junk.
Finally, though, Gmail itself is coming to the rescue. More details, borrowed wisdom and personal (yet not necessarily original) discoveries in the next installment.