Gmail Workflow (part one)
I’ve recently made a shift to a different email workflow. In the past, I’ve used Apple Mail as my main email program. It easily allowed me to manage my various email accounts whenever I had my notebook with me. However, with the addition of my new netbook, I find myself switching up computers and operating systems. I needed an email method that was a little more universal.
The email accounts I currently use (Adaptive Path, Gmail, Me.com) all have web interfaces. But I did not want to have to go to each website to check mail constantly. And, frankly, Adaptive Path’s webmail client is so slow that it’s just not worth it.
My best bet was to find a webmail client that would support all my mail accounts, work quick enough in Firefox and allow me to respond from those accounts. The first app that came to mind was Gmail. It’s fast, searching is excellent and its filtering capabilities are top notch.
This decision started me on a month-long experiment with Gmail’s various settings, features and pitfalls. The result ended with a single Gmail account pulling in all my email accounts, sorting and distributing messages to my desktop clients, iPhone and multiple computers. All of this is seamless to me and the people to whom I send email.
The Workflow
This is essentially what happens:
1. People send me email to my various email accounts. (my work, my own domain, .Me and other Gmail accounts)
2. Gmail pulls this email out of the other servers and populates my Gmail account. (It also leaves a copy on the server in case things go horribly wrong.)
3. Gmail is configured to “send as” any one of these email accounts.
Note: You could stop right here. If you don’t run desktop email applications, then you can simply use Gmail as an omnipotent online email client.
4. I’ve configured Gmail to respond with my various email addresses. This way, when I send an email through Gmail, recipients will see it coming from the correct address and not a Gmail account. For example, I can send an email from andrew@adaptivepath.com using my username@gmail account and it will appear on the other end from andrew@adaptivepath.com
5. I’ve also set up Apple’s Mail app to pull (via IMAP) from this Gmail account. Mail is similarly configured to send/return messages using the proper email addresses.
6. My iPhone is configured to behave the same way – email comes and goes properly either through the default Mail app or through Gmail’s online iPhone site.
Let’s take a look at the steps needed to make this happen.
Adding other accounts to Gmail
I’m assuming you have a Gmail account and that you’re familiar with the basics. So the next thing to do is go through the steps for adding additional email accounts.
Launch Gmail and click on the Settings button. Click “Accounts” and scroll to the section labeled “Get mail from other accounts”. Follow the onscreen instructions to add your other email account using Gmail Mail Fetcher.
For more on this, read Gmail’s help page. Note that this only works if your email provider supports POP access. Many do, but accounts like Yahoo! and Mail.com do not.
If you are having trouble with some email addresses, there is a trick. A few email providers will not like it when you enter certain email addresses into Gmail. Try changing the email address by adding a 1 to the name (it can be anything). For example, andrew@adaptivepath.com becomes andrew1@adaptivepath.com. This has no effect on your email access as you’ll be setting up your account information next. But, this somehow makes Gmail play nice with your existing email host.
Another setting that you should enable is “ This will enable you to access your mail from your desktop client if you decide to back out of this. Nothing will be affected, email will still be there.
Do this with as many email accounts as you have. Gmail gives you plenty of storage space so feel free to fill it up.
One caveat that’s worth mentioning. Presently, you cannot control the rate at which Gmail polls the 3rd party servers for mail retrieval. On many desktop applications, you can tell the client to look for new mail at preset times (1 min, 5 min, etc.). Gmail does this at an undisclosed rate. In my experience, it’s been pretty quick with my Adaptive Path account – maybe a 1 minute delay. When retrieving other Gmail accounts, it varies quite a bit.
There are plenty of articles written about this process. I’ve not explained all the variations of settings that are possible with Gmail’s Mail Fetcher. Google it or read these for more information:
How to Import All Your Archive Email Into Gmail
Consolidate Multiple Email Addresses with Gmail
That’s it for adding accounts into Gmail. Next, I’ll talk about how to “send as” any of your email addresses, not just the @gmail.com address.
Photo courtesy of quadmod. Licensed under Creative Commons.
I use a similar system. Is this still working for you?
In my case, I have multiple clients, projects, and sub-categories of each.
Do you work with anything that complex? If so,what has worked well for you?