How to set up webmail, POP and IMAP email on the iPad

 WHEN DEMOING THE iPAD TO AN EAGER AUDIENCE

for the very first time, Steve Jobs made a big deal of the built-in Mail app-and with good reason. The iPad's Mail client not only looks great but is extremely usable, too. If you've got yourself a brand-new domain and email account to be used primarily with your iPad, you'll find it easy enough to set up Mail for the purpose.

And ifyou've already configured mail accounts on your Mac (in OS X Mail) or PC (via Outlook), the settings on these can be kept automatically synchronised with your iPad using the 'Info' tab when your device is selected in iTunes. All you need to do is check 'Sync Mail Accounts', select the accounts you'd like to keep in step with, and click 'Sync',

Of course, not everyone stores email on theirown computer these days. With webmail services such as Google Mail, your email lives online and can be read anywhere, though ifyou want to, you can read it using a regular email client rather than a web browser.

This walkthrough begins by showing you how to do that by adding a Gmail account to iPad's Mail settings - a simple enough process as Mail is aware of Gmail accounts.

We then look at how to configure an additional email account on your iPad (in this case, using POP/IMAP) and how to take advantage of other Mail set-up options.






KIT LIST:

■ iPad

■ Internet connection

■ One or more email accounts (Gmait and/or POP/1 MAP)

Time required: 10 mins
Difficulty: Beginner

 Multiple accounts

You can add as many email accounts as you like to your iPad. They're managed in the Settings app.

Viewing mail

Although Apple's default settings are sensible, you can amend how many recent messages are shown, the message preview size and many other options.

Default account

If you've multiple email accounts, you must define a default account to send from. This is done via the 'Default Account' menu.

 1 Choose the account type if you've not used [Tunes to sync an email account with Mail, you'll see this screen and will need to select an account type. We'll start with Google Mail,

 2 Add details in the pop-up, type your Gmail account name, address and password, and give it a suitable description of your choosing. Tap 'Save' to continue. Remember to enable POP in Gmail, too.

 3 View your Gmail messages Mail will verify your account and your email will begin to download, if it doesn't, check that you typed your user name and password correctly.

 4 Add another POP or IMAP account Open the Settings app, choose 'Mail, Contacts, Calendars', tap 'Add Account...' and choose 'Other'. Tap 'Add Mail Account', add details, and tap 'Save'.

 5 Add server details In the next screen, define the account name, type (IMAP or POP) and server details. Once verified, it's added to the 'Accounts' list. To edit an account later on, tap it.

 6 Set how often to download mail Tap 'Fetch New Data' to set how often Mail brings down new email. For maximum battery life (and minimum distraction), leave this set to 'Manually'.

 Sign off

 Irritatingly, Mail for iPad retains one of the IPhone version's most irksome features: there's only one signature. This can be changed via the 'Signature' menu in the 'Mail, Contacts, Calendars' section of the Settings app. The default text is the rather smug 'Sent from my iPad' - you're probably better off tapping 'Clear' and leaving the signature blank!

 7 Set message number By default, Mail shows the most recent SO messages in each account before you have to load more manually. This number can be increased via the 'Show' menu.

8 Change preview size in Mail's inboxes you can optionally see a preview below the subject of each message, Apple sets this to two lines, but in the 'Preview' settings you can raise this to five.