The Gmail Outlook Connection

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If you're reading this, you must want to make the Gmail Outlook connection.

As you probably know, Gmail is Google's free mail service. With Gmail you get over 6.3 GB of mail storage, Google-style message searching, and automatic grouping of messages by conversation. It's a quality, fully-functional service that's been running for a long time, even though it is still being described as a beta product).

Not only is a Gmail account free, you can connect Gmail and Outlook for free too, making Gmail a great way to get a personal Outlook email account if you don't already have one, and Outlook a great place to manage all your email. To add to the fun, in late 2007, Gmail added IMAP access to the already-available POP3 access.

Note: If you're not sure about all this POP3 and IMAP gibberish, Step 1 below will explain it all.

To make the Gmail Outlook connection, you need to do four things:

1. Decide whether you want POP3 or IMAP access. See Step 1 later in this lens for help in choosing.


2. Get a Gmail Account if you don't already have one. Step 2 has the info you need.


3. Configure Gmail. Step 3 shows you how.


4. Configure Outlook. Step 4 gives you all the information you need.

That's all it takes. Outlook and Gmail should now be talking together like old friends.

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In this step, you will choose whether to use POP3 or IMAP when connecting Gmail and Outlook.

here's a really quick review of what POP3 and IMAP do from our perspective as Outlook users.

POP3 lets you send and receive Gmail messages from Outlook. Messages you send this way appear to come from your Gmail account. When you use POP3, Outlook copies messages from your Gmail account into your Outlook Inbox, and you can tell it to leave a copy of the message in Gmail or delete it after Outlook reads it. That's all.

Changes you make to a message in Outlook don't automatically appear in the copy of the message in Gmail. POP3 doesn't support this kind of synchronization between mail programs.

Here's another advantage for POP3 that one of my site visitors pointed out recently: since you are bringing the Gmail messages into Outlook you can use flags and categories with these messages in Outlook. Because IMAP doesn't support these, if they are important to you, POP3 may be the best way for you to go.

IMAP also lets you send and receive Gmail messages with Outlook. But with IMAP, instead of simply copying messages from Gmail into the Outlook Inbox, Outlook creates a set of folders that duplicates those in your Gmail account.

Outlook and Gmail continually synchronize the messages and folders. If you create a folder in Gmail, it appears in Outlook. If you delete a message in Outlook, it gets deleted in Gmail. What you end up with is Outlook with Gmail folders and messages (or at least a copy of them) within Outlook's folders.

Any changes are synchronized between Gmail and Outlook when Outlook has an active connection to the Internet.

Now you know more about POP3 and IMAP, but the big question remains: How do you choose between POP3 and IMAP?

That depends on how you use Outlook and Gmail. With POP3, Gmail messages end up in your Outlook Inbox like any other messages. You get treat your Gmail messages the same as all your other messages.

For mobile users or people who need access to their Gmail account from multiple computers, IMAP has big advantages. Because your Gmail messages and folders are synchronized with Outlook (instead of copied over), you can work with your messages either using Outlook, or directly in your Gmail account using any web browser.

And if you have multiple computers using Outlook, you can connect them all to the Gmail account using IMAP. This is an easy way to keep your mail (at least your Gmail) synchronized between all your computers.

So What's the Verdict?
You need to make the final decision of course, but here are my suggestions:

• If you just want another email address to use with Outlook, or if flags and categories are crucial to the way you manage your email, go POP3.


• If you need access to your mail while you are on the road, or just need to work with it from more than one computer, and don't mind the minor additional hassles, go IMAP.

To get a Gmail account, you go to the Gmail home page (http://mail.google.com) and sign up. But you do want to think about one thing before you sign up. On the signup page, you have the option to let Google keep a Search History. The Search History records the web pages you've searched for using Google, and gives you access to that history from any computer with an Internet connection.

Some privacy experts have warned that Search History will be a target for hackers. That's because hackers can sell information about where you go online to unscrupulous marketers. Those privacy experts suggest that you clear the Enable Search History checkbox when you create an account.

I don't know that this is a major issue, but it is something to think about before you sign up.

Now you need to configure Gmail for POP3 or IMAP access. For the nitty-gritty details of doing this, we'll open a new browser window and jump out to my Living With Outlook website, which always has the most up to date information. Once you are done with a step there, just close the browser window to return here.

Click here to configure Gmail POP3 access.

Click here to configure Gmail IMAP access.

That's all you need to do to set up the Gmail side of things. In the last step, we'll set up the Outlook side of things.

The last step is to configure the Outlook side of the connection. Like in Step 3, we'll get the details of doing this from my Living With Outlook website. Remember, once you are done with the steps on the page over there, just close the browser window to return here.

Click here to configure Outlook for Gmail POP3 access.

Click here to Configure Outlook for IMAP access to Gmail.

That's all you need to do to set up the mail side of the connection. But surely you want to get your Gmail contacts over to Outlook too. That's covered in this Import Gmail Contacts lens.

This free report gives you the top 10 Outlook mail tips based on input from my readers and students. Get things done faster & easier. Maybe you can even go home early tonight!

Print the report & keep it by your computer for easy reference.

Click to download your free copy of Top 10 Outlook Mail Tips

Cool. so you've got your Gmail messages going into Outlook. But what about your Gmail contacts? You want them too? No worries 'cause I've created a lens for doing exactly that.

When you're ready to copy over your contacts, simply visit this Import Gmail Contacts to Outlook lens.