1st time Mail.app user : need help and advice

[FrenchPB]

Guys, I got my new iMac and I'm thinking about using Mail.app for the first time, especially to have spotlight look into my emails and email attachments when doing searchs.

Right now, I'm using a gmail account (over 6000 total emails, 1GB). All my emails are located in my inbox, I haven't been using tags or custom folders. I'd like all my emails (inbox and sent folders) to be imported into Mail.

I also want to use rules/filters into Mail, and create several folders to organize everything. One thing that is important to me is that when I will send an email from Mail.app, I want it to be in my gmail sent folders, and vice versa.

- should I use POP or IMAP ?
- what is the best strategy to achieve what I want to do with my emails ?
- what is the best way to import mails from gmail and keep both clients organized ?
- will the filters created under Mail work on gmail ?
- if I create the rules/filters after having imported all the emails, can I apply the changes on my inbox ?

Thanks for your help and advices.

 

[tibi08]

I use IMAP and it's great with Gmail, giving you an exact replica of the web version and letting you use either interface to update everything. However, Mail.app's IMAP implementation isn't perfect and with that many emails, the first setup could be fairly time consuming. When I first synch'ed my Mail.app crashed several times.

If you never use the web interface then Pop3 might be faster, easier to setup and more flexible as to how you sort things once you receive them.

Sadly I don't know much about filters and folders. My understanding is that labels in Gmail equate to folders on Mail.app - I've never used this in practice.

When you create a new rule you can always apply it to your mailbox. Mail will ask "Do you want to apply your rules to messages in selected mailboxes?".