I've been using pop for the last few years to check my email accounts simultaneously on my home Mac, my work PC and now my iPhone.
You might say that I'm the perfect candidate for IMAP use, since I'm managing my email accounts from multiple locations. And I admit, it would be great to have all of my Sent emails synced between all three locations.
However, I'm nervous to make the switch for one very important reason. When I'm at home or on my iPhone, a work email may pop up that requires my attention when I'm back in the office. I can mark it read at home and/or on my iPhone knowing that when I come into work the next day it will still show up as a new email, reminding me that I still need to address the sender's request. Or if I'm out at a restaurant for instance, I can send an email reminder to myself from my iPhone, mark it read on my iPhone's inbox, but still have it show up as unread when I get home so that I remember to follow through on it.
Am I the only one who relies on pop email for this very reason? Or, am I missing a better way to manage IMAP email that will solve this?
I suppose there are three simple solutions while using IMAP, but none of them seem quite as good:
1. I could flag all incoming emails so that I know to follow through on them later. If I get an email at home that requires my attention at work the next day, I simply flag it, and then manage my flagged emails when I get into the office. BUT, I can't seem to find a way to flag emails on my iPhone. So if I read an email on my iPhone that requires my attention at work the next day, I have no way to indicate that without marking the message as unread. Which leads me to simple solution #2 that I also don't like:
2. I could simply mark emails as unread that require my future attention. The problem with this is that I'm completely anal about getting rid of the little red button that indicates I have unread mail. Especially on my iPhone. If that button is telling me that I have 5 unread emails, I'd like that to mean that I really have 5 unread emails. I'd rather not keep a running mental tally of how many unread emails are actually old so that I can tell if I really do have any unread emails. This may sound nitpicky, but when I'm walking down the street I just want to be able to glance at my iPhone and know how many truly new emails I have. And the only way to do this is to mark all of the emails that I've read as read.
3. When Leopard comes out it will include a To Do feature that appears to sync with IMAP. In theory, the iPhone will be updated with this feature as well, and I could simply mark sections of an email as a To Do item for all items that require my future attention. Problem solved, right? The only trouble is that my work computer is a PC running Thunderbird. Unless anyone knows to the contrary, it doesn't seem likely that the new Mac Mail To Do feature will also sync with PCs.
Anyhow, you may be wondering why I'm even considering using IMAP if I'm so dependent on pop email to manage my tasks. Well, the answer is twofold. First, I like the idea of having all of my Sent emails synced between my home Mac, iPhone and work PC. And two, I'm guessing that there is solution out there that someone else has figured out for managing task related emails through IMAP. If so, I'd love to hear how other people are managing their IMAP email accounts.
Many thanks!
You might say that I'm the perfect candidate for IMAP use, since I'm managing my email accounts from multiple locations. And I admit, it would be great to have all of my Sent emails synced between all three locations.
However, I'm nervous to make the switch for one very important reason. When I'm at home or on my iPhone, a work email may pop up that requires my attention when I'm back in the office. I can mark it read at home and/or on my iPhone knowing that when I come into work the next day it will still show up as a new email, reminding me that I still need to address the sender's request. Or if I'm out at a restaurant for instance, I can send an email reminder to myself from my iPhone, mark it read on my iPhone's inbox, but still have it show up as unread when I get home so that I remember to follow through on it.
Am I the only one who relies on pop email for this very reason? Or, am I missing a better way to manage IMAP email that will solve this?
I suppose there are three simple solutions while using IMAP, but none of them seem quite as good:
1. I could flag all incoming emails so that I know to follow through on them later. If I get an email at home that requires my attention at work the next day, I simply flag it, and then manage my flagged emails when I get into the office. BUT, I can't seem to find a way to flag emails on my iPhone. So if I read an email on my iPhone that requires my attention at work the next day, I have no way to indicate that without marking the message as unread. Which leads me to simple solution #2 that I also don't like:
2. I could simply mark emails as unread that require my future attention. The problem with this is that I'm completely anal about getting rid of the little red button that indicates I have unread mail. Especially on my iPhone. If that button is telling me that I have 5 unread emails, I'd like that to mean that I really have 5 unread emails. I'd rather not keep a running mental tally of how many unread emails are actually old so that I can tell if I really do have any unread emails. This may sound nitpicky, but when I'm walking down the street I just want to be able to glance at my iPhone and know how many truly new emails I have. And the only way to do this is to mark all of the emails that I've read as read.
3. When Leopard comes out it will include a To Do feature that appears to sync with IMAP. In theory, the iPhone will be updated with this feature as well, and I could simply mark sections of an email as a To Do item for all items that require my future attention. Problem solved, right? The only trouble is that my work computer is a PC running Thunderbird. Unless anyone knows to the contrary, it doesn't seem likely that the new Mac Mail To Do feature will also sync with PCs.
Anyhow, you may be wondering why I'm even considering using IMAP if I'm so dependent on pop email to manage my tasks. Well, the answer is twofold. First, I like the idea of having all of my Sent emails synced between my home Mac, iPhone and work PC. And two, I'm guessing that there is solution out there that someone else has figured out for managing task related emails through IMAP. If so, I'd love to hear how other people are managing their IMAP email accounts.
Many thanks!