Junk mail, it's a pain. Unless you really do need "R a I U x e" at a great price? "Are you currently wasting over 3% for your dwelling?" No? Perhaps you do want to help some Zimbabwe businessman with a great investment? I'll leave out those things that really should only be delivered in brown packaging. If you know what that is, then you don't need to ask me. If you need to ask, you're too young and you don't want me to blush.

Here's some steps to get rid of a lot of it from your POP account. My example is based on using Apple's Mail.app. You could also apply it to other email applications which there are many. I'll add links to the more popular ones at the end.

This may all seem a little technical, but stick with it.

Part 1: Junk mail filtering.

Your mail application has a good junk mail box so you may as well use it. You probably already are, but just to make sure

Open 'Mail'

From the Mail menu, select Preferences. Then select the Junk Mail icon. You will be presented with a number of preference options. Check the following options are selected:

Enable junk mail filtering is ticked.
Move it to the junk mailbox (Automatic).
Sender of message is in my Address book.
Trust Junk mail headers set by my internet service provider.





Close the preference panel. That'll give you basic junk mail filtering.

Remember when junk comes in, don't delete it. You need to teach your Mail to recognise what you think is junk mail.

Select the junk mail in question, then click on the 'Junk' mail icon, or from the menu select : Message>Mark>As Junk Mail

The mail will then be moved to the Junk Mail folder. You'll also want to check the Junk mail folder from time to time to make sure no legitimate email has ended up in there. If it does, just select it and press the 'Not Junk' button, you can then drag and drop it into your inbox.

Another simple tip for getting rid of email is seeing if it's true junk mail. That email from some catalogue might be genuine email. Sometimes mail you receive are from places you have signed up to, or their associates. You will often know which these are, they also tend to have an 'unsubscribe' option at the bottom of the mail. If you no longer want that mail It's a quick and easy way to cut down unwanted mail. It also makes junk mail filtering simpler.

Okay, you've done all that and you're still getting junk mail?

Here's my tip: Get a GMail email account by Google!



It has a very good junk mail filter, and practically unlimited storage space it's also available wherever you are in the world. Online its interface is innovative, making managing your email a lot more easy. You can also access your GMail using Mail.app.

I know, you don't want to change email address yet again? Well, as long as you've a decent ISP (internet service provider) you won't have to. It's all about email forwarding.

Put simply. Set your standard POP email account to forward all it's mail to your GMail account, and then add that GMail account to 'Mail'. That way you're getting all the benefits of GMail's Junk Mail filter and Mail.app.

Simple right? Well, here's how:

Part 2: eMail forwarding

First you need to check that you can forward email.

Most ISPs email comes with a web based option. All of these are different so I'm unable to give you specific instructions. In general you go to your ISPs homepage and look for a 'webmail' or 'your account' link. Log into your account and look for an option that allows you to forward your email to another email account. Something like this:



Yours will look different and sadly some may not even give you the option (AOL users see note at bottom). If it doesn't you can skip the rest, or decide to switch to GMail completely. I'd recommend you do.

You can forward email? Great! You now need a GMail Account.

Part 3: Getting your GMail account

Now, Google doesn't just give out Gmail accounts to anyone, it's all a bit exclusive at the moment and you'll need to be referred by someone who has a GMail account. You're in luck, I have one and I'll send you an invite (if you need another, just ask). Once you receive the email invite, follow the instructions to setup your GMail account.

Once you have your GMail account setup and open in a browser window, click on Settings in the top right:



Then from the settings that appear select the Forwarding and POP Tab. Select enable POP for all mail and click Save Changes.




Now you have a GMail account you'll want to add it to your Mail.app. I find it a lot more simple to use than checking my mail using a browser unless I really need to.

Part 4: Using GMail in Mail

Go back to Mail, and again select Preferences from the Mail menu. Click the Accounts Icon.

You'll notice in the bottom left of the window + & - buttons. Click on the + button. You will be presented with a drop down window to create a new account.

Change the account type to 'POP' Fill in the three fields with the relevant information.



Description: Anything you like, though something like 'My Gmail' might be helpful.
Name: I think you know the answer to that one
Email Address: Your GMail address. It'll either be in a format of 'name'@gmail.com or 'name'@googlemail.com. (where 'name' is the one you chose in GMail)

Press Continue:

Fill in the Outgoing Mail Server settings:

Outgoing Mail Server: smtp.gmail.com
Tick: Use Authentication
Username: The name you chose for your GMail without the '@googlemail.com' part.
Password: Your chosen password



Continue.

If asked:
Incoming Mail Security. Tick Use Secure Sockets Layer and from the menu select Password then press Continue, then 'Done'.




Your account should then be created.




Select server settings and change the Server Port to '587' and press okay.



Then, click on the Mailbox Behavior Tab. Choose how you want your account to handle email. I like mine to be set up like the image below, but you may prefer some other settings.



You will now need to disable the email account that is forwarding to your GMail account.

Select your CURRENT email account from the left hand part of the accounts settings window (not your new GMail account) Then select the Advanced Tab. Untick the enable this account option & include when checking email. This way you won't end up with duplicate emails in your Inbox.





Close Mail's preference window. You can now pick up your GMail in Mail! Click 'Get Mail' and you should get a welcome to GMail message in your Inbox.

Part 5: Forward your mail

Return to your web based email account from Part 2. Where you found the option to forward your email, set your new GMail account as the forwarding address.

Now when email is sent to your standard email account it will automatically be forwarded to your GMail account and checked for junk mail. You can then pick it up like normal in Mail where It's also checked for junk again

So you now have double junk mail filtering, and hopefully a lot less spam!


Mail Alternatives:

If you don't want to add your GMail account to Mail, you might want to use the GMail Notifier. It notifies you when you get an email.

There are many other mail applications, each claim improved junk mail handling and have pros and cons. I prefer sticking to Apple's Mail.app but you may find one of these more to your liking. You will still be able to use the GMail technique above.

Have Microsoft Office 2004? You could try using Entourage, some swear by it. If you do use Entourage, install Entourage 2004 Junk E-Mail Filter Update 1

Some other eMail applications:

GyazMail

Eudora (Eudora has changed since this post. It has moved to open source.)

MailSmith

Thunderbird

You could also try ridding yourself of Spam with SpamSieve

AOL:

You're using AOL and their mail? Why? Okay, I'm sure you have your reasons. It's doubtful AOL will allow you to forward your mail. They're a pain like that. There are some third party products that do allow you to but it may not be worth it. I'd recommend you make the switch from AOL mail to GMail. It's a much more flexible mail system and you won't feel 'locked' into it as with AOL. If you really don't want to you can still use AOL mail with Apple's Mail application getting the benefits of its mail filter.

Follow the instructions above for Part 4 making the following changes.

Account Type: IMAP
Email Address: name@aol.com
Incoming Server: imap.aol.com or imap.uk.aol.com
Outgoing Server: smtp.aol.com or smtp.uk.aol.com
Uncheck: Use Secure Sockets Layer

IMAP means the email you access using Mail is still available on the server, so you can access it from a browser at another location. More info on AOL IMAP here

You can also use Mail.app for your AIM mail account. See here for more details.

Seems spelling is important then? Well, as you liked that one, here's another little spelling tip. You know how to spell the word now, but you don't know what it means and you're in a hurry? Getting your there their they're muddled up? Is that accept or except? Ok, that's just me, I'm sure you want to know the meaning of more challenging words like tautology.

There's a quick way to find out (again, this is probably a Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger feature).

Hold your cursor (mouse) over the word in question and hold down:

Command-Control-D (Command is also know as the Apple key)

Up will pop a little explanation of the word in question like this:



Very handy (scribbles down meaning) ahem, yes.

Find that combination of keys a pain? It's simple to change them to something you prefer. I went for Command-Option-S at first, but then made it F1. Those F keys may as well serve some use. (Remember some, mainly high end applications use the F keys.)


Here's how:

Open System Preferences then select Keyboard & Mouse




Select the Keyboard Shortcuts tab. Scroll down and highlight

Dictionary>Look up in Dictionary



Then, 'click' on it's short cut. At the moment it should be Command-Control-D.

It should then be highlighted once you've clicked (if not, try double clicking).

You can then select the key combination you prefer from the keyboard, which will overwrite Command-Control-D. In my case I pressed on the F1 key. You can choose any combination of keys, whatever suits you best.

Examples: Command-option-'letter', cntrl-option-'letter', option-shift-'letter'. There are many to choose from. Or as I did, use a function key (don't use F9-F12)

Avoid using standard ones! Check down the list in keyboard shortcuts.

You don't want to use Command-'letter' like Command-S, or you may find you're trying to look up a word and it's saving, quiting, opening, doing a little jig. Stick with using a combination of keys, so it's less likely to clash with any standard ones. If you feel you've messed up, just click on Restore Defaults and start over.

Note: If you're going to use an F key on an iBook or PowerBook, you have to hold down the fn (Function) key then F1 etc or you'll just be adjusting your brightness or turning up the volume. You can reverse this if you prefer in the 'Keyboard and Mouse' preference panel by selecting the 'keyboard' tab and checking the box:



So you'd now hold down the F key to change brightness/volume.

You're done!

Quit System Preferences. You will now be able to use your new keyboard shortcut instead. Go give it a try. You should be able to use this function everywhere, not just on words you type. Try clicking on words in web pages for example.

Next time, I'm going to help you reduce your Spam.

btw, I've gone back to using command+option+s.

Welcome to Stu's News. My all new way of keeping my family etc. up-to-date with all that's new, but everyone is welcome. I'll mainly be sticking to Mac news and tips that I think you might find useful.

To get us started, here's a great little tip when you really can't remember how to spell a word. (You'll need to be running Mac OS 10.4 Tiger)

So you've typed a word like 'subservence' and it's got that red dotted line underneath. You're thinking 'bother'. Well, before you go to all the trouble of launching the dictionary, OmniDictionary or even that thing with real pages in you keep in the cupboard. This is what you want to do:

Place your cursor over the word in question, right click or hold down the control 'ctrl' key and 'click' on it.

Up will pop a handy little contextual menu with guesses at the word you meant to spell. (more of less depending on the word) In this case it gets the word straight away.



Just select the one you want from the list and there you have it, or 'subservience' in my case.

This works in most applications with few exceptions.

There, I'll see what else I can think of....