Working with Your .Mac Email Account

One of the cool things about using a .Mac account is that you get an email account with the distinctive "@mac.com" domain. You can use that account with the Mail application very easily. You can also access your .Mac email via the Web. And, you can add more email addresses to your .Mac account.

Using Your .Mac Email Account with Mail

To use your .Mac email account with Mail, you need to configure that account in the Mail application. This is simple because support for .Mac email accounts is built in to Mail and adding a .Mac email account requires only that you enter your .Mac member name and password.

To learn how to configure email accounts in Mail, p. 418.

NOTE

If you created or configured an existing .Mac account when you installed Mac OS X, your .Mac email account was configured in the Mail application for you automatically.

After you have set up your .Mac email account in Mail, you use it just like other email accounts you have.

To learn how to use Mail, p. 399.

NOTE

At press time, your .Mac email account includes 50MB of email storage space.

Accessing Your .Mac Email Account from the Web

You can access your .Mac email from any computer that has web access, which makes it convenient to use your .Mac email account even if you aren't at your own Mac. To access your .Mac email via the Web, perform the following steps:

1.	Use a web browser to move to www.apple.com.
2.	Click the .Mac tab.
3.	Click the Mail tab.
4.	Enter your member name and password and then click Enter. You will move into your .Mac email account (see Figure 17.2). Figure 17.2. Using the .Mac website is a great way to access your .Mac email from any computer that can connect to the Web.
5.	Use the tools to work with and manage your email.

Using the .Mac website to access your email is similar to using an email application. You can read your email, send email, organize it, and so on.

Adding Email Accounts to Your .Mac Account

One .Mac email account might not be enough for you. For example, you might want to provide a .Mac email account for each user of your Mac. The good news is that you can add email accounts to a .Mac account for a nominal fee (at press time, additional email-only accounts were only $10/year). To do so, perform the following steps:

1.	Open the Account tab of the .Mac pane of the System Preferences application.
2.	Click the Account Info button. You'll move to the .Mac website.
3.	Log in using your member name and password. You'll move to the Account Settings page.
4.	Click the Manage Accounts button. You'll move to the email account status page, which will display your current email accounts.
5.	Click the Buy More button. You'll move to the Buy More page.
6.	Choose the number of email accounts you want to purchase on the "additional email-only account(s)" pop-up menu and click Continue.
7.	Follow the onscreen instructions to create the additional accounts.

After you have purchased the additional email accounts, you can configure those accounts in email applications or use the .Mac website to access them.