48. Use .Mac Webmail  BEFORE YOU BEGIN 45 Sign Up for .Mac
 SEE ALSO 54 Configure a New Mail Account
Every .Mac account comes with a free email address: < membername >@mac.com , where <membername> is your .Mac member name . This means you have a .Mac mail account that you can access either using your desktop Mail application in Mac OS X, or the Webmail service provided by .Mac. 48. Use .Mac Webmail 
.Mac email accounts use IMAP, the Internet Message Access Protocol . IMAP allows you to store your messages on a central mail server, organize them into server-side folders, and access them using any mail program from any computer. The chief rival to IMAP, the Post Office Protocol (POP) , operates by downloading new mail to your desktop computer. POP means faster access to your messages (because they're stored on your own computer rather than over the network), but you can use POP with only one computer, the one to which you download all your messages.  KEY TERMS Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) An email delivery method that allows you to read messages that are stored and managed on the server. Post Office Protocol (POP) An email delivery method in which your email application downloads all your messages to store on the local computer.
Webmail is a way for you to access your email using a web browser. After logging in to the .Mac website, you simply go to the Mail section to view your Inbox ; click any message to display it as a web page. You can write messages, organize your mail into folders, and do just about everything in Webmail that you can on your desktopwith the bonus that you can access your mail from any computer in the world instead of just your own. The only downside is that it's a bit slower and has a less sophisticated interface than a dedicated email program. The tradeoff , for many people, is more than fair. | 1. | Log In to the .Mac Web Page
Using your web browser, go to http://www.mac.com and log in using your .Mac account information if you aren't already logged in.
| | 2. | Go to the Mail Section
Click the Mail icon in the menu on the left side of the screen. You are immediately taken to a view of your mail account's Inbox , the folder to which all new mail automatically comes.
| | 3. | Get Mail Click the Get Mail button at the top left of the screen to refresh the message listing and display any newly arrived messages. New messages, by default, are shown at the top of the list. TIP As you can with many other applications, you can sort the messages in your Inbox by clicking the column headers. Click a column header a second time to reverse its sorting direction (indicated by the triangular arrow in the header). | | 4. | Read a Message
Click any listed message to read it. If the message has an attachment, a paperclip icon appears next to it in the message listing; when you view the message, all attachments are shown as links at the top of the message. Clicking on the links downloads the attachments as files to your computer.
| | 5. | Reply to a Message When viewing a message, click the Reply icon in the toolbar at the top of the screen. If the message was sent to you and several other recipients, you can send your reply to all the original recipients by clicking Reply All . The original message appears "quoted"indented in front of a column of > charactersin a large text-input field; you can add your reply text either above or below the quoted text, and delete any of the quoted material. Quoting is good Internet etiquette; it reminds your correspondent of what she was talking about and makes communication much easier. TIP You can turn off quoting in the Webmail Preferences , accessible by clicking Preferences in the toolbar of the Webmail page that lists your messages; deselect the Include Original Message in Reply check box. | | 6. | Compose a New Message
To create a new message, click the Compose toolbar icon when viewing the message list. You can select contacts (people to whom you want to send the email message) from your Address Book by clicking the Address Book icon in the toolbar; select the contacts you want, select a destination (the To:, Cc: , or Bcc: fields), and click Apply .
The Quick Addresses drop-down lists to the right of the To: and Cc: fields contain names from your .Mac Address Book that you have selected to be included in your Quick Addresses list. Simply select a name from one of the lists, and it will be copied into the appropriate input field.
When you're done typing your message, click Send in the toolbar or at the bottom of the screen to send it.
| | 7. | Attach a File
To attach a file, click Attach in the toolbar or at the bottom of the screen. You are taken to a page where you can select a document from your computer, click Attach , and repeat for as many documents as you want to attach; when you're done, click Apply to attach the files to the message.
| | 8. | Delete One or More Messages
When viewing the message list, select the check boxes to the left of the From column to select the messages you want to delete. The Delete icon in the toolbar becomes active; click it to delete the selected messages.
| | 9. | Set Preferences
.Mac Webmail has a number of settings you can adjust to suit your taste; access these options by clicking the Preferences icon in the main toolbar (in the message list view). You can choose whether or not to include the original message in a reply, choose whether and where to save copies of your sent mail, add a photo and custom signature to all your messages, and many more behavior options. Be sure to click the Save button (located at the bottom of the page) when you're done changing your preferences.
| | 10. | Increase Email Storage Space
A standard .Mac account comes with 250MB of combined storage space for your @mac.com email and your iDisk storage, by default divided evenly so that you have 125MB of space for your email. You can see how much of that allotted space you are currently using by opening the .Mac Webmail Preferences pane (by clicking Preferences on the toolbar on the message list page) and looking at the usage bar at the top. If you need to reallocate how much storage space is earmarked for email and how much for iDisk, you can do so by clicking the Account icon on the .Mac web page (http://www.mac.com).
If you find that you need more space altogether, you can purchase more by clicking the Buy More button on the .Mac Webmail Preferences pane or in the iDisk page of the .Mac Preferences pane of System Preferences . Your .Mac storage can be upgraded to a full gigabyte in total, for an extra $50 annual fee.
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