How to set up Google Mail on Outlook 2003

Q Can I set up Microsoft Outlook 2003 to send and receive emails sent to my Google Mail account using Windows XP?

Steve Shaw

A You can compose, send and receive email via your Google Mail account using many popular email programs, including Outlook 2003. Google has instructions on how to set up a list of popular email programs.

Your email program can receive Google email via Pop or Imap. We prefer Imap because it is better suited to accessing emails from more than one place, in this case Microsoft Outlook and the website.

Load Outlook then click on the Tools menu, then click on Email accounts. Select Add a New Email Account, then click Next. At the next screen, make sure Imap is selected and click Next.

Fill in the account information including your name, as it will appear at the top of outgoing emails, your Google Mail email address and your username and password. Fill in the server details too, the Incoming mail server is imap.gmail.com and the outgoing mail server is smtp.gmail.com.

Click More Settings, then in the window that pops up, open the Outgoing Server tab. Tick the box next to ‘My outgoing server (SMTP) requires authentication’ and select the option to use the same settings as your incoming mail server.

Then click the Advanced tab and tick both boxes saying ‘This server requires an encrypted connection (SSL)’. Enter the port number 993 for the Incoming server (Imap) then enter the number 465 for the Outgoing server. Click OK to close this window, then click Test Account Settings.

If all is well, you should now see your Google Mail folders on the left-hand side in Outlook. Google has a list of programs it considers compatible with Google Mail using Imap and links to setup instructions.

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