Easy-Email

This article explains how to setup Outlook 2007 for email synchronization. You will be guided through modifying your existing accounts (if you have any) and configuring Outlook 2007 to synchronize with Gmail.

At this point you should have completed the setup of Gmail for email synchronization.

Important! If you have not done so already please read the article “Naughty Outlook”.

Important! Backup your emails before you start! Easy-Email does not accept responsibility for any data loss under any circumstance.

Modify existing accounts (POP)

If you already have email accounts setup in Outlook 2007 we need to ensure they leave new email in the mailbox on the mail server for one day.

Gmail is also downloading email from the same mailbox, so Outlook 2007 will have to leave the email on the mail server long enough for Gmail to get hold of a copy too. Gmail automatically checks your mailboxes for new mail once every hour. If a new email arrives in your mailbox and Outlook 2007 downloads and removes the email from the mailbox before Gmail gets to it you will not see that email in Gmail and it will not be synchronized with your other email clients.

This modification does not change the way your current email setup works.

Do the following for each Outlook 2007 account that downloads email from a mailbox:

Note! Click on the images to see a larger version.

• Go to Tools → Account Settings...

• Select your existing email account.
  Click Change.
   

• Click More settings...
  

• Go to the Advanced tab.
  Check Leave a copy of messages on the server.
  Check Remove from server after 10 days.
  Change the setting to 1 day.
  1 day is more than sufficient for Gmail to pick up new emails.
  Click OK.
  

• To close the account settings window again:
  Click Next.
  Click Finish.
  Click Close.

Create a new email account in Outlook 2007 to access Gmail

Gmail will now pick up your email for you. This step tells Outlook to synchronize with Gmail so you can download copies of your emails.

Note! If you have more than one email address work with the email address you use most often in this section. For John Doe this is This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Setting up multiple email addresses is explained in the Advanced Guides.

Follow these steps:

• Start Outlook 2007.
  

• Click Tools → Account Settings...
  

• Click New...
  

• Leave Microsoft Exchange, POP3, IMAP, or HTTP selected.
  Click Next.
  

• Check Manually configure server settings or additional server types.
  Click Next.
  

• Leave Internet E-mail selected
  Click Next.
  

• Enter the following information:
  For Your Name enter your name, for John that is John Doe.
  For E-mail Address enter your email address, which for John is This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
  For Account Type choose IMAP.
  For Incoming mail server enter imap.gmail.com.
  For Outgoing mail server (SMTP) enter smtp.gmail.com.
  For User Name enter your Gmail address, for john this is This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
  For Password enter your Gmail password.
  Click More Settings...
  

• On the general tab enter a descriptive name for the mail account.
  For John we enter My Mail (IMAP).
  

• Click on the Outgoing Server tab.
  Check My outgoing server (SMTP) requires authentication.
  

• Click on the Advanced tab.
  For Incoming server (IMAP) in the Use the following type of encrypted connection setting select SSL.
  For Outgoing server (SMTP) in the Use the following type of encrypted connection setting select TLS.
  Change Outgoing server (SMTP) port to 587.
  Note! For the Gmail outgoing server it is possible to use either port 465 with SSL or port 587 with TLS. If one combination does not work for you try the other combination.
  Click OK.
  

• Click Next, then Finish.
  

• Click Close in the Account Settings window to return to the Outlook main window.

• Your mail is synchronized with Gmail.
  

• With the current position of the reading pane it is difficult to get an overview of the emails in the inbox. We will move the pane to the bottom of the window. This is optional.
  Click on View → Reading Pane → Bottom to move the reading pane.
  

• Select the [Gmail] → Sent Mail folder.
  You will notice that the sent folder view includes From and Received columns instead of To and Sent. What you want to see here is who you sent emails to and when you sent them.
  

• Click on View → Current View → Sent To
  

• Now we have the correct columns.
  

More stuff you can do

In the appendix you will find more interesting information on how to get the most out of your email:

• Backup and restore your emails
  We strongly recommend you backup your emails before you setup Easy-Email.
  This section explains how you do this. And it explains how you restore your emails if you should need to do that.

• Download emails to Outlook 2007 for offline use
  This section explains how to make your emails available for use without an internet connection. You will be able to read and respond to emails on a plane or train for instance. Once you get an internet connection again your emails will be sent.

• Copy old emails to Gmail from Outlook 2007
  This section explains how you can copy your old emails from Outlook 2007 to Gmail. This will make the emails available to any client you synchronize with Gmail.

• Turn off your old email account
  You have setup email synchronization without making changes to your old email setup. This allows you to try out Easy-Email without affecting the way you manage your email today.
  This section explains how to phase out your old email setup once you are comfortable with Easy-Email.

• Export contacts from Outlook 2007
  If you have contacts stored on Outlook 2007 that you want to copy to other email clients this section explains how you do this.

• Import contacts into Outlook 2007
  If want to copy contacts stored on other email clients to Outlook 2007 this section explains how you do this.

• Create a signature in Outlook 2007
  This section explains how you create a signature in Outlook 2007

• Group messages by thread in Outlook 2007
  If you like the way Gmail organizes emails in threads or conversations this section explains how you can get a similar view in Outlook 2007.

• How to find your mail server settings
  If you do not know your mail server settings this section explains where you can locate this information in your current setup.

And that completes the setup of Outlook 2007 for email synchronization.

If you would like help with synchronizing Outlook 2007 on multiple computers you can download and follow the Easy-Email Essential Guide. See how this brilliantly simple solution will simplify your life by watching the quick video at synchronize Outlook.

From our testing of Outlook 2010, it appears that Microsoft has ironed out many of the issues we found in Outlook 2007 and 2003. We recommend you consider upgrading to Outlook 2010.