Some people, including myself, use Outlook for Desktop on my computer. If you're used to using Outlook for mail and calendars, you can add your volunteer account to it.

There are several steps that need to be done in the correct order to get this to work well, so please follow the steps as I show them. If you have an older version of Windows (earlier than Windows 10), adding the account requires some extra manual steps. I'll write another article if somebody needs to add an account in an earlier version of Windows.

Setting Up Gmail

You must do this step using the Gmail Browser app, so open it in your Browser. See the Gmail In Browser article. Open the Settings - the icon is at the right top of your window:

and click Settings:

On the Settings page, make sure that you are on the Forwarding and POP/IMAP page, and verify that IMAP is On. I also recommend the Expunge setting shown below - but your G Suite Administrator may have disabled that option.

Adding The Account To Outlook

Now you're ready to add the account to your Outlook. Go to Outlook, and at left top, click on "File." You will be able to "Add Account":

Type in your email address and click on Connect:

Type in your password and Connect:

You should see a confirmation page. If you don't, first make sure that you completed the first two steps on this page: Setting up Gmail, and Setting up Google Account Security. If that all looks good, and you still can't connect, please wait a while - sometimes the settings may take a while to propagate correctly. If you still cannot connect in an hour or so, and everything else looks right, contact me, and I'll help you figure it out.

On the confirmation page, uncheck the "Set up Outlook Mobile on my phone, too." I don't actually know what would happen, if you wanted to set it up; I use the iOS Mail app on my phone. Click Done:

Configuring The Account In Outlook

But wait, you still have couple things to do. They are not absolutely required, but I think they will make your life easier. I recommend that you do this now.

In Outlook, click on "File" at left top, then Account Settings, and Account Settings...

On the next screen, select your account, and click Change...

Click on "Advanced options," check the "Let me repair my account manually" box, and "Repair." You should the following screen. Make sure to enter the Root folder path exactly as shown - [Gmail] with the square brackets. This will allow you to use Subfolders in Outlook and have them mapped to Gmail Categories. If you don't know what this gobledygook means, just do it now, you'll thank me later. I recommend the checkbox settings below, the work for me. Click Next. You may also have to "Close" the screen

Note: You may need to close and restart an older version of Outlook at this point for the new options to take effect, and you will be told to do so if it is needed.

You should now have the account in your Outlook. There are many ways to use Outlook, and I have my way that shows me instantly where my new messages are. This is what I see on the left side of my Outlook:

To get this look, you'll need to experiment. What I do is

• Expand the "Folder Pane" and pin it down, so that it is always on the left
• Expand my account by clicking on the little triangle to the left of the name.
• Right click on the "Inbox" item, and select "Add to Favorites..."
• Drag my favorites up and down to the position where I like it.

If you can't figure out how to do this, ask me, and I'll write another Article.

Sending Email From Correct Account

And finally - how do you send an email from the correct account? There might be different ways, but this is the one I have gotten used to, and it works for me. You will forget to follow this little procedure at the beginning (or if not, you're a better person than me), but you'll soon get used it - at least if you're emailing often from different accounts.

When you click "New Email" in Outlook, you'll get the Message Composition window. The first thing to do is to click on the "From" button, and then pick the email address you want to use. Mine comes up with my default private account, but I have trained myself to always switch where I'm sending from.

I hope that you found this Article useful. Maybe not fun, I get it. Happy Outlooking!