Once upon an eon ago, I used a webmail product called Hotmail. Truth be told, I think I still have an account or 50 in place, but none of them are ever used. I have also used Microsoft Outlook, Thunderbird, a work-based Outlook Web Access [OWA] and numerous other email options. But one stands out head and shoulders above the rest in my opinion, the monster we all know as G-Mail [or GoogleMail for some]. For more information on why it is called G-Mail in some places and Googlemail in others, do a quick search on Google itself.

And why do I choose G-Mail? Basically, it works. It rarely has any downtime, it is so easy to set up and use and it’s quick, reliable and does everything I want. The fact it is web-based has obvious benefits in that it is accessible from any location with an Internet connection and it has all the functionality and features that I need.

The ‘but’ though comes from my personal wish to set up an email account in my own fashion. Functionality is excellent and so is the ability to use it as your base email portal – by directing all other email accounts to this one location. The one downside in my opinion is that it offers little in terms of personal design. We all have our little hang-ups about font size, colours and shading, and G-Mail is not hot in this department. Sheesh, even Outlook has a few colours and themes to satisfy most tastes.

All is not lost though. For users of Firefox and the myriad of addons at your fingertips, there is G-Mail Skins, which I have used and it looks great. The only trouble is it seems to just drop off on occasion and right this munute it just will not work at all [for me anyway]. There is an issue with the language setup it seems, but you can chase that up if you so desire.

An alternative to GMail Skins is G-Mail Redesigned and personally I like this much better. The skins/themes are are very professional in ‘feel’ and very simple to install. You will need to install the Stylish addon [another great tool] and it is then a simple matter of loading your skin.

And if you are looking for some other really handy ideas and ways of getting the most from your G-Mail account, take a look through the links below.

http://www.g04.com/misc/GmailTipsComplete.html

http://lifehacker.com/software/gmail/gmail-tips-and-tricks-monster-roundup-198488.php

There are many more sites but these two will give you enough to do for a full day anyway…

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