Q&A: Will GMail work with Mail.app ?

From the mailbag:
Q: I just bought a new Macbook pro, but I can't get my email provider, GMail to work with it. I used the same settings my roommate used, but it simply doesn't work. Any ideas?

Derrick M. , via email.

A: Gmail is a web and POP based email service. You can use Mail.app with Gmail, but you need to enable POP access. To do so, login to your web GMail client, and then click on settings, and then select the Forwarding and POP tab. Under the POP Download section, enable POP for all mail or POP for mail that arrives from now on. If you choose the first option, when you run Mail.app next time, all of the Gmail that you have ever received will download to your Mac. Depending on how much mail you have.. this may take awhile.