iPad™ For Dummies®

Chapter 5. The E-Mail Must Get Through

In This Chapter

• Setting up your accounts

• Sending e-mail messages

• Reading and managing e-mail messages

• Searching for e-mail messages

• Setting e-mail preferences

On any computing device, e-mails come and go with a variety of emotions. Messages may be amusing or sad, frivolous or serious. Electronic missives on the iPad are almost always touching.

The reason, of course, is that you're touching the display to compose messages and to read them. Okay, so we're having a little fun with the language. But the truth is, the built-in Mail application on the iPad is a modern program designed not only to send and receive text e-mail messages but also to handle rich HTML e-mail messages — formatted with font and type styles and embedded graphics. If someone sends you mail with a picture, it's visible right in the body of the message.

Furthermore, your iPad can read several types of file attachments, including (but not limited to) PDFs, JPG images, Microsoft Word documents, PowerPoint slides, and Excel spreadsheets, as well as stuff produced through Apple's own iWork software. Better still, all this sending and receiving of text, graphics, and documents can happen in the background so that you can surf the Web or play a game while your iPad quietly and efficiently handles your e-mail behind the scenes.

Prep Work: Setting Up Your Accounts

First things first. To use Mail, ...