Notes on setting up Apple Mail for use with the University of Warwick Exchange server.

This information is my recommendation on how to configure Apple's Mail application for use with the University's Exchange server via IMAP. It was written for Tiger, there may be variances in the set up procedure on other versions of Mac OS X. The information is provided as is with no implication of support or any guarantees.. The information is not endorsed by IT Services. The information provided by IT Services for IMAP mail clients can be found here.

Create a new Account

Select the relevant options to add a new account and enter information as indicated.

Leaving the Password field empty means you'll have to to enter your password every time you launch Apple Mail. I recommend this for reasons of security and also from experiences of people who don't know their email password because at some point they told their mail client to remember it for them and subsequently forgot it because they never had to type it in. If you disagree with these reasons then enter your password.
If you don't enter a password then when you click on Continue Apple Mail will attempt to connect to the IMAP server and warn you that this failed. If you entered your password, skip to the information on Outgoing Mail Server.

Note that mail-relay.warwick.ac.uk is only usable whilst connected to the University network (not including the Hotspot wireless network, unless you use VPN). If you're not on campus then you'll have to find another SMTP server to use because the Exchange system does not provide authenticated SMTP relaying.

You'll now be at the Account Summary screen. Check the details and click Continue then Done.

In Preferences click on Accounts then the entry for the account you just set up. In the Advanced tab change the option Keep copies of messages for offline viewing to Only messages I've read. If you leave it on the default then the first time you connect Apple Mail will attempt to download a copy of everything it can find in your Exchange account and that can be rather tedious. If you want to be able to read all your mail whilst not connected to the Exchange server then don't change the option but be prepared for the wait whilst the initial cache is done.
In the Mailbox Behaviours Tab look in the Trash section and set the Permanently erase deleted messages when: option to Never. (See further on in these instructions for how the Exchange system will automatically remove messages from the Trash folder for you.)

At this point it can be helpful to open Activity Viewer from the Window menu. This will show you details on Apple Mail's communication with the IMAP server.

Click on the ~ icon next to the account's Inbox and enter your password when prompted. After a short delay you should see the contents of your Inbox appear.

Configure mail folders

I find it is useful to set up Apple Mail so it uses the same folders for various purposes as the 'proper' Exchange clients, Outlook and Outlook Web Access. For example if you tell Apple Mail, or indeed any other IMAP client, to put a copy of messages you send in the same folder as the Exchange clients, then it makes it easy to know where messages you have sent are kept because they're all in the same folder regardless of the client you used to send them. It also has the advantages that you can access these messages from any other client when away from your Mac and that the messages are automatically backed up by the Exchange system and not at risk of being lost if your Mac's harddisk dies and you don't maintain your own back up of all that really important stuff that you have on your Mac. (Harddisks sometimes die and people without a backup copy then realise why they should have maintained one.) If you chose not to implement this part of the configuration you'll find that messages you send with Apple Mail are on the Exchange server in a folder called Sent Messages and messages Apple Mail has deleted are in Deleted Messages.

To specify which mail folder is used for a particular purpose, select the mail folder in the list of folders you can see on the IMAP server then in the Mailbox menu find the submenu 'Use This Mailbox For' and select the relevant purpose from the list.

When creating new folders to save mail in, create them on the Exchange server rather than on your Mac. If you keep mail on the Exchange server then it is not only backed up by IT Services but also accessible via other IMAP clients, Exchange clients and Outlook Web Access.

Double check the email address you entered

At this point I like to send myself an email. Then when I get the email, reply to it and make sure I get that reply. If I do then I know I've set correct email address correctly. It's could be called a paranoid check but if you get your email address wrong then you're not going to get any replies to messages you send. I have encountered people with email problems caused by not correctly entering their email address when setting up a mail client.

LDAP

In the Preferences Composing tab tick the option Automatically complete addresses then click on the Configure LDAP button. Click the + button to add a new LDAP server and enter the following information:

Misc preferences settings

The vast majority of email does not need to be sent as HTML.

In the Composing tab, set Message Format: Plain Text. This will cause all messages you send to be plain text by default. If whilst composing a message you decide you really need to specify a different font or text colour then Apple Mail will automatically prompt you to convert the message to Rich Text. (Rich Text is what Apple Mail calls HTML formatted emails.) The vast majority of emails do not make use of any HTML formatting yet are sent with a HTML part anyway because that's what mail clients tend to default to. Such messages waste bandwidth and storage. A negligible amount of bandwidth and storage per message but it all adds up. Even if you do decide to make use of things like different colour text or specifying fonts, there's no guarantee that the recipient will notice. Some people tell their mail clients to ignore all the HTML formatting and just display the message as plain text. Some people even use mail clients that cannot render the HTML (e.g. pine and mutt).

Do not display remote images in messages by default.

In the Viewing tab, untick the option for Display remote images in HTML messages. This helps prevent undesirable surprises if you open a spam message. If an email contains remote images you'll see a button to click which will display them.