AOL email setting - customize your account

Once you've got the hang of the basics features and functions, it's time to change the AOL email settings as per your needs. Don't think this is a useless exercise because it might just save you tons of time and increase productivity.

The sleuth of options are located under the aptly named "Settings" section - click on its link to get started.

I shall be providing a quick guided tour of six AOL email settings sections; most of these have multiple options. By the way, nothing is written in stone so you can always go back and undo the modifications you had made earlier. And remember, the changes you make will take effect only when you click the "Save" button.

General AOL email account settings

The first section under settings. This is where you customize the basics aspects of the AOL email account.

• Today on AOL: Uncheck "Show me Today on AOL when signing in" takes you directly to the inbox - definitely a time saver if you are not interested in the tit-bits and news headlines.
• Reading: The default selection will work fine for most people.
• New Mail: Want to be notified when new email arrives? Choose that option; AOL also helpfully provides a preview.
• Pop-up Windows: Checking "Always write mail in new window" ensures that the list of messages (inbox) is just a click away in the previous window.
• Mail Away Message: This is like an automated vacation reply found on other popular email services such as Hotmail. So if you are away on holiday, notify senders of your absence by either choosing a predefined message or creating your own. By the way, the 'Mail Away Message' can be put to other nifty uses such as letting people know of the change in address when relocating.
• Theme Suggestions: AOL themes let you add that spice to an otherwise drab interface.
• Contacts: Choose how you would want the contacts information to be shown.
• Other Mail Options: Get email on mobile devices. Check how to set up AOL on the iPhone using the default IMAP protocol. This synchronizes the mail folders on the online server with your mobile device. You can also configure AOL on the iPhone using POP3.

Accounts settings

• Password: Learn how to change the AOL email password.
• Transfer Accounts: Fallen in love with AOL email? You can transfer contacts information from other email services and also move messages from these accounts.

Compose settings

• Compose: Are you in the habit of copying email to other people? Choose the option to always show Cc and Bcc fields.
• Rich Text / HTML: Who doesn't want to use rich text formatting nowadays? Also check how to create an AOL email signature. And yes, you can put images in the AOL email signature as well!
  Don't like Arial? There are 8 other fonts to choose from; well, actually 7, as Wingdings will result in utter gibberish. Read how to set a default font for your AOL account.
• Display Name: I advise putting your real name in this field because this is what is shown in the recipients inbox.
• Greeting Name: Is what you see when you log in at AOL and can be anything you want.
• Outbound Character set: Leave this as it is unless you know what you're doing!
• Sending: Yes AOL has a spell check feature. Automatically adding the email addresses of people in the Contacts list is a good idea.

AOL Spam Settings

• Spam Filter: Tired of spam? Set the filter to a stricter level. Remember spam filters are simply programs/algorithms and not perfect, so ensure you check the spam folder every few days.
• Sender Filter: create your own black list of senders.
• Content Filter: Not interested in cheap Rolexes? Create a filter with the keyword.
• Blocked Mail: I suggest that you have blocked mail delivered to the spam folder.

IMAP and POP

You can download AOL email to your computer using both IMAP and POP. Any program that supports these email protocols will work just fine. Check AOL incoming and outgoing mail servers for more information.

Filter Settings

AOL email filters will automatically sort incoming email into specified folders and this feature can be a real time saver.