As a freelance project manager I have email accounts with many of my clients. I find that Microsoft Outlook 2010 is a very good client because it can support many email accounts and many calendars.

I recently had to add a Gmail account to Outlook. Gmail’s own instructions did not work for me so I have written this post.

Goal

To be able to receive and send emails from a Gmail account using Microsoft Outlook 2010.

Preconditions

• The user has a Gmail account and has verified that they can login and send an email
• The Gmail account does not have IMAP enabled (the default)
• The user has a working copy of Outlook 2010

Postconditions

• The Gmail account has IMAP enabled
• Outlook has an additional account attached and can send and receive email via Gmail using IMAP

Actors

• The User (no system administrator is required)

Main success scenario

1. The User logs into Gmail using a web browser and clicks the settings icon (a cog). The user then goes to the “Forwarding and POP/IMAP” tab and clicks “Enable IMAP” and clicks the SAVE button.
2. The User opens Outlook 2010 and clicks File > Info > Add Account
3. Outlook renders a dialogue called “Auto Account Setup”
4. The User clicks “Manually configure server settings or additional server types”
5. Outlook renders a diaglogue called “Choose Service”
6. The User clicks “Internet E-mail”
7. Outlook renders a dialogue called “Internet E-mail Settings”
8. The User completes as shown
   1. Note the username is the full email address

9. 

   1. After clicking “More settings” the user configures
      
10. The User verifies the connection by clicking “Test Account Settings…”
11. The User clicks “Next” until the Outlook wizard is complete.
12. The Goal is complete