All I can figure is that AOL doesn't *want* us to know how to quickly and easily download mail. Yours is the question I shared with my AOL "mentor" some months ago and I"ve now passed on her little "secret" (which shouldn't be a secret) to several other highly intelligent women, all of whom are capable of following directions if they are given right! (sorry, am a little raved about this topic!) Anyway, in AOL you can quickly download your mail and read it off line by doing the following: Get to the AOL menu but DO NOT sign on. Click on "mail" at the top menu A pull-down menu will appear. Click on "Flash Sessions" *** Here's the trick: a "flash session" is when you log into AOL automatically, send any mail you've written, and download any mail you've received. When the "flash session" is concluded, you're logged off unless you have SAID that you want to stay on-line. This morning I downloaded three days worth of LactNet and a LOT of other mail - my longest session yet by far - and the total time elapsed on-line was 5:40. *** Okay, in "flash sessions" you just follow the menu directions, it'll ask you do you want to send mail? receive mail? download newsgroups? etc. etc. It'll give you the option of scheduling flash sessions at regular intervals. When you're done setting it all up you can DO a flash session. It's cool to see the little menu box at the upper left of your screen chunking through all these messages. Next time you want to get your messages, pull down "Mail" again, and this time choose "Activate Flash Session Now." This option assumes that you've done all the flash session set up. A caution: flash session set up requires that you put your password in and if someone else has access to your computer, they could log in by using a flash session. Since it's not a concern for me I don't know if AOL has some additional security mechanism to avoid that potential problem. Finally, you can then read your mail any time by once again pulling down the "mail" menu and clicking on "read incoming mail." Happy flashing! Mary Renard [log in to unmask]