Mail and gmail set up

I am setting up Mail to sync with my Gmail account. Is there a way to set this up so that not all my 20000 emails on Gmail download onto my computer?

Can I for example select which folders in Gmail download?

I would like it to work like on my iPad.

Access your GMail account from the Web. The first thing to do is setup IMAP if you have not already done so. After that, only move those folders or messages you want to download to your in box on the Web. That should insure that only those will be downloaded. IMAP will automatically sync mail to all your devices.

Use ofMail

What is the advantage of using Mail? I am used to Gmail and like the fact that no emails are downloaded to my computer especially with regard to viruses etc.

There are no viruses for the Mac, no need to worry about that. However, if you prefer to go to your mailbox on the web that's up to you. Personally, I like my mail downloaded so that I can archive what I want and keep what I need in selected folders. While you can do all that from the web it's just more convenient (for me anyway) to have it on my machine.

Thank you , I will keep that in mind.