Email - Contacts - Calendar -- Windows to Mac

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Sorry for all the questions I've been asking... As I await the new MBP I'm thinking of all the things I'll need to get set up. Mail - Calendar - Contacts is on the list but low priority since I can continue to use my browser for these unti / if I figure out how to use the Mac apps.

I've looked thru other threads here and most Windows users are coming to Mac from Outlook on Windows. I've never used Outlook. So my situation is a bit different from those that I've seen.

Personal: I use Gmail - I have a gmail account that I use as my master personal mail account. However, I have a number of different email addresses thru different domains that I own. I use my Gmail account to aggregate the mail from all of those personal accounts.

Business: I'm the administrator for my employer's web and email. We use Google Apps and, therefore use Gmail for our domain's email. That Gmail account is a different account than my personal Gmail account and has a separate contacts address book

When I got my iPad (and later iPhone) I was able to set those up to get mail, contacts and calendars from both my personal and work gmail accounts via Exchange - in separate mailboxes within the same mail app. For calendars, I was able to get all my Google calendars (shared work, private work, private personal, US holidays, etc.) to show up on the iPad and iPhone calendar.

However, I chose to sync only my personal Google Contacts with my iOS devices (I believe I can only sync one Google address book)

So, on my iOS devices, I get all of my personal and business email, and ALL my calendars plus my PERSONAL contacts thru the bullt-in Mail, Calendar and Contacts apps.

On my Windows computers I simply use a browser to log into either my personal or work gmail account to see the appropriate emails and contacts and ALL my calendars

On Mac, I see those same Mail, Contacts and Calendar icons at the bottom of the screen that I see on iOS and I'm wondering if / how I can use them like I do on iOS. I'm perfectly ok with doing what I do on Windows and just open my Mac browser to log into the appropriate gmail account. But is there a way to use the Mac Mail, Contacts, and Calendar applications like I do on iOS without screwing up what's been working ok so far?

FWIW, when I log into iCloud (I don't even know how that got set up... but somewhere along the way I found that I have an iCloud account tied to my AppeID) I do not see any of my calendar events, contacts or emails. I don't know what relevance, if any, that has to the Mac icons on my Macbook desktop or to getting mail, contacts, and calendars set up on the Mac.

edit... had a brain freeze. the iCloud account is where my iOS content gets backed up
 
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In System Preferences under iCloud you have the ability to sync from a list I sync my contacts and calendars that way if I make a change on one it makes it on all my iDevices.
 
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In System Preferences under iCloud you have the ability to sync from a list I sync my contacts and calendars that way if I make a change on one it makes it on all my iDevices.

Finally got back to trying to get this set up with no success. On the MBP I don't see in Sys Prefs under iCloud where I can sync to a list. The only app in the iCloud Prefs panel that has any options is Photo Stream

Contacts and calendars get synced from Gmail to my iPhone and iPad using an Exchange email account (my Gmail address). As soon as I change or add a contact on either iOS device or in my desktop browser (logged into gmail) the contact is synced to the other two.

I was hoping to sync contacts to my MBP by setting either my iPhone or iPad to sync contacts to iCloud and from there to the MBP. Neither the iPhone nor iPad can sync contacts to iCloud. When I try to turn on contact syncing to iCloud from either of those, it says Exchange contacts cannot be synced to iCloud.

I also tried to set up an Exchange mail account on the MBP set to just sync Contacts directly with Gmail - similar to how it is set up on the iOS devices - but that didn't work either. My login credentials were accepted but no sync occurs.

Any suggestions?
 
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Got it!

Did some more Googling and finally found what I wasn't seeing before.

Contacts >> Preferences >> click on On MY Mac and then click checkbox for Synchronize with Google (prompts for Gmail login credentials)

I was not seeing how to find Preferences because I kept forgetting that on Mac, the menu bar for the app is at the very top of the screen and not at the top of the active window:Blushing:
 

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