THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO GMAIL

Transcription

1 THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO GMAIL / HOW-TO GEEK SCHOOL Lesson 1: Getting to Know Gmail... 3 Quickly Move Through Your Messages Using the Newer and Older Buttons Communicate Internationally Using the Input Tools Button Customize Gmail Using the Settings Button Write and Send s Using the Compose Button Organize Your Inbox Using Default and Custom Labels Read and Organize Your Messages in Your Inbox Indicate Important Messages Using Stars Easily Spot Messages with Attachments or Calendar Invitations Stay Connected with Hangouts Lesson 2: The Mobile App, Composing Mail, and Conversations Lesson 3: Inbox Management and Labels Automatically Categorize Your Inbox Using Configurable Tabs Choose Which Tabs are Visible in Your Inbox Organize Your Messages Using Inbox Styles and Settings Change your inbox type Organize and Categorize Your Messages Using Labels Create a New Label Apply Labels to Messages Apply a Label to a Message and Move it Out of Your Inbox Open a Label Remove a Label from a Message Change the Color of a Label Setup One-Click Access to Standard and Custom Gmail Labels Hide and Show Labels in Gmail Page 1 of 201 Hide a Label Make a Hidden Label Visible Hide Preset System Gmail Labels Such as Starred, Sent Mail, Drafts, Spam, or Trash Access Labels Settings on the Settings Screen Hide Labels with No Unread Mail Automatically in Gmail Coming up Next Lesson 4: Mail Filters and the Star System Lesson 5: Attachments, Signatures, and Security... 94

2 Lesson 6: Invitations and Vacation Responders Lesson 7: Use Gmail as a Task List Lesson 8: Multiple Accounts, Keyboard Shortcuts, and Remote Signout Lesson 9: Use Your Gmail Account to Access Other Accounts Set up Mail Fetcher to Receive from Other Accounts Hide Folders and Labels in Gmail IMAP Make Syncing with Gmail Using IMAP Faster with Less Traffic Send Messages from Another Account in Gmail Disable Mail Fetcher for an Account Work with Gmail Offline Using the Google Chrome App Install the Gmail Offline App for Google Chrome Remove Offline Data from Your Browser s Storage Remove the Gmail Offline App from Chrome Lesson 10: Power Tips and Gmail Labs Load Gmail Faster by Switching to the Basic Version Create Instant Disposable Gmail Addresses Using Aliases Don t Miss Important s with Desktop Notifications Enable Desktop Notifications in Chrome Turn on Hidden Notifications Enable Desktop Notifications in Gmail Set up Input Tools for International Communication Access Gmail Labs Features Use the Canned Responses Labs Feature to Quickly Insert Common Text Create a Canned Response from a Message in Gmail Insert a Canned Response into a New Message, Reply, or Forward Edit a Message Template in Gmail Try Additional Gmail Labs Features Undo Send Smartlabels Custom keyboard shortcuts Try Gmail Labs at Your Own Risk!! Page 2 of 201

3 Lesson 1: Getting to Know Gmail This series is intended to help you master the important and useful features of Google s Gmail and its simple but smart interface. By the end of these lessons, we ll take you from a rookie to a power user. Gmail is one of the most popular webmail services out there. Gmail began in 2004 as what would turn out to be an extended 5-year beta and didn t become open to the public until Gmail was one of the first web-based products to offer a gigabyte of initial storage, trumping many of the other popular webmail services at the time, who typically offered 2 to 4 megabytes. Over time, Google has continued to increase storage capacity and now offers 15 gigabytes of initial storage when you sign up for a new account! Google also broke with tradition by offering an interface that organizes messages into threads, and while you can still break these threads into individual messages (we ll talk about this later), it immediately made for a much cleaner inbox. Also, Gmail tread new ground by completely doing away with old school folders. Instead, users could now apply labels, as many as they needed, and thus filter their messages without ever filing it away in a folder. While the labels appear to do the same thing as folders, they re actually far more versatile as we ll find out later in Lesson 3. Why Should You Use Gmail? Let s talk a bit more about Gmail s best features and why, if you re not already using Gmail, you might consider starting. Page 3 of 201

4 Gmail Provides Plenty of Storage Gmail provides over 15 GB of free storage, which allows you to save all your messages for future reference. NOTE: This 15 GB is shared with Google Drive and Google+ Photos. Page 4 of 201

5 Best of all, Google is always increasing your account s storage capacity, so you don t need to worry about running out of space, and if you do, you can always purchase more! Conversations in s are Organized into Threads s are automatically grouped according to subject line. When you receive a reply to a message, all previous related messages are displayed in a collapsible vertical thread, making it easy to see the entire conversation and review what has been discussed previously. Page 5 of 201

6 We will discuss the conversation view thoroughly, later in Lesson 2. Thorough Malware and Virus-Checking Features Gmail constantly updates its anti-malware and anti-virus scanners to give you the most up-to-date protection possible. File attachments are saved on Google s servers, but if malware or a virus makes it through in a message, Gmail displays a warning and immediately quarantines the offending message. You cannot turn the virus filtering off, and it does prevent you from sending an executable (.exe) file as an attachment. If you really need to send anything like an.exe file, you will first need to place it in a container such as a.zip or.rar file. Excellent Spam Filtering Gmail has some pretty excellent spam filtering, stray messages do get through occasionally but for the most part, you re unlikely to see messages you don t want to see. Page 6 of 201

7 Gmail in a Browser We want to begin by touring the Gmail interfaces you will encounter. We ll start with the web browser, which most Gmail users will be immediately familiar with. You can access Gmail in any web browser, however, How-To Geek recommends Google Chrome, and that is the browser we use in this series. In Lesson 2, we ll continue by focusing on the mobile Android app. Quickly and Easily Find Messages Using the Search Box You can quickly find messages using the power of Google Search, which is tied into your Gmail allowing for instant results. Simply enter your search criteria in the search field and click the blue button or hit enter. Page 7 of 201

8 Advanced search operators are query words or symbols that help you refine your search. They perform special actions that allow you to quickly and easily track down what you re looking for (see Google s Advanced Search help page for a list of the most useful operators). For more search options, click the arrow on the search box. A dialog box drops down allowing you to search for messages based on From,, To, Subject, message content, attachments, and more. Access Other Gmail Features Using the Mail Menu Click the Mail menu to access other Gmail features like Google Contacts and Google Tasks. Page 8 of 201

9 Perform Common Actions on Your Messages Using the Action Buttons Action buttons let you take actions on your messages. For example, you can use the buttons to label, delete, or mark one or more messages as spam. The action buttons are located under the search box and above your messages. Some buttons like Archive, Report spam, and Labels are only available if you ve selected one or more messages or opened a message. The Select button allows you to quickly and easily select all or none of your messages, all read or unread messages, or all starred or unstarred messages. Click the arrow on the Select button to access the various options for selecting your messages. To quickly select all your messages, click the empty check box on the Select button. When the check box on the Select button has a check in it, all your messages are selected. Clicking the check box on the Select button when it contains a check mark, quickly de-selects all your messages. Page 9 of 201

10 The Archive button allows you to remove messages from your inbox, but keep them in your Gmail account, for later reference. You can think of archiving like moving an important file on your desk into your filing cabinet rather than into the trash can. If you have received any messages that seem to be spam, use the Report spam button to report this to Google. While Gmail s spam filters works very well, they re not perfect and errant messages do get through every now and then. This feature helps them get better at filtering out annoying, unwanted messages. To report a message as spam, select the check box next to the message in your inbox or open the message, then click the Report spam button on the toolbar. If you (or Google) has accidentally marked a message as spam, you can recover it. Simply, click the Spam label in the list of labels on the left. Select the message that is not spam and click the Not spam button on the toolbar. Remember, the more spam messages you report, the better Google gets at filtering out these unwanted messages. Use the Delete button to move messages to the Trash. Messages in the Trash are permanently deleted automatically after 30 days. Once a message has been permanently deleted from Trash, it cannot be recovered. Page 10 of 201

11 To undelete a message, move the message, drag it to the Inbox, or another label. You can manually delete all the messages in the Trash by clicking the Empty Trash now link at the top of the list. Gmail allows you to delete specific messages within a conversation thread. We will discuss this further in a later section. The Move to button accesses a menu very similar to the Labels button discussed below. However, when you select one or more messages, click Move to and then select a label from the Move to menu. The selected message or messages are moved out of the Inbox into that label, like a folder. Page 11 of 201

12 The Labels button allows you to organize your messages into categories. They re similar to folders, but they add an additional feature not available with folders: you can add more than one label to a message. Page 12 of 201

13 To add a label to a message, select the message, click the Labels button, and select a label from the list. The list does not close after you make a selection, so you can easily apply more than one label to a message. Only you can see labels you apply to messages. So, you can mark a message with whatever label you want, such as Read later, and the sender of the message will never know. Take Action on All Messages or Quickly Check If you have no message selected or open, there are only three Action buttons available: Select, Refresh, and More. Page 13 of 201

14 The Select button (with the empty check box) offers the same options that it does when one or more messages are selected or a message is open. Use the Refresh button (with the circular arrow) to check for new . When no messages are selected or open, the More button only allows you to mark all messages as read. Display Text on Buttons Rather than Pictures If you prefer to have text instead of icons on the Action buttons, you can change a setting to accomplish this. Click the Settings gear button and select Settings from the drop-down menu. Scroll down to the Button labels section and select the Text option. Page 14 of 201

15 Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click Save Changes. All the Action buttons, except the Select button, change to display text instead of icons. Quickly Move Through Your Messages Using the Newer and Older Buttons If you have a lot of messages in your inbox, you can use the Newer and Older buttons to move through your messages. These buttons are only active if you have a message open. Page 15 of 201

16 Communicate Internationally Using the Input Tools Button Gmail provides many different virtual keyboards and IMEs (input method editors) you must turn on to use, allowing you to communicate in different languages using different keyboard layouts for improved international communication. IMEs allow you to use a Latin alphabet keyboard to convert your keystrokes to characters in another language. The Transliteration input tool allows you to type languages phonetically in English letters, and they ll display in their correct alphabet. A Handwriting input tool is available that allows you to write words using your mouse or trackpad. NOTE: Transliteration is different from translation. When using transliteration, you are only converting the sound of the words from one alphabet to the other, not the meaning. Click the keyboard button to turn the Input tools on or off. Note that you can also press Ctrl + Shift + K to do this. Clicking the down arrow on the right side of the keyboard button displays the input options, such as selecting a different keyboard layout, enabling a personal dictionary, and accessing the Input Tools Settings. Page 16 of 201

17 In Lesson 10, we will discuss the different types of input tools, show you how to turn the Input Tools on and off, and select specific input tools to be available on the menu. Customize Gmail Using the Settings Button Use the Settings gear button to define your display density setting (the space between messages and objects in Gmail), access other settings or themes, and get Gmail help. We will discuss useful Gmail settings in Lesson 3. Page 17 of 201

18 Write and Send s Using the Compose Button Use the Compose button in the upper, left corner of the main Gmail screen to write and send new s. You can format your text, add images and links, and attach files. We will show you all the Compose features in Lesson 2. Organize Your Inbox Using Default and Custom Labels To the left of the Inbox is a list of labels. This list is similar to the list available from the Labels button, and just like the Labels button, it allows you to organize the messages in your inbox into categories. Gmail comes with several default labels and you can add custom labels. The number in parentheses next to a label indicates the number of unread messages associated or tagged, with that label. Click a label link to display all messages associated with that label. Page 18 of 201

19 When you drag a message to a label, it s similar to using the Move to button. The message is moved to that label and is removed from the inbox. However, you can also drag a label from the list to a message to associate it with that label. This allows you to drag multiple labels to a single message, unlike folders. The All Mail label is your archive. Use this label to help reduce clutter in your inbox. Move messages you ve read (but don t want to delete) in your inbox to the All Mail label to archive the message. Messages in the All Mail label are never deleted (unless you delete them) and are always available by clicking the All Mail label link. When you use the Search box to find messages, the messages in the All Mail label are included in the search. You can also assign different colors to your labels to quickly find messages at a glance in your inbox. Clicking the arrow to the right of a label allows you to access options for that label, such as changing the color. Use this menu to show or hide the label in the labels list or in the message list, to edit or remove a label, or add a sub-label to the label. Page 19 of 201

20 We ll cover labels at great length in Lesson 3. Read and Organize Your Messages in Your Inbox Your inbox displays all messages you ve received and haven t yet moved to a label or archived. By default, unread messages in your inbox have a white background and display in bold lettering while read messages have a gray background and normal type. Page 20 of 201

21 Everyone has their own distinct way of viewing and dealing with . Gmail allows you to change your inbox style. Simply, click the arrow to the right of the Inbox label and select a different style from the drop-down menu. The currently selected style is indicated with a check mark. Each style is described to the right of the menu as you move your mouse over the options. Switching from one style to another does not affect the messages in your inbox, it only changes the order in which the messages are listed. Indicate Important Messages Using Stars Use stars in your inbox to mark certain messages as Important. For example, you can star messages that you need to reply to later. To star a message, simply click the star to the left of the sender s name. Page 21 of 201

22 If you already have the message open, you can click the More button and select Add star. You can add other types of stars, such as an exclamation point or a check mark by modifying the preference in settings. We will show you how to do this in Lesson 4. Easily Spot Messages with Attachments or Calendar Invitations Gmail informs you visually when a message contains an attachment or an invitation with an icon to the right of the subject line. Page 22 of 201

23 In the image below, we have an invitation to lunch (calendar icon) in one message, and an attachment (paperclip icon) on another. Stay Connected with Hangouts Google Hangouts allows you to send messages, photos, and make video calls with your friends and family. It s available in Gmail below the list of labels on the left. Page 23 of 201

24 Lesson 2: The Mobile App, Composing Mail, and Conversations In this lesson, we ll continue our tour of Gmail interface by covering the Gmail app, specifically the Android version. Then we ll finally get to the good stuff by showing you how to compose messages and how you can easily follow your messages with Gmail s unique conversation view. The Gmail Interface is easy to use and provides many useful and easily accessible features. You can check your Gmail almost anywhere (as long as you have a good data connection) using your mobile phone or tablet. Let s get to it by continuing with our tour of Gmail. Since Android is the most popular mobile phone operating system in the world, we will show you the Gmail interface on an Android phone. A Tour of the Mobile App By default, the Gmail app opens to your inbox. Change Accounts and Select Tabs and Labels Page 24 of 201

25 The Gmail menu, available by touching the Gmail icon in the upper left corner of the screen, allows you to view your Gmail accounts, access the different tabs in your inbox and view messages by label. Change Settings, Refresh Your Inbox, and Get Help Pressing the menu button on your phone allows you to change general and label settings, refresh your inbox to make sure you get new messages, send feedback, and get help. Page 25 of 201

26 The Settings screen allows you to change general settings for Gmail and settings specific to each account you have setup on your phone. Page 26 of 201

27 Touch General settings to open a screen that allows you to specify various settings that apply to all Gmail accounts. Once you make your changes, press the Back button on your phone to return to the Settings screen. To return to the inbox, press the Back button again. To change settings for a specific Gmail account, touch the address for the desired account on the main Settings screen. On the settings screen for the selected Gmail account, you can change settings such as the Inbox type, the Signature, and the Vacation responder. Page 27 of 201

28 Touch the Label settings option on the menu accessed from the Menu button on your phone to change settings for the currently selected label. Labels are selected using the Gmail menu, discussed earlier. Page 28 of 201

29 Compose in Gmail Mobile Composing in Gmail on your Android phone is easy. Simply touch the envelope button with the plus sign at the top of the screen. Page 29 of 201

30 Then enter the To address, the subject line, and the body of your , just like you would in a browser. If you ve setup a signature (covered in Lesson 5), it s automatically inserted into the body of your message. Touch the arrow in the upper, right corner of the screen to send the . Easily Search Through Your Gmail Messages While you can organize your s using labels and filters (discussed in Lesson 3 and Lesson 4) to make it easy to find messages, if you need to quickly find a specific you can search through all your Gmail messages using keywords. Simply touch the magnifying glass icon in the upper-right corner of the screen. Page 30 of 201

31 Enter your search term and touch the magnifying glass on the on-screen keyboard to perform the search. Suggestions display as you type. Page 31 of 201

32 That should give you a pretty good idea of the app interface. It s actually very easy to use (as it should be) and if you re familiar with Gmail and Android, then you should have little trouble to using it daily. Let s continue now by introducing you to actually composing an message and then move on to the conversation view in Gmail, and how it is different from more traditional interfaces. Compose an Message in Gmail Of course, one of the main purposes of is to send people messages and we don t want to go any further without covering it. The Compose feature in Gmail in a browser is easy to use and has many useful options. To compose a new message in Gmail in a browser, click the red Compose button in the upper-left corner of the Gmail screen. The New Message window displays at the bottom of the browser window. While this window is open, you can access your messages in your inbox behind the window, so you can refer to other messages while writing the new one. To add a recipient, click in the To field. If the recipient is in your address book, start typing the name of the recipient to display matching contacts. Click on a contact in the list of the results to insert that person as a recipient. If you are sending the to someone not in your contact list, type the full address in the To field. You can add multiple recipients in the To field. Click Cc and Bcc to add recipients you want to carbon copy or blind carbon copy. Page 32 of 201

33 Click in the Subject line and enter a short description for your . Then, enter the main text for your in the body of the message below the subject. Gmail allows you to apply some basic formatting to the text in the body of your , such as different fonts and sizes, bold, italic, text color, and bulleted and numbered lists. To access the formatting toolbar, click the Formatting options button at the bottom of the Compose window. Another toolbar displays above the bottom toolbar with options for formatting and aligning your text. To hide the formatting toolbar, click the Formatting options button again. Page 33 of 201

34 You can also easily undo formatting you have applied. Highlight the text for which you want to remove the formatting. Click the More formatting options down arrow on the right side of the formatting toolbar. The Remove formatting button displays. Click it to remove the formatting from the selected text. Page 34 of 201

35 The plus sign at the bottom of the Compose window provides options for inserting files, photos, links, emoticons, and invitations. Move your mouse over the plus sign to expand the toolbar and gain access to these additional features. Hover over each button for a description of what each one does. The Attach files (paperclip) button at the bottom of the Compose window allows you to add attachments to your message. If you forget to add your attachment, then Gmail will likely remind you (we will cover attachments in Lesson 5). Page 35 of 201

36 There are additional options available by clicking the More options down arrow on the right side of the main toolbar. Using the More options menu, you can apply labels to the current message, switch to Plain text mode, Print the message, and Check spelling in the body of your message. You can also choose the Default to full-screen option that will open the Compose window full-screen every time (starting the next time you compose a new ). Page 36 of 201

37 If you need to refer to another before finishing your message, you can minimize the Compose window and access the messages in your inbox and other labels. To minimize the Compose window click on the title bar of the window. The window shrinks to only display the title bar at the bottom of the Gmail screen. Click the title bar again to open the Compose window to the normal size again. Page 37 of 201

38 NOTE: Gmail allows you to compose more than one at a time. Simply click the Compose button again to open another Compose window. Depending on the size of your monitor, Gmail may place multiple Compose windows on top of each other. This is when minimizing Compose windows can come in useful. The title bar shrinks when minimized, so more Compose windows can fit across the screen. The subject line displays in the title bar of each window, so you can tell which message is which. The Minimize button in the upper-right corner of the Compose window does the same thing as clicking on the title bar. When the window is minimized, the Minimize button becomes the Maximize button, allowing you to return the window to the normal size. If you have not chosen to default to full-screen, you can choose to do so for the current message you are composing. To expand the Compose window to full-screen, click the Full-screen button in the upper-right corner of the Compose window. The Compose window expands. To return it to normal size, click the Exit full-screen button, which replaced the Full-screen button. Page 38 of 201

39 NOTE: You can also use the same button ( Full-screen or Exit full-screen ) to pop-out the Compose window, or make it a separate window. To do this, press and hold the Shift key and then click the Full-screen or Exit full-screen button. A separate window like the following displays. To return the Compose window to the normal window attached to the browser window, click the Pop-in button on the right side of the subject line on the popped out window. Page 39 of 201

40 If you want to abandon your message at any time, you can click the Discard draft button (trash can) in the bottom-right corner of the compose window. As you write a message, Gmail automatically saves a draft of it. If you want to close the draft and come back to it later, click the Save & Close ( X ) button in the upper-right corner of the Compose window. Page 40 of 201

41 Drafts are stored under the Drafts label. A number in parenthesis next to the label indicates how many drafts you currently have. Click the Drafts label to view your drafts. You can discard drafts from within the Drafts label. To clean out unwanted or old drafts, use the check boxes to the left of the messages or the Select button on the left side of the toolbar (see Lesson 1) to select all or certain drafts and click Discard drafts. You can also move drafts to the inbox, assign labels to drafts, and perform other actions from the More menu. Page 41 of 201

42 Finally, when your message is ready to send, simply click the Send button. Reply to and Forward Messages Replying to messages received in Gmail is easy. Simply select Reply from the arrow button menu in the upper-right corner of an open message. You can also reply by clicking the Reply link at the end of the message. Page 42 of 201

43 Forwarding messages can be accomplished in the same manner as replying to messages. Gmail allows you to change the subject line when replying to or forwarding a message. To do this, click the arrow button next to the recipient s name and select Edit subject from drop-down menu. Easily Follow Replies to s with Conversation View As you send and receive messages, s are grouped automatically according to their subject line. This creates conversations or threads. Replies to a message are grouped and displayed with the original message. Page 43 of 201

44 When you receive a reply to a message, all previous related messages are displayed for your reference in a collapsible thread. This allows you to quickly refer to what has been discussed before, rather than spending time searching through previous messages for what you wrote weeks, months, or even years ago. This is invaluable if you communicate with many people through and need to keep track of the details of each conversation. A conversation in your inbox is indicated with a number in parentheses, which tells you how many messages are currently in that conversation. View All Messages in a Conversations at Once When you open a conversation, all the related messages are stacked, with the latest reply in front. To see the original message and all replies at once, click Expand all at the top of the messages. Page 44 of 201

45 NOTE: A conversation breaks off into a new thread if it reaches over 100 messages or if the subject line of the conversation is changed. Enable and Disable Conversation View If you don t like the conversation view, you can turn it off. To do this, click the Settings gear button and select Settings from the drop-down menu. NOTE: Throughout this lesson and subsequent lessons in this series, we will refer to the Settings screen. This is the method used to access the Settings screen in all cases. Page 45 of 201

46 On the General tab on the Settings screen, scroll down to the Conversation View section. Select the Conversation view off option to turn off the feature. Scroll down to the bottom of the Settings screen and click Save Changes. Page 46 of 201

47 With conversation view off, replies to messages will display as individual messages in your inbox. Delete a Single Message in a Conversation You can delete a specific message in a conversation, even with Conversation View on. To do this, open the conversation and click on the message in the stacked list that you want to delete. Then, click on the arrow on the Reply button and select Delete this message from the drop-down menu. The remaining messages in the conversation are unaffected. Page 47 of 201

48 That should give you a full appreciation of Gmail s default conversation view, how to disable it, and delete a single message. Page 48 of 201

49 Lesson 3: Inbox Management and Labels In today s lesson, we re going to help you understand how to better categorize your inbox and organize your messages with labels and some predefined but configurable tabs. Once your Gmail account gains some steam and you begin to receive a bunch of messages, you will want to learn to tame the torrent into more manageable streams. Gmail s filters allow you to manage your incoming messages, helping you keep your less important out of your way and filtered into a label. Before you start learning about filters in Lesson 4, you will need to learn how to create and labels, the Gmail equivalent of folders, and that s what we ll talk about today. First though, we re going to talk about Gmail s automated tabs interface, Priority Inbox, and all the settings that they contain. Automatically Categorize Your Inbox Using Configurable Tabs Gmail now offers tabbed, automatic categories for your inbox. This feature breaks your inbox into Primary, Social, Promotions, Updates, and Forums. If you participate in many online services, this feature can be handy. Basically, messages received for certain types of sites or of a particular content, it can be collected in different parts of your inbox. This can result in a less cluttered inbox. Choose Which Tabs are Visible in Your Inbox These tabs are configurable allowing you to choose which tabs you want available in your inbox. To change which tabs are visible, click the plus icon to the right of the tabs. Page 49 of 201

50 The Select tabs to enable dialog box displays. Select the check boxes for the tabs you want available in your inbox. NOTE: If you hide a tab, messages from that category will display in your Primary tab instead. Also, the text on the tabs cannot be changed and you cannot add custom tabs. Use custom labels instead (discussed in the next section) to further categorize your messages. You can also select which tabs to display in your inbox on the Inbox tab on the Settings screen, in the Categories section. Page 50 of 201

51 Organize Your Messages Using Inbox Styles and Settings Inbox styles allow you to organize your Gmail inbox in the way that suits you best. You can organize your inbox using the configurable tabs, as mentioned earlier in this lesson, or into sections such as Unread, Starred, and Important. Change your inbox type To change to a different inbox style, open the Settings screen and click the Inbox tab. In the Inbox type section, select the type of inbox you want to use from the drop-down list. Page 51 of 201

52 Each type of inbox has its own settings. Once you select the Inbox type, the settings for that type display below the Inbox type selection. Make your changes to the settings and click Save Changes. You can also quickly change some of the inbox style settings right in your inbox clicking the down arrow that s located at the far right of each section heading. Page 52 of 201

53 Gmail Help provides descriptions of the inbox types. Feel free to experiment with the different inbox styles to see what works best for you. You can always switch back to the default if you change your mind. You can also quickly change the style of your inbox by moving your mouse over the Inbox label and clicking the down arrow that displays. Select the desired inbox style from the Inbox Type drop-down menu. Notice that moving your mouse over each style provides a short description of each type. Organize and Categorize Your Messages Using Labels We briefly introduced you to labels in Lesson 1 of this series. Labels allow you to organize your messages into categories. They are similar to folders however, unlike folders, you can apply more than one label to a single message. NOTE: Gmail supports a maximum of 5,000 labels, including sub-labels. If you exceed this limit, you may find that your Gmail experience is slower, and you may experience errors. Remove the labels that you might not be using anymore. Deleting labels does not delete messages. Page 53 of 201

54 Create a New Label You can create your own custom labels to keep your inbox organized and even move messages out of the inbox into your labels (acting as folders). We will show you how to create a label nested under another label, like a subfolder within a folder. To create a new custom label that will be the main folder, click More in the list of labels on the left side of the main Gmail screen. When the list expands, click the Create new label link. Page 54 of 201

55 Enter a name for the label in the Please enter a new label name edit box on the New Label dialog box. Click Create to finish creating the new label. NOTE: Because this is the parent label that will contain the sub-label, we will not nest this label. To create a sub-label under the parent label you just created, click Create new label again. On the New Label dialog box, enter the name of the sub-label you want to create in the Please enter a new label name edit box. Select the Nest label under check box, select the parent label you just created from the drop-down list, and click Create. Page 55 of 201

56 You can also create a nested label by entering the parent label, followed by a slash (/), and then entering the nested label name all in the new label name edit box. For example, we could enter Personal/Friends in the edit box and not select the Nest label under check box. NOTE: The parent label must already exist to create a nested label under it. You cannot create both labels at the same time. In our example, we must create the Personal label first before creating the nested Friends label. The nested label looks like the following example. Page 56 of 201

57 The new parent label, with its nested label, is also added to the list of labels available on the Labels action button, as well as the list of labels available on the Move to action button. Apply Labels to Messages Page 57 of 201

58 There are two ways of applying labels to messages. You can apply labels to messages while leaving the messages in your inbox. You can also move messages onto labels as you would move them into folders. We will show you both methods. Apply Labels to Messages While Leaving Them in Your Inbox. This method allows you to easily apply multiple labels to a single message. To apply a label to a message while keeping the message in your inbox, select the check box to the left of the message to select it (or open the message). Then click the Labels action button and select one or more labels from the drop-down menu. Remember, you can apply more than one label to a message. The Labels menu does not go away once you select your labels, so you can select multiple labels at once. To apply the selected labels to the messages, click Apply at the bottom of the menu. The labels then display to the left of the message s subject line. Page 58 of 201

59 If you have a long list of labels, you can start typing a label s name after clicking the Labels action button to find the label in the list. Apply a Label to a Message and Move it Out of Your Inbox To apply a label to a message and move the message out of your inbox at the same time, drag the message to the desired label in the list on the left. As you move the mouse over the list, it will expand to display labels that may currently be hidden. Note that you can use this method to identify message as spam, in addition to using the Report spam action button. Simply drag the offending messages into the Spam label. Moving a message to the Trash label deletes the message. This is the same as selecting a message, or opening it, and clicking the Delete action button. Open a Label Page 59 of 201

60 Opening a label is like opening a folder. All messages associated with that label are listed. To open a label, click the desired label in the list of labels on the left side of the main Gmail screen. If the desired label is not visible, click More to access the full list. All messages associated with that label are displayed. Notice the search term in the Search box. Gmail automatically fills in the Search box with the appropriate filter to display the selected messages. We will discuss filters later in this lesson. Note that if you apply a label to a message without moving the message into that label (and out of the inbox) and then you open the label, the Inbox label displays on the message, indicating that the message still resides in the inbox. Page 60 of 201

61 To go back to your inbox, click the Inbox label in the list on the left. If you want to move the message back to your inbox, simply open the label folder to access the message and drag the message back to the inbox. Note that the message still has the label applied to it. Remove a Label from a Message If you decide you don t want a specific label associated with a message, you can easily remove it. To do so, select the message using the check box to the left of the message, or open the message. Click the Labels action button, de-select the label in the drop-down menu that you want to remove from the message, then click Apply. NOTE: You can remove multiple labels from a message at one time. Simply select all the labels you want to remove in the Labels drop-down menu before clicking Apply. Page 61 of 201

62 Change the Color of a Label You can assign colors to your labels so you can easily spot them in your inbox. By default, all labels are colored with a light gray background and dark gray text. The Personal/Friends label in the image below uses the default color. The other labels, HTG School and Admin, have other colors applied to them. To change the color on a label, move your mouse over the desired label. Click the down arrow to the right of the label to access its drop-down menu. Page 62 of 201

63 Move your mouse over the Label color option and select a text and color combination by clicking on it. You can also use the Remove color option to remove color from the label and revert to the default. If you don t want any of the displayed combinations, you can select a custom combination by clicking Add custom color. Select a Background Color and a Text Color on the Add custom color dialog box that displays. Preview the selected combination where it says Preview Label Color. Page 63 of 201

64 Setup One-Click Access to Standard and Custom Gmail Labels You can easily create one-click access to labels. To do this, open a label as we discussed earlier in this lesson, then drag the favicon of the page from the address bar to the Bookmarks toolbar. Now, you can click this bookmark to access all your messages associated with this label. Hide and Show Labels in Gmail Page 64 of 201

65 If you have a long list of labels in Gmail, you may want certain labels visible that you use more often while hiding the rest. Hide a Label To hide a label in Gmail, click the label you want to hide in the list of labels under the Compose button and drag it to the More link beneath the list of visible labels. NOTE: The More link becomes the Less link as you move the label to it. The label is moved so it is listed below Categories, which displays when you click More to expand the list of labels. If the Less link is available rather than the More link, the Categories can be viewed simply by moving your mouse over the list of labels. Page 65 of 201

66 Make a Hidden Label Visible To make a hidden label visible, click More (if necessary) to display the Categories section. Click and drag the desired label from the Categories section to the Inbox label. Page 66 of 201

67 The label is moved back to the main list of labels, in alphabetical order. Hide Preset System Gmail Labels Such as Starred, Sent Mail, Drafts, Spam, or Trash The pre-set Gmail labels can also be hidden. To hide any of these labels, click More under the list of labels. Page 67 of 201

68 Click Manage labels under Categories. The Labels Settings screen displays. Page 68 of 201

69 In the System labels section, find the system label you want to hide and click the hide link in the Show in label list column. NOTE: The label is not completely hidden, rather, it is moved under the More link. Page 69 of 201

70 Access Labels Settings on the Settings Screen The Labels settings screen can also be accessed using the Settings button. We will be referring to various parts of the Settings screen throughout this series. The procedure for accessing Settings will always be the same. To access the filter tools on the Settings screen, click the Settings (gear) button in the upper-right corner of the main Gmail window. Then select Settings from the drop-down menu. Page 70 of 201

71 Once on the Settings screen, you can access settings for Labels, Filters, Inbox, Themes, and other parts and features of Gmail. Hide Labels with No Unread Mail Automatically in Gmail With the ability to hide labels and to automatically direct messages into those labels using filters (see the next section), you may be wondering how to quickly tell if you have unread messages in the hidden labels. You can easily choose to show hidden labels when there are any unread messages in them. That way, you don t miss any important messages. To setup Gmail so it hides labels unless they contain unread messages, access the Labels settings screen using one of the methods previously mentioned. For each system and custom label you want hidden if it does not contain unread mail, click the Show if unread link. Page 71 of 201

72 Notice that in the list of System labels you can only hide the Draft and Spam labels if they don t contain any unread messages. This feature does not apply to Categories and Circles. Page 72 of 201

73 You can quickly apply this setting to all your custom labels by clicking the down arrow next to Show in label list at the top of the Labels section and selecting Show all if unread from the drop-down menu. Page 73 of 201

74 Coming up Next This brings us to the end of Lesson 3. You should have a fairly firm understanding of how to keep your inbox organized using different tabs, styles, and settings. Best of all, you re well on your way to mastering your using labels! In the next lesson, we ll broaden our discussion of labels to include filters such as how to use filters to automatically apply labels, as well as how to take your existing filters and export them to another Gmail account. Then, to close things out, we introduce the star system, which helps you keep track of important s. Page 74 of 201

75 Lesson 4: Mail Filters and the Star System Today s Geek School lesson will broaden our discussion of labels in Gmail to include filters and then move onto tracking important s with stars. Labels are great but they can be used much more effectively by incorporating filters, so messages that arrive meeting certain criteria automatically have a label or labels applied. This helps greatly with organization and can greatly reduce inbox chaos. Create a New Filter Using the Search Box To create a new filter, we will specify search options in the Search box and create a filter from the search. To do this, click the down arrow on the Search box. Enter your search criteria in the search options box. You can choose to search for messages from a specific person or an entire domain (@example.com), with certain words in the subject, as well as other conditions. To create a filter based on this search, click the Create filter with this search link. Page 75 of 201

76 The filter options display. Select the check boxes that indicate what you want to do with messages that match the search criteria. For example, we selected to always mark messages that come in from the specified address with the HTG School label and to always mark those messages as important. We also decided to apply the filter to all existing s from this person. NOTE: If you want to have your labels act like folders, you can select Skip the Inbox (Archive it) to automatically move s into labels as they arrive. This keeps your s more organized, though you may risk missing an important message because it won t appear automatically in your inbox. Once you have specified your filter criteria, click Create filter. NOTE: When you choose to forward a message as an action in a filter, only new messages will be affected. Any existing messages to which the filter applies will not be forwarded. Page 76 of 201

77 A message displays saying that your filter was created. Notice in that screenshot, all messages from that person are labeled with the HTG School label. Page 77 of 201

78 The messages were also marked as important automatically (the tag icons to the left of the senders are filled in with yellow). Create a New Filter Using the Settings Screen You can also create a filter in the Settings. Access the Settings screen as previously described and click the Filters link at the top. Page 78 of 201

79 Click the Create a new filter link. Specify your search and filter criteria the same way mentioned in the previous method and click Create filter on the filter options dialog. Instead of ending up back in your inbox, you are returned to the Filters screen and your new filter is listed. You can edit, delete, or select it to be exported (exporting filters will be discussed later in this lesson). Page 79 of 201

80 Click the Inbox label to return to your inbox. Use a Specific Message to Create a New Filter You can also create a filter based on an existing message. To do this, select a message in your message list or in a label. Click the More action button and select Filter messages like these from the drop-down menu. Page 80 of 201

81 Notice that the From field on the Filter dialog is automatically filled in. Enter any other filter criteria you want and click Create filter with this search. Specify your filter criteria by selecting filter options on the next dialog as described earlier. NOTE: You can use this method to set up filters to automatically delete unwanted s as you receive them. Apply the Same Filter to Many Senders Page 81 of 201

82 You can use one filter to manage messages from a number of different addresses. For example, we can specify to label messages from multiple people with the HTG School label. To do this, open the search options dialog using the down arrow on the Search box. Add each address in the From field, separated with the word OR, and click Create filter with this search. To apply the same label to messages from either of these addresses, select the Apply the label check box and select the desired label from the popup list. Apply any other actions for this filter and click Create filter. NOTE: Remember to select Also apply filter to matching conversations check box if you want to apply this filter to messages you ve already received from these two addresses. Page 82 of 201

83 Export and Import Filters Now that you ve learned how to set up filters, you ve probably created some very useful filters that you may want to use in other Gmail accounts. You can export filters from one account and import them into another. Export a Filter To export a filter, first access the Filters screen on the Settings screen (using the Settings gear button). Then, select the filter you want to export in the list and click Export. NOTE: You can select multiple filters to export at once. Page 83 of 201

84 On the Save As dialog box, navigate where you want to save the filter. The filter is saved as an XML file with a default name that you can change if you want, just be sure to leave the extension as.xml and click Save. Page 84 of 201

85 Now you have a file you can backup, transfer to another computer, share with a friend, or import into another Gmail account. Import a Filter To import a filter into your Gmail account, access the Filters on the Settings screen, and click the Import filters link. Under Import Filters, click Choose File. NOTE: If you change your mind about importing the filter, click the Cancel import link. On the Open dialog box, navigate to the location where you saved your exported filter. Select the file and click Open. Page 85 of 201

86 The file name is listed next to the Choose File button. Click Open File to open the file and import the filters in it. A message displays under the Search box while the filter file is being opened. This may take a while, depending on how many filters are in the file. Page 86 of 201

87 All filters in the selected file are listed under Import Filters. Select the filters you want to import. If you want to apply the imported filters to existing messages (just like you would when creating a new filter), select the Apply new filters to existing mail checkbox, and click Create filters. A dialog box displays showing progress of the filter creation process. You can cancel the creation of the filters by clicking Stop. Page 87 of 201

88 When the filters have been created, they display in your list on the Filters screen. Keep Track of Important s Using the Star System Gmail s star system allows you to mark your most important s so you can easily find them later. By default, starred messages are labeled with a yellow star, but you can add other color and types of stars. Stars display to the left of the sender s name in your inbox. Add a Star to a Message To add a star to a message in your inbox, click the star icon next to the sender s name, as pictured above. You can also add a star to a message while it s open. To do this, click the star icon in the upper-right corner of the message to the right of the date. In conversations, it will be to the right of the first message at the top of the conversation. Page 88 of 201

89 To add a star to a message you are composing, click the More options arrow in the lower-right corner of the Compose window. Move your mouse over the Label option and then select Add star from the submenu. Page 89 of 201

90 In your Sent Mail label, the message you sent is starred. Use Multiple Star Designs on Your Messages Gmail allows you to use multiple colors and types of stars to differentiate messages from one another. Page 90 of 201

91 This feature is useful if you want to mark multiple messages with varying levels of importance. For example, you might use a purple star for messages you want to read again and a red exclamation point for messages you need to follow up on. Click the Settings button and select Settings from the drop-down menu. On the General tab, scroll down to the Stars section. Drag icons from the Not in use section to the In use section to add different types of stars. If you have more than one type of star in use, clicking the star icon next to an message cycles through all the stars in use. If you star a message while it s open, only the first star type is applied. Find Starred Messages To see all your starred messages, click the Starred label on the left side of the main Gmail window. You can also search for starred messages by typing is:starred in the Search box. Page 91 of 201

92 Find Messages with a Particular Type of Star If you ve used several different types of stars to mark your messages, you can search for a particular type of star. To do this, search using has: with the star s name (e.g., has:red-bang ). To find out the name of a particular star, access the General tab on the Settings screen and hover your mouse over the desired star type. The name of the star displays in a popup. There is also a list of star names in the Advanced search help topic in Gmail s help. Keep Starred Messages Out of the Primary Tab If you organize your inbox using the configurable tabs mentioned earlier in this lesson, messages from other tabs that are marked with a star are also included in the Primary tab. If you don t want to see starred messages from the other tabs on the Primary tab, you can turn this off. Click the + icon to the right of the tabs. Page 92 of 201

93 On the Select tabs to enable dialog box, deselect the Include starred in Primary checkbox, and click Save. Page 93 of 201

94 Lesson 5: Attachments, Signatures, and Security In this lesson, we focus on attachments and how you can spruce up your messages with a personalized signature. We close things out with information on how to best protect your account data and also back up your data locally so you always have it, even if you delete your account. Attachments Adding an attachment to an in Gmail is easy. Best of all, with Gmail, you can avoid the embarrassment of sending a follow-up if you forget to attach a file. NOTE: Gmail messages can be up to 25 megabytes (MB) in size. If you need to send attachments in the message that cause it to be larger than 25MB, you can insert files from Google Drive instead. There is no limit to the number of attachments allowed per message, as long as you do not exceed the 25MB size limit. One way is to click Attach files at the bottom of the Compose window. Select your files to attach to the message on the Open dialog box. You can attach multiple files at a time by selecting multiple files the same way you would in Windows Explorer. Click Open to attach the selected files. Page 94 of 201

95 The progress of the attachment of the files displays at the bottom of the message. Now, what if you forget to attach your files? Gmail won t let you forget. Gmail recognizes when you ve written certain phrases in the body of your message, and before it will send the message, a reminder message pops up. Page 95 of 201

96 Click Cancel and attach the files before sending the message. Any of the following phrases will prompt the attachment reminder to display. see attached see attachment see the attached attached to this I ve attached I have attached I ve included I have included attached file Use Drag-and-Drop to Attach Files You can also drag-and-drop files onto a message you re composing to attach them. Simply drag a file from an Explorer window to the message you re composing. Page 96 of 201

97 Set up an Signature in Gmail Mobile An signature allows you to automatically include a few lines of contact information (or any other information) to the bottom of every outgoing message, allowing you to easily advertise your business or yourself. Gmail allows you to set up a signature to include in messages you compose. To set up a signature that will be automatically appended to any s you compose in Gmail, click the settings gear button and select Settings from the drop-down menu. Stay on the General tab, scroll down to the Signature section and select the option below No signature to turn the feature on. Page 97 of 201

98 Enter the text you want to use as your signature. If you have a logo, you can insert that as an image with your text or on its own. You can also add hyperlinks to text in your signature, by selecting the text for the link and clicking the Link button on the toolbar. NOTE: If you want to add an image to your signature, you need to use an image that s available publicly on the web. For example, to use your company s logo, you might be able to find it on your company s site and copy the URL from there. You need a web URL to include an image in your signature. If the image you want to use is not already available on the web, you can use sites like Blogger and Google Sites to create a simple website and upload your image to it. Or, you can use an image hosting service. Page 98 of 201

99 Under Link to, specify whether the link is to a Web address or an address. Enter the URL or address in the To what URL should this link go? box. If you want to test the link to make sure it works, click Test this link. When you are satisfied, click OK. The link is inserted. When the cursor is on any of the linked text, additional options display. You can Go to [the] link, Change the link, or Remove the link. To hide these options, either click the X on the right side of the box, or click on any other non-linked text in the signature. Gmail automatically inserts two dashes ( ) above your signature, separating it from the body of the message, as shown below. Page 99 of 201

100 You can choose to leave out the dashes. To do so, select the Insert this signature before quoted text in replies and remove the line that precedes it check box. Note that this option will also insert your signature before quoted text in replies. Click Save Changes. Page 100 of 201

101 You can edit or delete the signature manually once it is inserted into a new message. Set up an Signature in Gmail Mobile The Gmail mobile app allows you to set up a signature for use in the app that s separate from the signature you setup in Gmail in a browser. We will show you how to setup a signature on an Android phone. To add a signature in the Gmail app on an Android phone, click your phone s menu button and select Settings from the popup menu. On the Settings screen, touch the address for the account for which you want to setup a signature. Page 101 of 201

102 Touch the Signature option on the Settings screen. Enter your signature on the Signature popup dialog and touch OK. Page 102 of 201

103 NOTE: You can press Enter in the signature to put your signature text on multiple lines however, you cannot add hyperlinks to the text in your signature in the Gmail app. The signature displays below the Signature option on the Settings screen. Page 103 of 201

104 Press the Back button on your phone twice to return to your inbox. Touch the Compose button. The signature you defined is automatically added to the new message. Page 104 of 201

105 Set up Multiple Signatures You can only add one signature in Gmail. However, there is a way around this limitation in the browser. If you need multiple signatures in Gmail, you can create additional ones using the Canned Responses feature in the Gmail Labs. We will cover this feature in Lesson 10 when we talk about advanced features in Gmail Labs. Keep your Account and Data Secure We want to switch gears a bit for the remainder of this lesson to focus on account security and backing up your data. Since you ll be keeping so much of your life in (contacts, calendars, tasks, etc.) your Gmail account, it s imperative you know how to keep it safe, secure and, if necessary, how to back your data up in case, for example, you ever decide you want to delete your account. Secure Your Data Using Google Account Settings You can change your password, account recovery options, and notifications in the Security section of the Accounts section. Page 105 of 201

106 To access the Accounts screen, click the Settings gear button and select Settings from the dropdown list. Click Accounts at the top of the Settings screen. In the Change account settings section, you can change your password, change your password recovery options, and access other Google Account settings. Change Your Gmail Password It s a good idea to change your passwords every once in a while to prevent unauthorized access to your online accounts, including Gmail. If you suspect somebody might have gained access to your Gmail account, you should change your password immediately. To change your password, access the main Accounts screen as described above. In the Change account settings section, click the Change password link. Page 106 of 201

107 On the Change your password screen, enter your Current password and then enter a New password, again in Confirm new password, and click Change Password to accept the change. Recover or Reset Your Gmail Password if You Have Forgotten it If you ve forgotten your Gmail password, there are a few ways you can recover or reset it. Access the Accounts section on the Settings screen, as discussed earlier. Click the Change password recovery options link in Change account settings. Page 107 of 201

108 Use the Account recovery options screen to further secure your Google account and to provide ways of accessing account if you forget your password. You can provide a Mobile phone number to help protect your account, a Recovery address that allows Google to contact you about changes to your account, and an Alternate address, which provides another recovery address as well as another method of signing into your Google account. Page 108 of 201

109 You can also assign a Security question to your account to further establish that this is indeed your account, when contacting Google about it. Make any changes you want to your account recovery options and click Save when you are finished. Get an Extra Layer of Security Using 2-Step Verification The Security section of the Accounts screen also allows you to apply 2-step verification to your account to provide an extra layer of security using your mobile phone. In a nutshell, when you elect to add 2-step verification to your Google account, upon entering your password, Google will then text a numerical code to your mobile phone. You then verify your identity by entering the code at the next screen, i.e. second step. See our article about securing your Google account using 2-step verification for detailed information about setting up this feature. Protect Your Privacy Using the External Images Options Up until now by default, Gmail has always asked you before showing images in s. Some senders might try to use images to deliver viruses or malware to your computer or mobile device, compromising its security. Page 109 of 201

110 As of December 2013, Google changed how Gmail handles images in . In your browser, Gmail will show images in your messages automatically now. This change will be rolling out to Gmail for Android and ios in early However, Gmail messages will continue to be safe. Normally, images are served directly from the original external host servers. However, now Gmail will serve all images through Google s own secure proxy servers. This protects you in the following ways: Senders can t use image-loading to get information like your IP address or location. Senders can t set or read cookies in your browser. Gmail checks your images for known viruses or malware. Gmail will continue to scan every message for suspicious content and if Gmail considers a sender or message suspicious or potentially harmful, images will not be displayed and you will be asked whether you want to see the images. So, Google will still be responsible for the security of images received through Gmail. According to Google, your will now be safer, faster and more beautiful than ever. Choose Whether to Show Images Automatically in the Settings If you don t want images to be displayed automatically, you can still choose to display images on a per-message basis. See our article on How-To Geek to learn more about this feature, and about how to change the settings so you can decide to show images for each message separately. Backing up Your Data You ve always been taught that it s a good idea to back up your data, such as documents, notes, etc., and the same goes for s, calendar data, and contacts. You now have the ability in Gmail to export a copy of your data from various Google products, such as Calendar and Contacts, and you will soon have the ability to export a copy of your Gmail messages. Each Google service is archived in a different format. For information about each of the formats available for the different services, see Google s help page. To archive your Google Data, click the Settings gear button and select Settings from the dropdown menu, and click the Accounts tab on the Settings screen. Page 110 of 201

111 In the Change account settings section on the Accounts screen, click the Google Account settings link. On the Accounts screen, click Download your data under Account. On the Download a copy of your data screen, click Create an archive. Page 111 of 201

112 The next screen allows you to select the Google products for which you want to download your data. Follow the directions on the screens to create your archive. You can also click the My archives link in the upper-right corner to access your archives and download them to your computer. Backup Your Gmail Account Using Other Methods You can also use an open source tool called GMVault to download a backup of your Gmail account. This is a command line tool that can be used in Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X. If you re not comfortable using a command line tool, you can use the free client Thunderbird to download and backup your from your Gmail account. If you use Ubuntu, we ve described how to use a program called Getmail to backup your Gmail account. You can even backup your Gmail messages by automatically forwarding them to another address. Google Help describes how to do this. Note that this method will only backup you receive, not your sent mail. Coming up Next Page 112 of 201

113 Adding attachments to Gmail messages is a snap and best of all, if you re the forgetful type, the system will remind you. That s good news, especially if you ve added a snazzy professional looking signature and you don t want to embarrass yourself by forgetting to include a file. More importantly, you now have a better understanding of the security options that are available to you, and how you can best keep your account secure while maintaining the integrity of your valuable data. The next lesson will discuss invitations and vacation responders so you ll never miss an important event and you can let people quickly know when you re out of the office and when you ll return. Page 113 of 201

114 Lesson 6: Invitations and Vacation Responders We re next going to talk about event invitations. Integration of Google Calendar in Gmail allows you to send event invitations directly within Gmail without accessing Google Calendar. You can also add events from Gmail messages directly to Google Calendar. Lastly, we ll talk about setting up vacation responders so you can leave town while letting people know when you ll be back to answer their questions. It s worth noting that this lesson largely deals with Google Calendar, but from the point of view of a Gmail power user because when you get an invitation or have to deal with calendar items, it s usually through your client, right? There s no reason to open up your calendar when you can do almost everything directly inside of Gmail, including sending invitations to other people. Quickly Find Event Invitations in Your Gmail Inbox Event invitations in Gmail are indicated with a calendar icon to the right of the subject line. Respond to an Invitation on the Subject Line You can quickly respond to an invitation directly on the subject line of the message. Simply click the RSVP button and click, Yes, Maybe, or No, to respond. Page 114 of 201

115 Respond to an Invitation from Within the Message You can also respond to an invitation from within the message. Page 115 of 201

116 Insert an Invitation Directly in a Gmail Message You can insert an invitation to an event directly in a Gmail message. Quickly invite someone to a meeting in an , or respond to a friend s with an invitation to get together. Click Compose to create a new message. Page 116 of 201

117 Add recipients to the , enter a subject line, and add any relevant text to the body of the message. Move your mouse over the plus sign at the bottom of the Compose window. More icons become available. Click the Insert invitation calendar icon. Page 117 of 201

118 Click on the date box to select a date for the event. Page 118 of 201

119 Click on the beginning time box to select a starting time for the event from the drop-down list. Page 119 of 201

120 Select the ending time and the ending date (if the event is more than one day long). Specify an all day event using the All day check box. Enter the location in the Where edit box and a Description for the event. Click Insert Invitation to add the invitation to your message. Page 120 of 201

121 A box containing the event details is inserted into your message. Click Send and the recipients will see the message as an invitation in their inbox and will be able to RSVP to it. Page 121 of 201

122 Create a Google Calendar Event from a Message without an Invitation in Gmail Sometimes you might get an about an event to which you are invited but the sender didn t officially include an invitation. If there is a date and a time in the message, Gmail should recognize this fact and allow you to use the information to create an event in your calendar. If there is a recognizable date and time in the message, Google will underline the date and the time with a dashed line and they become links. To add a date and time to your calendar from within a message, click the date and time link. Page 122 of 201

123 Sometimes the date and time are not recognized by Google and you have to add these details to your Calendar manually. A popup dialog box displays with the details gathered from the about the event. In our example, the time is not recognized, so we must add a time to the event. Click the down arrow next to add a time and select the starting time from the drop-down list. Page 123 of 201

124 Click Add to Calendar to add the event to your calendar. You will see this event in your Calendar now and you can edit it by clicking the Edit in Calendar button. Click anywhere in the message outside of the popup dialog box to close the box. Keep People Informed Using Vacation Response Even though you can check your Gmail account on many mobile devices, you may not want to when you re on vacation. If you re not going to be available and checking your , you may want to Page 124 of 201

125 automatically alert senders to that fact. Gmail allows you to set up a vacation responder to send out an automated response telling senders that you are unavailable and you will get back to them or whatever you want the to say. Setup a Vacation Responder in Gmail To set up a vacation responder in your Gmail account, click the settings gear icon and select Settings from the drop-down menu. Stay on the General tab and scroll down to the Vacation responder section, select Vacation responder on. To indicate the first day the automated responses should be sent out, click the First day edit box and select a date from the drop-down calendar that displays. Page 125 of 201

126 If you know when you will be available again, you can set an end-date for the vacation responder to automatically discontinue. To do this, select the Ends check box and click on the edit box to the right. Choose the date you will be available again from the drop-down calendar. Enter the Subject and Message for the response. Use the toolbar under Message to format your text and enter links and images, if desired. You may not want this message going out to just anyone sending you , you can specify to only send this automated response to people in your Contacts list. To do this, select the Only send a response to people in my Contacts check box. Page 126 of 201

127 Click Save Changes at the bottom. Turn off the Gmail Vacation Responder Manually If you get back early from your vacation or you are available earlier than planned, you can easily turn off the vacation responder manually, even if you set an end-date. Simply go back into the Settings and select the Vacation responder off option and click Save Changes at the bottom of the screen. Page 127 of 201

128 Set up the Vacation Responder in the Gmail App The vacation responder you set up through your browser on your PC is also available in the Gmail app. To access the vacation responder on you mobile device, access the Settings screen for the desired account. Page 128 of 201

129 If you defined a vacation responder in Gmail in your browser, that responder is reflected in the Gmail app. Simply touch the Off/On button to affect the change to the responder. Touch Done when you have made your changes. Press the Back button on your phone twice to return to your inbox. NOTE: To see changes made to the vacation responder using a mobile Android device in your Gmail account in PC browser, you must log out of your account in the browser and log back in. Conversely, because you can t log out of your Gmail account on your Android phone, rebooting our phone picked up the changes made to the vacation responder in our Gmail account in a browser on our PC. Page 129 of 201

130 Lesson 7: Use Gmail as a Task List For today s lesson, we re going to cover how to use Gmail as a task list. Gmail integrates a simple todo list into your account. Google Tasks allows you to create lists of items, set due dates, and add notes. You can even create tasks directly from Gmail messages. Add a Task To add a task in in your Gmail account using Google Tasks, click the down arrow on the Mail menu in the upper-left corner of the Gmail window and select Tasks. The Tasks window displays in the bottom-right corner of the Gmail window. Notice that the cursor is blinking in the first blank task. If the cursor is not blinking in the first empty task, move the mouse over it and click in it. Then type directly in the first blank task. Page 130 of 201

131 Once you ve added a task, you can click the plus icon to create additional tasks. Pressing return after entering a task also creates a new task directly below it. Create a Task from an You can also easily create a task from an . Select the you want to add as a task. Click the More action button and select Add to Tasks from the drop-down menu. Gmail automatically adds a new task using the subject line of the . A link to the Related is also added to the task. Clicking the link opens the behind the Tasks window. You can also add additional text to the task or change the text input by Gmail simply by clicking in the task and typing or highlighting text and replacing it. Page 131 of 201

132 Notice that the Tasks window stays open even as you navigate through your in the background. Use the X button in the upper-right corner of the Tasks window to close it. Reorder Tasks Tasks can be easily reordered. Simply move your mouse over the task on the far left side until you see a dotted border. Page 132 of 201

133 Click and drag that border up or down to move the task to a different position in the list. Add Tasks to the Middle of Your Task List Page 133 of 201

134 You can also order your tasks by inserting new tasks into the middle of the list. If you put the cursor at the end of a task and press Enter, a new task is added after that task. If you press Enter with the cursor at the beginning of a task, a new task is inserted before that task. Create Subtasks If one of your tasks has subtasks, you can easily add these subtasks to the task. Add the subtask under a task and then press Tab to indent it. Press Shift + Tab to move a task back to the left. Page 134 of 201

135 Add Details to a Task Sometimes you might want to simply add notes or details to a task without creating subtasks. To do this, move your mouse over a task until an arrow displays to the right of the task. Click on the arrow. Page 135 of 201

136 A window displays allowing you to select a due date for the task and to enter notes. To select a due date, click the Due date box. A calendar displays. Click a date to specify a due date for the task. Use the arrows next to the month to move to different months. Page 136 of 201

137 The date is inserted into the Due date box. To add notes to the task, type them in the edit box below the Due date box. When you are done, click Back to list. The note and due date display on the task as links. Clicking on either link allows you to edit that part of the task. Page 137 of 201

138 Minimize the Tasks Window When you move your mouse over the title bar of the Tasks window, it become a hand. Clicking the title bar minimizes the Tasks window. Clicking the title bar again opens the Tasks window. Rename a Task List By default, your task list is titled with the name of your Gmail account. However, you can change this. For example, maybe you want separate tasks lists for work and personal. To rename a task list, click the Switch list icon in the lower-right corner of the Tasks window and select Rename list from the popup menu. Page 138 of 201

139 Enter a new name for the current task list in the Rename list to edit box on the dialog box that displays. Click OK. The new name displays in the title bar of the Tasks window. Print or a Task List You can print a task list by clicking Actions and selecting Print task list from the popup menu. Page 139 of 201

140 You can a task list to yourself or to someone else using the task list option on the Actions popup menu, pictured above. Create Additional Task Lists Now that you ve renamed your initial task list, you can add another one for a different use, such as for personal tasks. To do this, click the Switch list icon again and select New list from the popup menu. Page 140 of 201

141 Enter a name for the new list in the Create a new list named edit box on the dialog box that displays, then click OK. The new list is created and Gmail automatically switches to the new list in the Tasks window. Page 141 of 201

142 Switch to a Different Task List You can easily switch to another task list by clicking the Switch list icon and select the name of the desired list from the popup menu. Page 142 of 201

143 Check Off Completed Tasks When you re done with a task you can check it off, indicating you have completed it. To check off a task, select the check box to the left of the task. A check mark displays and the task is crossed out. Clear Completed Tasks To clear or hide completed tasks from your task list, click Actions at the bottom of the Tasks window and select Clear completed tasks from the popup menu. Page 143 of 201

144 The completed task is removed from the list and a new, empty task is added by default. View Hidden Completed Tasks Page 144 of 201

145 When you clear tasks from a task list, they are not completed deleted. They are simply hidden. To view hidden, completed tasks, click Actions and select View completed tasks from the popup menu. Completed tasks for the currently selected task list are displayed by date. Page 145 of 201

146 Delete a Task You can delete tasks you have created, whether they are marked as completed or not. To delete a task, click the cursor in the text of the task to select it, and click the Trash icon at the bottom of the Tasks window. NOTE: Deletions of tasks take effect immediately in your Tasks window. However, Google says that residual copies may take up to 30 days to be deleted from their servers. View Your List in a Pop-Out Window You can view your tasks in a separate window you can move around. If you have a large enough screen, this is useful so you can see the entire Gmail window without it being blocked by the Tasks window. To make a separate Tasks window, click the Pop-out arrow at the top of the Tasks window. Page 146 of 201

147 The Tasks window becomes a separate window from the browser window. All the same menus and options are available including the Pop-in button that allows you to return the Tasks window to the lower-right corner of the browser window. Page 147 of 201

148 Page 148 of 201

149 Lesson 8: Multiple Accounts, Keyboard Shortcuts, and Remote Signout In this How-To Geek School lesson, we discuss how to use multiple accounts, sign out of your Gmail remotely, and how to use Gmail with keyboard shortcuts one of the features that every power user needs to know. Keyboard shortcuts are probably the most powerful feature in Gmail and mastering them can save you hours every month, or more. Rather than pointing your mouse at your and clicking buttons, you can simply press a couple of buttons on the keyboard without even lifting your fingers from the home row, and check , archive, reply, and more. And, of course, if you forget to sign out of your account you can actually do that remotely. It s really easy, we ll cover that near the end of the lesson. Sign in to Multiple Gmail Accounts on Your Computer If you want to be able to check multiple Gmail accounts in a browser on your laptop or desktop computer, Gmail provides a way for you to sign into more than one account at a time in Gmail in a browser. First sign into one of your accounts, any account you sign into first will be the primary account, so if you try to access certain Google Apps such as Drive, it will be for that account. If you want to access these apps from your other accounts, you will first need to completely sign out, and then log in under a different account. Page 149 of 201

150 Note now that you can access your other accounts by clicking on the icon in the upper-right corner. From the drop-down list, choose Add account. If you have already done so, you can switch between accounts by clicking on it as shown in the following screenshot. Page 150 of 201

151 The other account opens in a new tab. If you use Google Chrome, the browser will remember the accounts to which you sign in and save them so you can simply switch to them in the future. However, if you use any other browser you may have to add in additional Gmail accounts each time. Sign in to Multiple Gmail Accounts on Your Phone If you have an Android phone, you know that you must have at least one Gmail account associated with it. However, just like in a browser on a PC, you can access multiple Gmail accounts on your phone and switch among them. Page 151 of 201

152 To add another Gmail account to your Android phone, touch the menu button and select Settings from the menu. Touch the Accounts button at the top of the screen. Then touch Add account and follow the directions to add your Gmail account. On the Add a New Account screen, choose Google from the list of available options. Page 152 of 201

153 Then choose New on the next screen. The setup wizard will walk you through the process of setting up a new account. Once you ve added an additional Gmail account, you can switch among your accounts in the Gmail app. To do so, touch the Gmail icon in the upper-left corner of the app screen. Page 153 of 201

154 All Gmail accounts you have added to your phone are listed at the top of the menu. Touch an address to view the inbox for that account. Sign Out of Gmail Remotely One of the most convenient features of Gmail is that you can access your from almost anywhere. However, what if you think you forgot to sign off from your aunt s desktop PC and your cousins might get into your ? Fortunately, Gmail allows you to sign out of your account remotely, making sure your all mischievous cousins see when they try to be nosy and read your s is a login screen. Page 154 of 201

155 In your Gmail account in your browser, scroll down to the end of the message list. On the right side, the time since your Last account activity is listed and Gmail also tells you in how many other locations your account is open; click Details. The Activity information dialog box displays showing you details about activity on your Gmail account, including locations in which your account is open other than your current, local session. To log out of all other open Gmail sessions, click Sign out all other sessions. Page 155 of 201

156 A message displays saying you successfully signed out of all other sessions. Gmail also warns you about changing your password if you think someone may be using your account without your permission. Click the red X button in the upper-right corner of the dialog box to close it. Save Time with Keyboard Shortcuts Keyboard shortcuts in Gmail can help you save time by allowing you to keep your hands on the keyboard at all times when working in . Some shortcuts are always available, while others must be enabled before you can use them. Shortcuts that are always available include using the arrow keys to move around the main Gmail window and compose messages. You can move among your messages and conversations, labels and to highlight the Compose button, press Enter to select. While a conversation is open, you can use n and p to go to the next and previous messages in the thread. Press Enter to open or collapse a message. There are several shortcuts available while composing a message. See the Navigate in compose section on Google s Keyboard shortcuts help page for a list of shortcuts for use in the Compose window. Shortcuts that Need to be Turned on There are many other shortcuts available but they need to be turned on first. To do this, click the Settings gear button and select Settings. On the General screen, scroll down to the Keyboard shortcuts section and select Keyboard shortcuts on. Page 156 of 201

157 Click Save Changes at the bottom of the screen. Here are some useful shortcuts: Shortcut Key Definition Action c Compose Allows you to compose a new message. Shift + c allows you to compose a message in a new window. d Page 157 of 201 Compose in a new tab Opens a compose window in a new tab. r Reply Replies to the message sender. Shift + r allows you to reply to a message in a new window. (Only applicable in Conversation View. ) f Forward Forwards a message. Shift + f allows you to forward a message in a new window. (Only applicable in Conversation View. ) k Move to newer conversation Opens or moves your cursor to a more recent conversation. Press Enter to expand a conversation.

158 j Move to older conversation Opens or moves your cursor to the next oldest conversation. Press Enter to expand a conversation. o or Enter Open Opens your conversation. Also expands or collapses a message if you are in Conversation View. u y Return to conversation list Remove from Current View Refreshes your page and returns you to your inbox, or list of conversations. Automatically removes the message or conversation from your current view. From Inbox, y means Archive From Starred, y means Unstar From Trash, y means Move to inbox From any label, y means Remove the label Note that y has no effect if you re in Spam, Sent, or All Mail.! Report spam Marks a message as spam and removes it from your conversation list. There are also some useful combinations of keys to help you navigate through Gmail. Shortcut Key Definition Action Tab then Enter Send message After composing your message, use this combination to send it. y then o Archive and next Archives your conversation and moves to the next one. g then i Go to Inbox Returns you to the inbox. g then l (lowercase L) Go to Label Takes you to the search box with the label: filled in for you. Simply enter your label and perform the search. g then c Go to Contacts Takes you to your Contacts list. For more shortcuts, see Google s Keyboard shortcuts help page. Learn Keyboard Shortcuts as You Work Keyboard shortcuts are a useful tool if you can remember them. If you are using Chrome as your browser, you can install an extension, called KeyRocket, which will help you learn keyboard shortcuts as you work with your . As you use Gmail, KeyRocket Page 158 of 201

159 recommends keyboard shortcuts for the actions you take. When you click something in Gmail, KeyRocket produces a small popup telling you what key(s) you could have pressed instead. Google Hangouts Hangouts is Google s new version of Gtalk. It allows you to send messages, photos, emoji, and make video calls with your friends and family. It s available through Google+, as an app on your Android or ios device, and as a Chrome extension. Hangouts is also integrated into Gmail, so you can send messages to people, have face-to-face video calls, and create new hangouts and invite people into them. You can show and hide the Hangouts feature in Gmail using the Hangouts icon at the bottom of left pane of your screen. Page 159 of 201

160 To use Hangouts to talk with a contact, whether in a Hangout, through a video call, or through , move your mouse over their name under the New Hangout edit box. There are several options on the popup dialog box that allow you to contact that person. Hangouts is also available as an app on your Android or ios device. Page 160 of 201

161 Hangouts is pretty simple and tightly integrated into Gmail so if you want a quick, easy way to shoot a quick message to your friends or family without actually composing an , Hangouts is your tool. Page 161 of 201

162 Lesson 9: Use Your Gmail Account to Access Other Accounts After all we ve shown you about how useful Gmail can be, you may decide to check all your accounts (Hotmail, Outlook, Yahoo Mail, etc.) in Gmail. Luckily, Gmail can act as an client and allow you to get from other accounts as long as they support POP access. SCHOOL NAVIGATION 1. Getting to Know Gmail 2. The Mobile App, Composing Mail, and Conversations 3. Inbox Management and Labels 4. Mail Filters and the Star System 5. Attachments, Signatures, and Security 6. Invitations and Vacation Responders 7. Use Gmail as a Task List 8. Multiple Accounts, Keyboard Shortcuts, and Remote Signout 9. Use Your Gmail Account to Access Other Accounts 10. Power Tips and Gmail Labs Gmail s Mail Fetcher feature downloads all your old s from other accounts as well as new s and displays them alongside your Gmail messages in your inbox. You can add up to five other accounts. We re also going to explain how you can use Gmail offline, because it s possible that you might go somewhere without Internet at some point. Sure, you can use a third-party mail client like Apple Mail, Outlook, or Thunderbird, but if you prefer using a web browser, there s an offline app for Google Chrome. Set up Mail Fetcher to Receive from Other Accounts To set up Mail Fetcher to check from another account, click the Settings gear button and select Settings from the drop-down menu. Click the Accounts link at the top of the Settings screen. Page 162 of 201

163 In the Check mail from other accounts (using POP3) section, click the Add a POP3 mail account you own link. The Add a mail account you own dialog box displays. Enter the address for which you want to receive s in your Gmail account in the address edit box. Click Next step. Page 163 of 201

164 Enter the settings for your other account, such as the Username, Password, POP Server, and the Port. If you still want to be able to check for your other account in other clients on other computers, select the Leave a copy of retrieved message on the server check box. You can also choose to label incoming messages for the other account with a special label, so you can tell which messages they are in your Gmail inbox. To do this, select the Label incoming messages check box and select a label from the drop-down list. There is an option in the list to create a new label if you don t currently have one that is appropriate. If you don t want the messages from your other account in the inbox with your Gmail messages, you can select the Archive incoming messages (Skip the inbox) check box to bypass the inbox and archive the messages immediately. NOTE: You can also set up a filter to move the messages to a label. See Lesson 4 more information. Click Add Account. Page 164 of 201

165 Now, you have the choice of setting up Gmail to send mail as the other address. To do this, select the Yes, I want to be able to send mail as option and click Next Step. Page 165 of 201

166 Enter information about your other address. By default, the Treat as an alias check box is selected, however, you may want to turn it off. When you use an alias, messages you send to a Send mail as address appear as unread in your inbox, as well as appearing in your Sent Mail. Also, when you receive an from a Send mail as address and you click Reply in the message, the To field is populated with your primary Gmail address. To avoid these problems, uncheck the Treat as an alias box, then click Next Step. Page 166 of 201

167 If you re going to send as your other address, you must tell Gmail whether you want to use Gmail s servers or the SMTP servers for your other provider. It s easier to setup Send mail as using Gmail s servers, so we recommend you do that. Select the Send through Gmail option and click Next Step. Page 167 of 201

168 Now you need to verify that you own the other address you re adding in Gmail. Click Send Verification to have Gmail send an to your other address. Page 168 of 201

169 The confirmation contains a link you can use to verify your address, or you can enter the confirmation code from the in the Enter and verify the confirmation code edit box and click Verify. The Add another address you own dialog box will close automatically. If you click the link in the confirmation , you may have to close the dialog box manually by clicking the Close window link. Page 169 of 201

170 Your other address is added to the Check mail from other accounts (using POP3) section on the Settings screen. It s also added to the Send mail as section, if you chose to be able to send mail from that address in Gmail. In the Send mail as section, under When replying to a message, you can choose to Reply from the same address was sent to or to Always reply from the default address, which is your current Gmail account. Note that you can always change the From address when you compose your new message or reply. Page 170 of 201

171 messages received for your other account display in your inbox (unless you automatically archived them or moved them to a label) with whatever label you assigned to them. Hide Folders and Labels in Gmail IMAP The ability to access all your Gmail in almost any program and on almost any device is handy. However, if you have a lot of , you may not want to sync with everything, such as the All Mail folder that contains five gigabytes worth of . If you only want to access the messages in your Gmail inbox, and your program does not allow you to unsubscribe IMAP folders, you can hide the folders, or labels, instead. This stops mail in those labels from downloading. Microsoft Outlook is an example of a program into which you can download your Gmail using the IMAP protocol. We ve previously shown you how to add your Gmail account to Outlook using IMAP. To hide a Gmail label from IMAP access, click the Settings gear button and select Settings from the drop-down menu. Page 171 of 201

172 For any System labels and custom Labels with which you don t want to sync in your program, uncheck the box next to the Show in IMAP option. The next time you open your program or check your Gmail account in the program (sync with your account), the labels you hid will not be visible. Page 172 of 201

173 Make Syncing with Gmail Using IMAP Faster with Less Traffic You can also make checking your in another program using IMAP faster by limiting the number of messages visible in each label (folder) in Gmail IMAP, so your program will have less to download, cache, and keep in sync. To limit the number of messages visible in each folder in Gmail IMAP, click the settings gear button and select Settings from the drop-down menu. Click the Forwarding and POP/IMAP link at the top of the Settings screen. Page 173 of 201

174 Scroll down to the IMAP Access section and select the Limit IMAP folders to contain no more than this many messages option. Select a number from the drop-down list and click Save Changes. Send Messages from Another Account in Gmail When sending a new message or replying to an message, you can change which address from which you want the message sent. Select an address from the From drop-down list. Page 174 of 201

175 Disable Mail Fetcher for an Account If you decide you don t want to get from your other account in Gmail anymore, you can disable mail fetching for that account. To do this, click the Settings gear button and select Settings from the drop-down menu. Click the Accounts link at the top of the Settings screen. To the far right of the screen, in the Check mail from other accounts (using POP3) section, click the delete link. You can also edit the information for the extra address using the edit info link. NOTE: Mail Fetcher will stop retrieving new messages from the other account, but any that you previously received will remain in Gmail until you delete it. A confirmation dialog box displays to be sure you want to delete the account, then click OK. A message displays saying the account was removed. However, the account remains in the Send mail as section, if you chose to be able to send from that account. You can leave it there if you still want to use Gmail to send mail from that address, even though you won t be receiving Page 175 of 201

176 from that account. If you don t want to send from that account anymore, click the delete link to the right of that account in the Send mail as section. Again, a confirmation dialog box displays to make sure you want to delete this account from Send mail as. Google warns you about possibly receiving from your other account after you remove it: Also, please note that previously fetched messages, especially if there were a large number, may still arrive even after you ve disabled Mail Fetcher. If you continue to receive mail from your other account a few hours after disabling Mail Fetcher, your other account may be configured to automatically forward your mail. Please log into your other account and check your automatic forwarding settings. If you re not sure how to turn off automatic forwarding, ask your other webmail provider for further assistance. Another option for receiving from another account in your Gmail account is to have automatically forwarded to your Gmail address from that account. The method for setting up autoforwarding will differ depending on your account. Check with your provider for details. Work with Gmail Offline Using the Google Chrome App When you want to use Gmail and you don t have a network connection, you can still access your synchronized messages using the Gmail Offline Google Chrome app. When you re online, your data synchronizes in the background, so when you don t have a connection, you ll have the information you need backed up. NOTE: If you close Google Chrome while you re online, your data will stop syncing at that time. Page 176 of 201

177 You can perform most common actions on your Gmail such as sending mail, archiving, labeling, and starring messages when you re offline. These actions are simply pending, waiting for the next time an internet connection is available on that computer. When that computer is connected to the internet again, all pending actions will be updated on Gmail s servers accordingly. Remember though, if you re working offline on one computer and then you access Gmail online from a different computer, you won t see the changes made offline on the other computer until that other computer is connected to the internet again. Install the Gmail Offline App for Google Chrome To install Gmail Offline, open Google Chrome, go tohttps://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/gmail-offline/ejidjjhkpiempkbhmpbfngldlkglhimk, and click the blue Free button in the upper-right corner of the popup window. The Confirm New App dialog box displays. Click Add to continue installing the app. Page 177 of 201

178 A new tab with all installed Chrome apps displays. To begin using Gmail Offline click the icon. The first time you run the Gmail Offline app, you are prompted to allow offline mail storage. To store you in your browser for when you re offline, select the Allow offline mail option. If you choose the Don t allow offline mail option, you can still use Gmail Offline (while online), but no mail will be stored in your browser for use when you re offline. Never fear, though. If you change your mind, you will be prompted to make the choice again the next time you start Gmail Offline. Page 178 of 201

179 Click Continue to accept your choice and start Gmail Offline. The Gmail Offline app opens in a new tab. The interface for Gmail Offline is different from the standard Gmail interface, but the main features, such as composing, archiving, labeling, and moving , though it seems you cannot create labels using Gmail Offline. When using Gmail Offline, your mail is downloaded to your computer s local storage, on which you installed the app. That makes it local to that computer. If you want to work offline on another computer, you need to install Gmail Offline on that computer as well. However, you can still use Gmail on the web on any computer, using Google Chrome or other browsers, without syncing. Page 179 of 201

180 Remove Offline Data from Your Browser s Storage If you decide not to sync your Gmail account for use offline, you can remove the offline data stored in your browser. To do so, open a new tab in Chrome, type chrome://settings/cookies into the address bar, and press Enter, then the Cookies and site data dialog box displays. Enter mail.google.com in the search box. As you type, the list narrows to matching results. Once the mail.google.com site is found, move the mouse over the item and click the X. Once you have deleted the data, click Done in the lower-right corner of the dialog box to close it. You are returned to the Content settings dialog box. Click Done at the bottom to close it. Then, close the Settings tab by clicking the X button on the tab. Remove the Gmail Offline App from Chrome Page 180 of 201

181 If you ve decided that you don t want to work offline anymore, you can remove the Gmail Offline app from Chrome. To do so, click the Apps button on your Bookmarks bar. If you don t see the Apps button on your Bookmarks bar, right-click on the bar and select Show apps shortcut from the drop-down menu. Icons for all your installed apps display on a new tab. Right-click on the Gmail Offline icon and select Remove from Chrome from the popup menu. Page 181 of 201

182 The Confirm Removal dialog box displays. Click Remove to uninstall the Gmail Offline app. Close the Apps tab using the X button on the tab, just like we described earlier for the Settings tab. Page 182 of 201

183 Lesson 10: Power Tips and Gmail Labs We wrap up our How-To Geek School series on Gmail by uncovering a few power user tips and closing things out with Gmail Labs features. SCHOOL NAVIGATION 1. Getting to Know Gmail 2. The Mobile App, Composing Mail, and Conversations 3. Inbox Management and Labels 4. Mail Filters and the Star System 5. Attachments, Signatures, and Security 6. Invitations and Vacation Responders 7. Use Gmail as a Task List 8. Multiple Accounts, Keyboard Shortcuts, and Remote Signout 9. Use Your Gmail Account to Access Other Accounts 10. Power Tips and Gmail Labs Load Gmail Faster by Switching to the Basic Version If you re accessing Gmail over a slow internet connection, it may take a few minutes to load. However, you can load Gmail faster by switching to a basic version of Gmail that allows you to carry out simple actions. To access the basic version of Gmail, simply add?ui=html to the standard Gmail URL. The URL should be the following: Here s how the basic Gmail interface looks. Labels are available along the left side, and actions are available on the buttons at the top of the list of messages. You can apply labels to your messages in the basic view but you can t move messages into labels like folders. Page 183 of 201

184 Create Instant Disposable Gmail Addresses Using Aliases Say you want to sign up on an list, but you re afraid of your being released to other spamming sites as well. You can easily use an alias of your Gmail address to keep track of where s come from. For example, if you want to sign up for a free ebook newsletter, you can create an alias of your , your. +free.ebooks@gmail.com. All messages sent to the alias are delivered to your main , your. @gmail.com. You ll be able to tell where s come from and whether your address is being sold to other sites. Page 184 of 201

185 You can setup filters to automatically delete these messages, apply labels to them, skip the inbox and move them directly to labels, or forward them to another account. Gmail also allows you to create multiple versions of your address. For example, if John Doe s main account is johndoe@gmail.com, s sent to john.doe@gmail.com, and j.ohndoe@gmail.com will also be received in the same account. You can create other variations of your main address using this method a handy tool if you want to use multiple aliases to sign up to different web services or newsletters. Don t Miss Important s with Desktop Notifications You may have thought that the only way to know you ve received important messages in your Gmail account is to keep it open in your browser. However, you can turn on Desktop Notifications in Chrome and in Gmail to automatically notify you when new messages arrive. NOTE: To see notifications from Gmail, you must be signed into Gmail and have Gmail open in your browser, which can be minimized. Enable Desktop Notifications in Chrome Websites and web apps can display notifications on your computer desktop. You can tell Chrome to automatically display notifications from all sites or to alert you when a site wants to show you notifications and of course, you can turn notifications off completely. Before you can get notifications from Gmail, you have to turn on notifications in Chrome. To enable desktop notifications in Chrome, click the Chrome menu button and select Settings from the dropdown menu. Page 185 of 201

186 The Settings screen displays on a new tab. Scroll down to the bottom of the Settings screen and click the Show advanced settings link. Page 186 of 201

187 More options display at the bottom of the Settings screen. In the Privacy section, click Content settings. The Content settings dialog box then displays. Scroll down to the Notifications section and select one of the first two options to turn on notifications. The second option, Ask me when a site wants to show desktop notifications, is recommended. This prevents you from being nagged with notifications from sites that are not important to you. If you want Page 187 of 201

188 to get notifications from every site that provides them, select Allow all sites to show desktop notifications. Click Done in the lower-right corner of the dialog box to accept the change. To close the Settings screen, click the close ( X ) button on the Settings tab. Page 188 of 201

189 Turn on Hidden Notifications The Windows Notification Area is used as the temporary source for notifications. Because some notifications are hidden by default, you may have to change the setting for notifications in Chrome in the Windows Notifications Area. To unhide Chrome notifications, click the Show hidden icons up arrow on the Taskbar and click Customize on the popup box. On the Notification Area Icons dialog box, scroll down to Google Chrome. Select Show icon and notifications from the drop-down list to the right. Page 189 of 201

190 You may a see a popup saying that this notification is not currently active. Once we turn on notifications in Gmail and receive a new message, the notification will display. Click OK to accept the change and close the dialog box. Enable Desktop Notifications in Gmail To receive notifications from Gmail when new messages arrive in your inbox without an active browser window open all the time, click the Settings gear button and select Settings from the dropdown menu. Page 190 of 201

191 Select New mail notifications on to receive notifications when any new messages arrive in your inbox. To be notified only when the messages coming in are marked as important, select Important mail notifications on. NOTE: See the Importance ranking and markers topic in Google s help for more information about marking as important. Scroll down to the bottom of the Settings screen and click Save Changes. Now, whenever you re working in another tab, or your browser is minimized, you will receive a discrete toast notification in the system tray. Page 191 of 201

192 Set up Input Tools for International Communication In Lesson 1, we introduced you to the different input tools available in Gmail, such as virtual keyboards and IMEs (input method editors). This feature can be enabled or disabled, and options for the feature selected in the Settings. To access the Gmail settings, click the settings gear button and select Settings from the drop-down menu. To turn on the input tools, select the Enable input tools check box, in the Language section at the top of the General tab. The Input Tools dialog box displays. Select a desired input tool in the All input tools list on the left and click the right arrow in the middle to move it to the list of Selected input tools. These Selected input tools will display on the Input Tools button when you click the down arrow to access the dropdown menu. Page 192 of 201

193 There are different icons to the left of the various input tools to indicate the types. When you see an icon next to an input tool that is a character from that language, that indicates that tool is an IME. Handwriting input tools are indicated with a pencil icon. The keyboard icon indicates input tools that are virtual keyboards. NOTE: You can also double-click on an input tool in the All input tools list to add it to the Selected input tools list. Click OK to accept your changes and close the dialog box. Access Gmail Labs Features Gmail Labs is a way to use experimental tools for Gmail. Some of the Labs features may seem more useful than others. There is a Send feedback link for each feature, so you can let Google know what you think of each one after trying it out. Note that these features are not all are necessarily ready for prime-time, so use them with caution. The following is a link you can use if you have trouble accessing your inbox after trying out some of the Gmail Labs features. Page 193 of 201

194 To add Gmail Labs features, log in to your Gmail account in a browser. Click the settings gear button and select Settings from the drop-down menu. At the top of the Settings screen, click the Labs link. Select the Enable option next to each feature you want to try out and then click Save Changes above or below the list of Available Labs. For example, we ve enabled the Canned Responses feature. When you have any Labs features enabled, they are listed above the Available Labs list under Enabled Labs. Page 194 of 201

195 Use the Canned Responses Labs Feature to Quickly Insert Common Text In Lesson 5, we talked about setting up a signature in Gmail. Because you re only allowed to setup one signature, you can use the Canned Responses feature in Labs to set up additional signatures you can quickly and easily insert into your messages. We will set up a signature as a canned response in our example. Create a Canned Response from a Message in Gmail Once you ve enabled Canned Responses, you need to setup a template for your canned response to use in your messages and replies. To do this, compose a message in Gmail (see Lesson 2), leaving the To and Subject fields empty. These are not included in the template. You can use links, images, and text formatting in your canned response. In our example, we added a link to How-To Geek that accesses the website. Click the down arrow button in the lower, right corner of the Compose window and select Canned responses and then New canned response from the popup menu. Page 195 of 201

196 Enter a name in the Please enter a new canned response name edit box on the dialog box that displays and click OK. You can discard the current once you ve created your canned response. To do so, click the Discard draft (trash can) button at the bottom of the Compose window. Page 196 of 201

197 NOTE: If you decide you don t want to discard the message, you can get the message back by clicking Undo discard on the message that pops up at the top of the screen. That message only displays for a short time, so be sure you watch for it if you change your mind. Insert a Canned Response into a New Message, Reply, or Forward To insert a canned response into a new message, reply, or forward, click Compose to start a new message or click Reply or Forward in a message. Click the down arrow button in the lower-right corner of the Compose window and select Canned responses and then select the desired canned response under Insert. Page 197 of 201

198 The text/images from the selected canned response are inserted into your . Fill in the To and Subject fields, write your , and send it. Edit a Message Template in Gmail Page 198 of 201

199 If you want to change a canned response, you don t have to recreate it. Simply insert it into a new message as described above. Edit the response and then highlight what you want to include in the canned response. Click the down arrow button in the lower-right corner of the Compose window and select Canned responses and then select the canned response you want to replace under Save. NOTE: To remove a canned response, select the canned response you want to remove under Delete. A dialog box displays to make sure you want to delete the canned response, then click OK to do so. Try Additional Gmail Labs Features There are many other Gmail Labs features for you to try out, such as Quote selected text. The Quote selected text feature allows you to select specific content you want to quote when replying to an . Once you ve enabled the Quote selected text feature, simply highlight the text to quote in a message and press r. NOTE: clicking Reply will not work so you must use the keyboard shortcut. Page 199 of 201

200 Undo Send The Undo Send Gmail Labs feature allows you to stop messages from being sent for a few seconds after clicking the send button. Once you ve enabled the Undo Send feature, specify the number of seconds for the cancellation period on the General tab in Settings. To unsend an , click Undo Send when the message displays or press z within the number of seconds you specified in the settings. You can also unsend s if you work in Gmail offline, as discussed at the beginning of this lesson. You can make any changes you want to the message in the Outbox before connecting to the internet to send it. Smartlabels We talked about labels and filters in Lesson 3 and Lesson 4, respectively. You can expand that capability using the Gmail Labs Smartlabels feature. With a little setup, Smartlabels can classify your automatically, applying labels and removing certain types of from your inbox. Custom keyboard shortcuts Page 200 of 201

201 Keyboard shortcuts can save you time when creating and managing your messages. There are some standard shortcuts that we discussed in Lesson 2. However, the Custom keyboard shortcuts Gmail Labs feature allows you to customize the keyboard shortcut mappings in the Settings. Try Gmail Labs at Your Own Risk!! Page 201 of 201