Welcome to the world of e-mail. E-mail, short for electronic mail, allows computer users to easily send messages back and forth between acquaintances around the world. There are a variety of ways to do this; some involve a program on your computer, others require visiting a website. It s an easy, fun way to keep in touch with those you might not see every day. Today I ll be showing you how to set up what is known as a web mail account using Google s Gmail service. Google, for those who don t know, started as an online search company that provided a way to find things on the internet very quickly. They ve branched out into all sorts of things including messengers, shopping, and e-mail. Before we begin, let s dissect a typical e-mail address:
Wesjohn79@gmail.com This is one of my many accounts with Gmail. Wesjohn79 is my login name. Your login name will uniquely identify you among those who also use the e-mail service. The @, or at sign, tells the service sending the electronic message were it is going. To get the at symbol, simply hold down the shift key, then press 2. In this case, the message would be traveling to me (wesjohn79) at Gmail (gmail.com). Let s set up an account! Most internet service providers give users access to an e-mail account as part of your membership. That, however, isn t always the case, so webmail is a popular alternative. Yahoo.com, Hotmail.com, AOL.com, and others are quite popular... Gmail, to me, is far and away the best. Now we need to open what is known as the web browser. For those new to the internet, a web browser is simply a tool used to browse the web, or internet. Firefox and MS Internet Explorer are both available on your laptops. For the same of this lesson, let s use Internet Explorer. Once you ve got the browser open, enter in http://www.gmail.com into the address bar. Let me know if you need any assistance in doing this
The photo above shows the Gmail homepage. See the link that says Sign up for Gmail? Click that, and we re on our way. You ll immediately be asked for a bit of personal information. This shouldn t worry you, though, as Google is a very respectable company that has your best interest at heart. They don t share personal information. In addition to your real name, you ll also have to provide your login name (unique identifier for you on the service). After you have a login name selected, click check availability. Also, make sure the box that says Remember me on this computer isn t checked. Leave this one unchecked on each computer you check your e-mail on that isn t your own or it will remember your user name and password. NOTE: Remembering your password is VERY important. Gmail provides a few measures if you happen to forget your password (you ll notice the security question one when signing up) which will assist you should you forget yours. This, however, doesn t always work well so it s crucial to remember it.
Spam isn t just meat anymore... Before we progress, I d like to take a minute to discuss spam. Spam, up until the past few years, was primarily known as an imitation meat available from your grocery. Now, however, the word is also used to describe junk e-mail. Yes, sadly, much more useless correspondences find their way to you via e-mail than traditional mail. Some of them can be quite risqué, too. There are a few built in measures taken by Gmail to help ensure your account is free from this garbage... but even with that things still slip by. One such measure taken to help keep Gmail safe occurs during the sign-up process, it s called Word Verification. The above, confusing looking lettering is an image used to stop those who wish to spam from using Gmail. Some of those pesky junk mailers have written programs that will find e-mail services on their own, sign up for accounts, and send out tons of spam. Those programs can t read the text the way it s on the page which prevents them from getting an account. If you are having trouble reading the lettering, click the handicapped icon next to the field to have the text read to you. If you still are having trouble, then let me know.
(let s sign up for an account, cont.) Go ahead and finish signing up. Once you re finished click the bottom text that says, I accept, create my account. You may skim the agreement prior to clicking if you wish. It s all legit, but, no would blame you for wanting to see what you re agreeing to. Once you re done you ll go to another page with a bit more info and a link that says Show me my account, which will take you to your inbox when clicked. An inbox, for those with no e-mail experience, is the area in which the e-mail you receive is stored. Take a few minutes to look around and click a few links. Feel free to ask any questions while doing so. Once everyone is finished browsing the site, we ll send a message! Getting Addresses, Sending Messages Write down your new email address (yourloginname@gmail.com) on the index card provided in your folder. After that, pass it to the person setting next to you. If we happen to have an odd number then someone may use my address. Once you ve acquired your friend s address, go back to your web browser and inbox. In the upper right hand side, under the Gmail logo, you ll see a link that says Compose Mail. Click it to begin sending your first message.
(getting addresses, receiving messages, cont.) You should be seeing the above screen, called the Compose Mail screen, on your computer now. Lots of options here, but, for now, we ll just be looking at send, save now, and discard. Discard, obviously, will delete the e-mail that you re in the process of writing. Save, on the other hand, will save your work-in-progress and put it in the drafts folder (see the link in the menu on the left hand side). Send will send your message away to its recipient should everything be filled out correctly. Now, see the box marked To:? Click in the open space with your mouse and type the person s email address that was given to you. Now, either by tabbing (if you hit the tab button, your cursor will go to the next open box) or using your mouse, go to the box marked Subject, which is where you ll type what the email is about. This will be seen immediately in the inbox of the person you re sending the message to. Now, tab or click to the gigantic open area toward the bottom of your page. This is where your message will be typed. Feel free to type in anything you wish.
(getting addresses, sending messages, cont.) Above the space where you ll put your message there is a toolbar worth taking a look at. On it, you ll see common word processor functions. Select your text by clicking and dragging the mouse over it. Now, try out the tools! Here is what each does. Clicking B BOLDS your text Clicking I Italicizes your text Clicking U Underlines your text There are a few other options here that you should play around with. For instance, the buttons that look like lines going to the left, center, and right tells Gmail which way to position, or justify, your text. There are also buttons to add links, color, and other things that advanced users will use now and again. The three options I described are the most commonly used in email. If you have any questions regarding the rest let me know. NOTE: There are a few etiquette rules that e-mailers like to adhere to. I ve enclosed a handout in your folder regarding this that we ll look at now. Let s type up a brief note using the rules of e-mail etiquette we just discussed. Okay, once you are done with that, click Send to send your note. In most cases, especially since you all are using Gmail, the delivery will occur instantly. Let the class know when you get yours... it should alert you when it is delivered.
Gtalk Chatting with Gmail Although this is an e-mail class, I wanted to briefly discuss the box you seen on the far left hand side of your page. It s called Gtalk, and it s a chat program created by Google that interfaces with your new email account. During your time using your new account, contacts can be added to your Gtalk list. This allows you to see when they re logged into their email account and gives you the ability to chat with them while they are on. This is handy, sometimes, but can grow to be annoying if you re trying to get work done. You may sign out of chat by clicking the options menu in the lower left hand part of the Gtalk screen. Gtalk has recently allowed users to sign on to their AOL Instant Messenger accounts as well, so, if you use that service, you can combine both services into one list of contacts. Again, it s handy, but sometimes annoying. Now we ll move on to something extremely important to e-mail users... attachments!
Sending Attachments Sending attachments is a slightly more advanced part of e-mail; however, it isn t much more difficult than sending a message. What s an attachment, you ask? Well, it s a way to send files from your computer to another using e-mail. This is handy if you have a document, photo, or song to share with a friend. Attachments, however, can be dangerous as an occasional virus will mask itself as one and send itself from one infected computer to an unsuspecting victim. I can t stress enough the importance of calling and verifying that a person actually sent you an attachment should one appear in your inbox. Odds are the person probably meant to send it to you, but, it never hurts to double check. An old boss of mine once opened an attachment and lost almost an entire hard drive worth of information... including hours of work on t-shirt designs. If you re currently not at your inbox, click the inbox link on the left hand side of your page. Now, click Compose Mail again to start a new message. Go ahead and enter in the same e-mail address you just sent to. Go ahead and enter a subject, let s call it funny picture, and then click the attach a file link under the subject box next to the paperclip. I put a screenshot of the link above this paragraph for those having trouble finding it. This should bring up a new empty box with a button that says Browse beside it. Click it, and you ll get the following menu:
(sending attachments, cont.) This menu shows a listing of your hard drive. To the left, you ll see a few links such as Documents, Desktop, Recent Photos, etc. which go directly to specific areas of your computer. I ve put a photograph on your desktop called funnypicture.jpg. So, if you aren t on the desktop (in the empty box at the top of your screen next to the two round arrows it should say desktop. If it doesn t then you should click the word Desktop in the menu on the left hand side). Now, when everyone is on the desktop, you should be able to see a JPEG file called funnypicture. Select the file, which will put it in the box in the lower part of your browse menu. Once it s there, click Open and this will put the file into the browse box back on your Gmail screen. We ll send this as our attachment. Now, if you want, type a message to go along with the photograph. Perhaps in future correspondences you d include personal details to let the receiver know that it came from you and not a virus. After that, click send, and that s it. It ll take a bit longer than your last email due to the extra data from the picture.
In closing... Hopefully what we ve discussed today has helped you grasp the basics of e-mail. For the remainder of the class, play around with Gmail and get comfortable with it. There are tons of advance features that I ll perhaps cover in a future class. For now, though, I think you re ready to go out and communicate with friends and family members. I ll answer any questions you might have while playing.