Checking your Mail: The Basics

1. Get Mail! The main frame of the Gmail inbox offers a list of your incoming mail. If you just set up your Gmail account, you will likely have only one welcome message automatically sent from the Gmail team. You might want to ask some of your friends to send you messages or send yourself a test message from another e-mail account so that you can begin playing with the features of Gmail.

2. Once you have accumulated some e-mails, checking your Gmail account is easy. Log on and you will be automatically directed to the Inbox. Unread mail appears in bold print. To read an individual message, click on it. If you are using a fully-supported browser, you will also see a star next to each e-mail. You can click on the star to flag important messages.

Working with Your Gmail: Reading, Writing, and Responding to Messages

1. Read your mail. From your Inbox, click on any message. To reply to the e-mail start typing into the box available below. If you click the hypertext "Reply," you will see more options such as the ability to attach a file, or send carbon copies. Replying to the message without editing the subject will enable you to create a thread.

2. One of the most unique features of Gmail is its ability to "thread" your e-mail and read them as you would read a topic on an Internet forum or bulletin board. Threading your e-mail enhances your ability to organize your mail. When you and a friend send e-mails back and forth to one another, each successive reply is collected and organized under one thread. You will automatically create e-mail threads when you and a correspondent have replied to each others' e-mails at least once, and have not altered the subject (also known as the title) of the e-mail.

3. To compose a new e-mail, click on the hypertext button beneath the main Gmail logo that reads "Compose Mail."

Working within Threads

Working with threads might...

However, Gmail offers an intuitive graphical user interface to help you.
1. Click on any e-mail from your Inbox. If the message is part of a larger thread, you will see the entire list of prior e-mails from both you and your correspondent. To save space, Gmail automatically cascades the older messages, but you can see the name of the sender and the first line of the message body. Furthermore, any message that contained an attachment will have a small red icon in the shape of an envelope next to it.

2. To view all of the messages in the thread, click on the hypertext on the right which reads "Expand All." When you expand all messages, you can scroll through them and essentially read an entire back-and-forth conversation.

Working with Attachments

You will often want to send an attachment -- a photograph, document, or other file -- to your correspondents.

1. To attach a file when replying to a message, you must hit "Reply." You should then see a hypertext link to "Attach a file." Click on that link.

2. If you can type the exact location of the file on your hard disk you can type in that path into the fill-in box. However, you can also browse for the file by clicking on the button that reads "Choose." That will bring up a pop-up window that allows you to browse through the files on your hard disk.

3. When you locate the file, click "Open," and the file will be attached to that e-mail.

Further Information about Gmail

For further help, please consult the Gmail help options, available through your Inbox or from the Gmail homepage at www.gmail.com.From the help menu, you can find out how to import your contacts from other e-mail applications, use keyboard shortcuts, and perform many other actions in Gmail.

Works Cited