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1/28/2015 for Education: Google : Basics

Google Gmail: Basics

These Gmail Basics lessons will prepare you with a fundamental understanding of Gmail, its key features and general benefits in the classroom. With a basic understanding of Gmail, you can communicate effectively with your colleagues and students, stay organized, and begin to customize your Gmail experience.

You will learn how to:

Compose and send messages to parents, students and groups Use labels to organize messages Use Google Hangouts to communicate and collaborate via chat, voice, and video Manage on the go using your mobile device

To start, review the Basics lessons below and conduct all the activities. It is recommended you have another browser or computer screen available to practice the step-by-step exercises.When you are finished, review the Advanced lessons in this Gmail section to gain a deeper understanding of how to use these tools to impact teaching and learning.

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Compose a message

To create a new message in Gmail:

1. Click the Compose button. 2. Type the email address of the message recipient in the To:field in the New Message window. More than one recipient can be added. 3. Use Cc: (additional recipients, usually added for awareness rather than action) and Bcc: (blind carbon copy: these recipients will be concealed from others) to add additional recipients. 4. Add a Subject to explain the purpose for your message. 5. Add and style your text in the body of the message. 6. When you are ready to share your message, click Send.

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Anatomy of a message

Contacts

Over time, as you send and receive messages, the To:, Cc:, and Bcc: fields will suggest contacts after you type a letter or two of their name or email address. If your school has enabled shared contacts, colleague and student email addresses will also autocomplete. As you email new contacts, they are saved to your Contacts automatically, for future reference.

You can click on Mail above the Compose button to see the other Gmail features including your Contacts list. You can manually add contacts one-by-one, or import many at once from your old email system using a specially formatted file.

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Contact Groups

To simplify sending a message to multiple recipients at once, you can create contact groups. Contact groups are personal distribution lists, grouping recipients by affiliation or team (soccer team, Third grade teachers, parents, etc.), or by any other common criteria. Simply type in the name of a contact group, and all of the in that group will populate the To: field. No need to type in individual email addresses!

Subject

In Gmail, the subject line item takes on a special significance. Messages in Conversation View will automatically group according to the subject. It is important to take note of this as you view your inbox to make sure you read all your messages.

Formatting Bar

In the message body, you have the option to format your text by clicking the on the toolbar at the bottom of the New Message window. Additional options include changing the font style and size, adding bulleted and numbered lists, and the alignment and color of the text.

Attachments

Clicking the paperclip icon in the formatting bar enables attaching a file from your computer to your message. If you hover over the + sign next to the paperclip icon, you will have additional options like attaching files stored in Google Drive, inserting photos, web links, or emoticons.

You can also drag images from your computer and drop them right into the message window. File attachments cannot be larger than 25 megabytes (MB), but you can use the Google Drive integration to add a link to really large files to your message.

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Save and Discard

In the lower right of the New Message window, you can click the trash can icon to delete you draft message. There is no save button. Gmail automatically saves each message as you type, so you will never lose a message you are composing - even if your computer crashes or your Internet connection is lost. If you prematurely close your message before you send it, you can find it by clicking on the Drafts label to the left of the inbox.

Reply, Reply All, and Forward

When responding to an email you can Reply (to the address in the From: field), Reply All (all of the recipients visible to you), or Forward (specify recipients). Click on the arrow to Reply or the drop-down Lesson 2 Managing and Viewing Messages (5 mins) https://www.google.com/edu/training/get­trained/gmail/basics.html 5/46 1/28/2015 Google for Education: Google Gmail: Basics Conversation View

In other email systems, each new message and reply you receive appears individually, in the chronological order that it arrives in your inbox. This approach can make it difficult to follow the flow of a conversation, as it happens over hours, days, or even weeks, with several participants. In Gmail, messages and their replies are displayed together, as long as the subject line is the same, creating a single conversation or thread.

In Conversation View, the entire message conversation can be viewed on one screen, in a stack, with the newest message at the bottom. To see all the messages in a conversation, just click the Expand

all button.

To turn Conversation View on or off:

1. Click the gear in the top right. 2. Select Settings. 3. Scroll down to the Conversation View section (stay in the General tab). 4. Choose Conversation view on or Conversation view off. 5. Click Save changes at the bottom of thepage.

Before you turn off Conversation View, give it a try - it can be a powerful feature to help you manage Lesson 3 Using Labels to Organize Messages by Class or Subject (25 mins)

You may be familiar with the idea of filing your emails into virtual folders. Gmail does not have folders. Instead, Gmail has a flexible system of labels to organize your messages. Although labels are similar to folders, you can apply multiple labels to each message, each a different context. You can label a message from your principal with labels like ‘Administration’, ‘English Class’, and ‘Grades’, depending on the message contents or any other criteria you choose to organize by. You can create labels for: https://www.google.com/edu/training/get­trained/gmail/basics.html 6/46 1/28/2015 Google for Education: Google Gmail: Basics Conversations with parents Different classes or subjects you teach A committee or team you belong to Email newsletters or mailing lists

Change your view to only messages or conversations that have been labeled by clicking the label name to the left of the inbox.

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Labels vs. Folders

The difference between a label and folder, which is present in other email systems, is important to understand. In Gmail, a message can have many different labels in order to organize it for later use. In other email systems, folders are used as places to store messages; therefore, you can typically only store a message in just one.

Here is an example of a use of labels:

You receive a message from a student about his final research paper and want to label it 'Students' and 'Research Papers'.

1. Apply the Students label, where you keep messages from students, to the message. 2. Apply the Research Projects label, where you keep messages regarding research projects, to the message. 3. To access the message, you can click on either of the labels you applied: Click Students, you will see all the messages that you have tagged with the Students label Click Research Papers, you will see all the messages that are tagged with the Research Paper label

With a folder system, you can only file the message in one folder. With labels, you can create several categories of organization and apply multiple labels onto this message.

System labels

Gmail includes several system labels by default. Each system label serves a distinct and important function.

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Inbox: A view of all of your conversations that have not been archived; unread message count is in the parentheses

Starred: A view of the messages you have marked with a star; assign stars to special conversations or messages, or use them as a visual reminder that you need to follow-up on a message or conversation later; click the star icon to add this label

Chats: A view that shows your archived text chat conversations

Sent Mail: Shows all of the messages you have sent from Gmail

Drafts: As you compose messages, Gmail automatically saves them as drafts; you can view and edit them using this label

All Mail: A view of all of the messages you have ever sent or received including Archived messages

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Spam: Gmail has a robust filtering system to keep unwanted and potentially malicious messages from reaching your inbox; you can also report a message as spam to Google by selecting it in your inbox and clicking the hexagonicon; messages in Spam also automatically delete after 30 days

Trash: When you delete a message, it will remain viewable for 30 days by selecting this label; after 30 days, the message is deleted permanently

Note: You cannot change the names of these labels, but you can choose which will display in the sidebar above More, in your Settings.

Create and edit labels

To add your own label, click More below the system labels to the left of your inbox, and then click the Create new label link, or, click the gear icon on the right above your inbox, select Settings, click the Labels tab, and then click the Create new label button.

Changing a label name or deleting a label entirely does not modify the messages associated with that label. In the case of changing a label name, all the messages categorized under the previous label name will now be categorized under the new label name. When deleting a label, you can still search for messages or find them by selecting All Mail, the messages remain in your Gmail account.

All the messages categorized under your old label name are now categorized under your new label. And, if the label you have edited is part of a filter, Gmail automatically updates your filter settings so new messages are categorized with the new label's name.

Label your messages

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To apply a label to a message in the inbox view:

1. Select the checkbox next to the message(s) you want to label. 2. Select the label name from the Label as drop­down menu; or label a single message while you are reading it by using the drop­down menu or the keyboard shortcut l. 3. You can select multiple labels from this menu. 4. Click Apply to add the labels to the message. 5. Click New label to create a new label.

Deselect the label if you want to remove it, or if you are in your inbox view, click on the X next to the label.

If you would like to move your message to your label and out of the inbox, use the Move to button and label drop-down menu. This is the same action as if you applied a label and archived the message.

Organize Labels

Gmail automatically selects the labels that you view most frequently to show up in the list on the left. You can access your full list of labels by clicking the More link at the bottom of the list. https://www.google.com/edu/training/get­trained/gmail/basics.html 11/46 1/28/2015 Google for Education: Google Gmail: Basics

You have control over the list of labels by accessing Manage labels. There are three ways listed below to access this control.

Manage labels 1. Click the More link at the bottom of your label list and click Manage labels.

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2. Click the Labels icon and select Manage labels from the drop­down.

3. Click the gear icon in the upper­right, select Settings, and select the Labels tab.

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To set preferences on viewing your labels in your label list, go to Settings and change the view to show, hide, show if unread or remove.

A user can also customize the short list of labels on the left; for example, a teacher may want to include a custom label they created, 'Reminders', in the short list, in order to easily access the messages with that label. To do this:

1. Click the label you would like to move (either from the visible list or from the More list). 2. Drag the label into the desired section: the visible list or the More list.

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Nested labels

Labels are a great way of organizing your messages; nested labels give you the ability to organize labels hierarchically. For example, you can create a label for your 4th period class, and then have nested levels for each student within the class label. To start using them, you can either create a new sub-label from the drop-down menu on the left hand side or just move an existing label under another one using the edit option.

Lesson 4 Searching Your Messages (10 mins)

With labels and filters, you can set up a system for categorizing, moving, and finding messages you have organized. With search, you can find messages wherever they are stored in your inbox using labels, keywords, and other criteria such as whether a message included an attachment.

Enter a word, or multiple words, that appear anywhere within the message you want to locate in the search field. If you are looking for a message that contains the words 'testing schedule', simply type 'testing schedule' in the search field and press the Search button. Your results will be displayed with your search terms highlighted in yellow. https://www.google.com/edu/training/get­trained/gmail/basics.html 15/46 1/28/2015 Google for Education: Google Gmail: Basics

Advanced search options include the ability to customize a search date range or search for files that contain attachments.

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If you know your message is in one of your labels, you can do a specific search within a label. Using the : enter label: ,an advanced operator, followed by the label's name, in the search field.

If the label name has more than one word, you will need to connect the words with dashes.

For example, if you want to search for all messages from Bob in the label 'Math Teachers', enter the following in the Search Mail field: ‘from:Bob label:math-teachers’.

Find a missing message

If you conduct a search and do not find the message you are looking for, it may be in Spam or in your Trash label. Deleted messages are labeled Trash automatically. A Gmail search excludes messages in Spam or Trash unless you explicitly include the labels in your search.

To include spam and trash in your search results:

1. Click the drop­down arrow in the search box. 2. Fill in the search fields with the details you remember. If you are not certain about any field, leave it blank. 3. Select Mail & Spam & Trash from the Search: drop­down menu.

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4. Enter all other criteria for your search in the appropriate fields. 5. Click Search.

You can also use the search operator ‘in:anywhere’ to search for messages in the trash.

Note: Gmail search does not recognize special search characters like square brackets, parentheses, currency symbols, the ampersand, the pound sign, and asterisks. It also does not recognize partial or similar matches, so a search for travel will find travel, but not travels, traveler, or travel.

Managing Contact Information for Colleagues, Parents and Students (10 Lesson 5 mins) https://www.google.com/edu/training/get­trained/gmail/basics.html 18/46 1/28/2015 Google for Education: Google Gmail: Basics

Similar to an online address book, the Contact Manager in Gmail gives you easy access to the people you want to reach. All your email contacts are stored here. To find your Google Contacts just click Contacts from the mail menu along the left side of any Gmail window, use the Apps launcher, or type in google.com/contacts to access and edit your contacts' information.

Contacts make it easy to compose messages because Gmail will autocomplete for email addresses located in your Contact Manager. You can also store information like school, address, parent names, and phone numbers in the Contact Manager. and add custom fields like ‘Parents’ Names’ or ‘Graduation Year’. Additionally, you can use it as an organizational tool to track notes from phone calls with parents. Contacts can be a very powerful tool!

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.

To learn about Contacts, check out more in the Support Center.

Create contact groups

With contact groups you can easily organize your contacts, making it easier to email a specific set of people. For example, if you created a contact group called ‘Soccer club’, you could just send a message to https://www.google.com/edu/training/get­trained/gmail/basics.html 20/46 1/28/2015 Google for Education: Google Gmail: Basics Lesson 6 Using Hangouts to Communicate with Others (15 mins)

Hangouts unifies chats, audio calls, and video meetings across all of your devices, and is even more powerful if Google+ is available in your school’s domain. Whether you use Google Hangouts on the desktop, or on an Android or iOS tablet or mobile device, all of your Hangouts are synchronized. For example, all Hangout chats and video calls that have been created and saved on a computer are available on tablet and mobile devices.

Hangouts has many uses in the classroom. It can be used by teachers to collaborate with each other, or to provide extra help for their students when they are not face to face. Hangouts can be used to bring in an outside expert to “talk” to the class, or to connect a student that is sick or absent. Hangouts can also be used by a class to engage in a discussion with another in class in another part of the world.

In order to ensure your account has full access to Hangouts, contact your Google Apps administrator. If your Google Apps administrator has enabled Hangouts for your organization, you will see Hangouts located in the bottom left hand corner of your Gmail window. Click and drag the line above the Hangouts box to view more or less contacts in your Gmail window.

The benefit of using Hangouts with Google+ as opposed to just Hangouts is the ability to use apps in video calls, share photos and use circles to share and collaborate more easily. Using Hangouts with a Google+ profile allows you to unify your communications across all devices; including mobile devices and smartphones.

For more information on the differences between Hangouts and Hangouts with Google+, check out the Support Center.

Note: In order to use Hangouts with Google+, you must enable Google+ for your profile. A user must be 13 or older to activate Google+. If you have students in your school that are under 13, please speak with your Google Apps administrator about preventing these students from activating Google+.

If your school has opted out of Hangouts, you may still have access to chat in Gmail. To learn more https://www.google.com/edu/training/get­trained/gmail/basics.html 21/46 1/28/2015 Google for Education: Google Gmail: Basics information on voice and video chat, check out the Support Center.

Use Hangouts in your school or university

Here is a high-level overview of important features and reasons to use Google+ Hangouts:

Receive notifications across devices: Users will receive a notification across all of their devices when a message has been sent; they can continue the same conversation in Gmail, in Google+, on Android, on iOS, and through Chrome Hangouts message history is on for each chat by default in the new Hangouts A user can decide to keep history on or turn it off for each individual chat Regardless of whether users are on Hangouts, if one user turns off history, it is off for all users in the chat When history is off, the chat is stored for future access

Start a Hangout conversation or video call

The Hangouts list will display a running list of Hangouts, messages sent, and archived chats.

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1. Open Hangouts by clicking the Hangouts icon in the bottom­left corner of the Gmail window. 2. Select a person from the Hangouts list. The list is ordered with your most recent Hangout at the top

Or click the search button and type a name or email address When you find the person you want, click their name 3. If you want to start a group Hangout, check the boxes in front of multiple people's names and click the chat icon to start a message or a video icon to start a video call. 4. Choose the type of Hangout you want to start: Text conversation: Type the message you want to send in the text box that says 'Send a message' and press the return key on your keyboard to send the message; the typing indicator will show other people in the Hangout that you are typing a message

Video call: Click the video icon to start a video call 5. If you are using the Hangouts Chrome extension, Hangouts conversation windows will open outside of the https://www.google.com/edu/training/get­trained/gmail/basics.html 23/46 1/28/2015 Google for Education: Google Gmail: Basics browser window.

Online status in Hangouts

When you want to start a Hangout with someone on your computer, you can look at the person's profile picture in your Hangouts list to see whether they are online and available to chat. Someone who is available on Hangouts will have a green dot on their profile picture. These people will be notified about new messages or video call invitations immediately. If there is not a green dot on someone's profile picture, it means they are not available in Hangouts. They will be notified about messages and video call invites, but they may not see them immediately. These people could be on a mobile device, have their notifications turned off, are idle on their computer, or are not signed in to Hangouts.

Lesson 7 Customizing Messages in Gmail (15 mins)

Add a signature

A signature is a bit of personalized text (such as your contact information or a favorite quote) that is automatically inserted at the bottom of every message you send. This way you can automatically provide https://www.google.com/edu/training/get­trained/gmail/basics.html 24/46 1/28/2015 Google for Education: Google Gmail: Basics contact information for students, parents, colleagues, etc. in every message.

Here is a sample signature:

--

Ms. Smith

marie@[school domain].org

(555) 555-5555 x123

Language Arts, 5-6

Class site: http://sites.google.com/a/g1usd.org/ms-smith-s-language-arts-class/

To create a signature:

1. Sign in to your Gmail account.

2. Click the gear icon at the top of any Gmail page, select Settings, and open the General tab.

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3. Enter your new signature text in the box at the bottom of the page next to the Signature option; as you type, the radio button will shift from No Signature to the text box.

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Gmail adds your signature at the very bottom of your message. Signatures are separated from the rest of your message by two dashes. You have the option to insert your signature before quoted text in replies by checking the box before Insert this signature before quoted text in replies and remove the “--” line that precedes it.

If you do not want your signature to appear on a specific message, you can delete it manually before sending the message. Just highlight the text and delete it before sending.

You are only allowed to create one signature per email account.

Note: Rich text signatures are available in Gmail allowing you to add your own formatting, images and links to your signatures.

Tip: Add the link to your teacher website in your signature to make it easy to find for parents and students.

Vacation responder

Teaching a class? Going on vacation? Taking your class on a field trip? No access to the Internet? No problem! Use Gmail vacation responder to let people know you will not be able to get back to them right away. You do not have to be on vacation - but it is a great way to send an automatic response to anyone who emails you - parent, teacher, student, friend - that you are not actively responding to messages.

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You can set up a vacation response in your settings that will automatically reply to anyone who messages you. While the vacation responder is enabled, Gmail will send the notification response to anyone who contacts you.

To let people know you cannot respond right away:

1. Click the gear icon at the top of any Gmail page, select Settings, and open the General tab.

2. From the General tab, select Vacation responder on in the Vacation responder: section. https://www.google.com/edu/training/get­trained/gmail/basics.html 28/46 1/28/2015 Google for Education: Google Gmail: Basics 3. Enter the subject and body of your message in the Subject: and Message: fields.

Lesson 8 Using Gmail Offline (25 mins)

Web-based email is great because you can check it from any computer, but there is one little catch: it is inherently limited by your Internet connection. From public WiFi to mobile broadband cards to fledging in-flight wireless on airplanes, Internet access is becoming more and more ubiquitous - but there are still times when you cannot access your webmail because of an unreliable or unavailable connection. There may even be parts of your school that do not have reliable wireless Internet access, or that do not have access at all.

Fortunately, there is a Chrome App that gives you access to your messages when you are offline. With Offline Gmail (only available on and if your Domain Admin has enabled this feature) you can do the following without Internet access:

Read your messages Compose new messages Respond to messages Search and archive messages And best of all, all sent messages will send the next time you are online

Note: Gmail Offline capability needs to be turned on by your Google Apps administrator. To learn about Gmail Offline capability, contact your IT department or check out more in the Support Center.

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Before you can begin using Gmail Offline to increase your ability to communicate with your learning community, you must install the Chrome app, otherwise it will not function properly.

To download the Chrome app:

1. Find Gmail Offline in the Chrome Web Store.

2. Click the button. 3. Click Add to install.

Gmail Offline Sync Optimizer

The Gmail Offline Sync Optimizer helps you sync messages faster, improve battery life, and keep Chrome fast.

To download the Gmail Offline Optimizer:

1. Find the Gmail Offline Sync Optimizer extension in the Chrome Web Store.

2. Click the button. 3. Click Add to install. 4. Refresh any open Gmail Offline pages you may have open so it functions properly.

Use Gmail Offline

You might notice that this version of Gmail looks different from the Gmail you are used to using. Although it might look different, it still has a lot of the options that you are used to using in the https://www.google.com/edu/training/get­trained/gmail/basics.html 30/46 1/28/2015 Google for Education: Google Gmail: Basics classroom.

To open Gmail Offline:

1. Open a new tab in Chrome.

2. Click in the bookmarks bar near the top left of the page. If you do not see the Apps icon, make sure you select Show Bookmarks Bar in your Bookmarks Settings. 3. Click the Gmail Offline icon in the Chrome Apps page that displays.

Allow offline mail

When you first use Gmail Offline, you will be prompted to allow offline mail storage.

Choose Allow offline mail, unless you are using a shared or public computer

Navigate the app

Access your labels with the Menu icon While reading messages, find more actions like Mark as unread under the arrow icon

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Change your settings with the gear icon Add, switch or sign out of your accounts by clicking your account name in the lower left Check if you are offline with the connection status message in the lower left

There is also an option to switch between different Gmail accounts. Not all Gmail features are available offline. Check this out for more.

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Send and read messages

Click Compose to start writing messages. Your messages will be sent automatically when you are back online. If you have a custom signature, it will be added to your messages when they are sent.

You can add attachments, but the maximum size for a single attachment is 5 MB and the total size limit for all attachments in the message is 25 MB.

To read a message, simply click on the message you would like to read on the left, and it will display on the right.

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Work offline with Google Chrome

When you want to use Gmail and you do not have a network connection, you can access your synchronized messages through the Google Offline app. Your data will synchronize in the background while you are working online, so when you are offline, you will have the information you need backed up. If you close Google Chrome while you are online, sync will stop at that time.

The next time you connect to the Internet, pending actions in your account like sending mail, archiving, labeling, or starring messages will happen automatically. Keep in mind that if you are working offline in your browser and then you later access Gmail from a different browser or device, you will not see the changes you made offline until the offline browser syncs. https://www.google.com/edu/training/get­trained/gmail/basics.html 34/46 1/28/2015 Google for Education: Google Gmail: Basics Switch between offline and online

Depending on your work preferences, you can switch to offline Gmail when you are in an area with an inconsistent Internet connection, or you might want to use the Gmail Offline app as your primary version if you spend a lot of time offline.

If you work in Gmail offline when you have a slow network connection, it can help keep Gmail responsive, and your changes that require an Internet connection will be synchronized in the background.

How much data is synchronized?

Gmail will let you synchronize a week, 2 weeks, or a month of email conversations. To determine how much data you wish to have available offline, click on the gear icon and choose from the drop-down menu. Lesson M Using Gmail on Tablets or Mobile Devices (25 mins)

Mobile phone access

In addition to accessing Gmail from your computer when you are not connected to the Internet, you can also access Gmail from the mobile on your phone. This way you can stay in touch with your students, parents, teachers, and the rest of your school community wherever you are.

Note: Google does not charge you to access Google products from a mobile phone, but depending on your service plan, you may be charged by your mobile provider for text message or data network usage. Check with your provider for more information about fees associated with accessing the Internet from https://www.google.com/edu/training/get­trained/gmail/basics.html 35/46 1/28/2015 Google for Education: Google Gmail: Basics your mobile phone.

Because mail is a data intensive product, we recommend an unlimited data plan.

Depending on the type of mobile device you have, you may be able to access your Gmail account in different ways:

Mobile Web Browser Gmail App Sync with your mobile email app

Mobile Web Browser

Gmail for mobile browsers offers a number of great features that makes accessing your messages on the go simple and more productive.

Automatically optimized for your device’s mobile browser Perform common Gmail actions, such as archiving or viewing your labels Access and save drafts Access attachments, including images, Word documents, and .pdf files Reply to messages by phone (for senders with phone numbers in your Contacts) Always in sync

To access your school Gmail account, go to http://mail.google.com/a/myschool.org, replacing myschool.org with your actual domain name or whatever your email address is for [email protected].

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When accessed in a mobile browser, Gmail is not automatically refreshed.

To refresh your current view, you will need to do it manually. For example, if you would like to refresh your inbox, select Reload or Refresh from your browser's main menu. You can also select the Inbox link at the bottom of the page to trigger a refresh.

Tip: On Android or iPhone devices, tap the word Inbox in the title bar, or tap the refresh button.

Multiple sign in support

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Just like on your desktop, you can sign into multiple accounts simultaneously. To sign into an additional account, click on the account switcher at the bottom of the thread list, then click Sign into an another account. You can quickly switch between accounts by selecting the desired account from the Accounts menu.

Mobile-specific signature

We know that autocorrect and other mobile spell-checks can be frustrating as you are typing on the go. Let co-workers and friends know that you are responding via your mobile phone so that they https://www.google.com/edu/training/get­trained/gmail/basics.html 38/46 1/28/2015 Google for Education: Google Gmail: Basics understand why you might have sent a message that you are meeting for ‘common core’ and not ‘commodore’. It is an easy way to make them understand why your message might be short or have a few typos. To create a mobile signature, from the menu view, press the new settings icon, choose your signature, and then check the box that tells us you want to activate it. If you ever want to disable the mobile signature, you can uncheck the box and we will use your desktop signature instead.

Vacation Auto-Responder

Ever forgotten to set your out-of-office auto-reply in Gmail before going on a trip? You do not have to worry about that anymore, since you can now set your auto-reply using the mobile interface. Simply choose a start and end date and specify your message, just like on the desktop interface.

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Mobile App for Smartphones

For supported mobile devices, you can download the Gmail for mobile application.

There are Gmail apps for tablets and mobile devices running Android and iOS. The Gmail app keeps all your actions in sync with the Gmail server but is faster and offers support for checking multiple accounts. To download the app, point your mobile device's browser to http://m.google.com/mail.

If you have an Android device, your phone may have the Gmail app installed already. If not, you can download the app for free from Google Play. which offers features similar to the Gmail application on https://www.google.com/edu/training/get­trained/gmail/basics.html 40/46 1/28/2015 Google for Education: Google Gmail: Basics other devices but adds support for push email. In order to have this Gmail application work with your school Gmail account, you must have the entire phone setup with your school Apps account ([email protected] and not gmail.com addresses).

The following steps are for the Gmail app for Android 4.0+. However, if you need to learn information for previous Android operating systems, check out the Support Center.

Compose & send a message

1. When viewing a list of conversations, touch the Compose icon. 2. If you have more than one Gmail account, you can touch the displayed account to choose a different account.

https://www.google.com/edu/training/get­trained/gmail/basics.html 41/46 1/28/2015 Google for Education: Google Gmail: Basics 3. In the To: field, enter email addresses; as you type an email address, matching addresses from your contacts are suggested; touch one to select it. To remove an address, touch the name or address, and then touch the X that appears beside it To add an address in the Cc: or Bcc: field, touch Menu ( or your device’s menu button) and select Add Cc:/Bcc: 4. Enter a subject for the message. 5. Enter the text of the message. To attach a photo, touch Menu( or your device’s menu button) and select Attach picture 6. Touch Send at the top.

If you are not ready to send the message, touch Menu ( or your device’s menu button) and select Save draft. You can find your drafts by touching the Gmail icon and selecting Drafts.

To abandon the message, touch Menu ( or your device’s menu button) and select Discard.

If you are not connected to a network – for example, if you are working in Airplane mode – the messages that you send are stored with the Outbox label until you connect to a network again.

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Reply to or forward a message

This information is for the Gmail app for Android 4.0 and up:

Reply: Touch Replyat the top of the message Reply all: Touch Menu at the top of the message and select Reply all Forward: Touch Menu at the top of the message and select Forward

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for Education

Once you start replying or forwarding, you can also use the menu at the top to choose whether to reply, reply all, or forward

Additional options:

Self-Check Questions

1. Which of the following are true about labels?

Gmail has labels but not folders https://www.google.com/edu/training/get­trained/gmail/basics.html 45/46 1/28/2015 Google for Education: Google Gmail: Basics Messages can have multiple labels Labels can be color coded and are searchable All of the above

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