Sams Teach Yourself Gmail in 10 Minutes

Steven Holzner is the award-winning author of more than 100 books, specializingin online topics like Google Buzz. He’s been a contributing editor of PC Magazine and has specialized in online computing for many years. His books have sold more than 2.5 million copies and have been translated into 18 languages. Steve graduated from MIT and earned his PhD at Cornell. He’s been a very popular member of the faculty at both MIT and Cornell, teaching thousands of students over the years. He also runs his own software company and teaches weeklong classes to corporate programmers around the country.

Table of Contents

 

Introduction     1

 

1   Essential Gmail     5

Sending Email     6

Formatting Your Email     7

Saving Drafts     8

Spellchecking Your Email    8

Sending Attachments     9

Setting a Vacation Response     10

Receiving Email     11

Archiving Email     12

Starring Email     12

Filtering Messages     13

Deleting Messages     15

Searching Your Email     15

Advanced Searching     16

Checking Sent Email     17

Creating Contacts     18

Sending Mail to Contacts     19

Creating Groups of Contacts     20

Editing a Contact     20

Using Labels     21

Reading Your Buzz     21

Commenting on Buzz     22

Getting Buzz in Your Inbox     23

Posting Some Buzz     24

Posting Some Buzz via Email     25

Using Chat     25

Contents Starting a Chat Session     25

Using Emoticons in Chat     27

Using Gmail Labs     27

 

2   Signing Up for Gmail     29

Using an Acceptable Browser    30

Creating a Gmail Account     31

Signing In to Gmail     36

Getting a Tour of Gmail     37

Getting Email     41

Replying to Email     43

Going Mobile     44

Setting Your Picture    48

Creating a Profile     51

 

3   Composing Your Mail     55

Gmail’s Capabilities     55

Composing Email     55

Spellchecking Your Email    56

Adding Cc’s and Bcc’s     57

Setting Text Size     58

Bolding, Italicizing, and Underlining Text     59

Setting Fonts     61

Creating Bulleted and Numbered Lists     62

Indenting Text     64

Sending Links in Email     65

Sending Plain Text    66

Working Offline     66

Setting Out of Office or Vacation Responses    71

Saving a Draft of Your Mail     73

Sending Attachments     73

 

4   Reading Your Mail 75

Working in the Inbox     75

Reading Mail     75

Searching Your Mail     77

Displaying Only Unread Mail     78

Deleting Mail     80

Replying to Mail     81

Reading Your Sent Mail     82

Starring Mail    83

Handling Gmail Conversations     84

Forwarding Mail    86

Archiving Mail     87

Reporting Spam     88

Checking Your Mail     88

Muting Conversations     89

Filtering Your Mail     90

Editing or Deleting a Filter     92

 

5   Organizing People Using Contacts and Groups     95

All About Contacts     95

Working with Contacts    95

   Creating a Contact     98

   Emailing a Contact from a Contact Page     99

   Emailing a Contact Using Autocomplete     99

   Moving Contacts from All Contacts to My Contacts     100

   Editing a Contact     101

   Deleting a Contact     102

   Setting a Contact’s Photo     103

   Deleting Duplicate Contacts     106

Searching Contacts    107

Importing Contacts     108

   Creating a .csv File     109

Using Existing Groups     111

Creating a Group     112

Emailing a Group     113

Deleting a Group    114

 

6   Organizing Gmail Using Labels and Tasks     115

Using Labels     115

   Applying Labels to Messages     116

   Removing Labels from Messages     117

   Creating New Labels     118

   Sorting Mail by Labels     120

   Editing Labels     121

   Organizing Labels     122

   Deleting Labels     123

   Changing Label Colors     124

   Searching Using Labels     125

Moving Mail Between Labels     127

Adding Multiple Labels to a Message    127

Using Tasks     128

   Creating a Task     130

   Create Subtasks     131

   Checking Off Tasks     132

   Moving a Task     133

   Printing Tasks     134

 

7   Getting Some Buzz in Gmail     135

Starting the Buzz     136

Following People in Buzz     137

Reading Some Buzz     139

Commenting on Buzz     139

Editing Your Comments     142

Deleting Your Comments     143

Liking Posts     144

Emailing Posts     145

Using Buzz with Mobile Phones     146

Reading Every Post from a Particular Person    147

Searching Buzz     148

Muting Buzz Posts     149

Blocking Posters    150

Seeing Who You’re Following     151

Finding More People to Follow     152

“Unfollowing” People    153

Reporting Abuse     153

 

8   Posting Your Buzz     155

All About Posting Buzz    155

Writing Some Buzz     155

Making Posts Public     157

Making Posts Private    158

Replying Privately to Posts (@ Replies)     159

Getting Buzzed in Your Inbox     160

Editing Your Posts     162

Posting by Email     163

Posting Privately by Email     164

Getting to Know Your Followers     166

Posting Links to Online Articles to Buzz     166

Posting Photos to Buzz     169

Adding Captions to Your Photos     171

Keeping Your Photos Private     172

Posting Videos to Buzz     173

 

9   Using Chat     175

How Chat Enhances the Gmail Experience     175

Displaying a Chat Status     175

Displaying a Custom Chat Status    177

Posting Your Chat Status on Buzz     179

Making Your Chat Status on Buzz Private     180

Adding People to Your Chat List     181

Getting Approval to Chat with Someone     181

Approving Someone Else’s Chat Invitations    182

Starting a Chat     182

Chatting with Someone     183

Chatting in Free-standing Windows     185

Using Emoticons in Chats     186

Ending Chat Sessions     187

Chatting in a Group    188

Blocking People     189

Adding Videos to a Chat Session     189

Installing Video and Voice Chat     191

Using Chat History     192

Turning Off Chat History     193

 

10   Advanced Gmail     195

Using Gmail Labs     195

Turning Off Labs in an Emergency     196

Adding Google Gadgets     197

Authenticating Mail from Known Senders     198

Using Custom Keyboard Shortcuts     199

Changing the Default Text Styling     200

Adding a Google Calendar     201

Coordinating Google Docs     202

Hiding Inbox Labels    204

Forwarding Mail Automatically     205

Using Your Email Program with POP     207

Using Your Email Program with IMAP     208

Troubleshooting Gmail     209

   I Can’t Get into My Account     209

   My Messages Are Missing     211

   My Messages Are Not Being Downloaded by POP or IMAP     211

   Chat Doesn’t Appear in Gmail     212

   Attachments Don’t Download     213

   I Get a Message About My Browser’s “Cookie Functionality”     214

 

Index     215