Kingston Information & Library Services
Setting up an Email account with Gmail
Contents
p2.
Setting Up an Email Account with Gmail
p5.
Reading and Sending an Email
p8.
Gmail Help
p9.
Appendix 1. – Adding an Attachment
p11.
Appendix 2. – Keyboard Skills
City of Kingston Information and Library Service, 96 Parkers Road, Parkdale, Victoria, Australia 3195
Telephone 1300 135 668 printed January 2012
G:\Branches\Internet course notes
Kingston Information & Library Services
Setting up an Email account with Gmail
Google provides direct access to free web-based email.
•
In the address bar on the screen type in www.gmail.com. This will be
bring up the following screen:
Click here
to create
a email
account.
•
Then click on Create An Account
2
On the Create a new Google Account page, start by filling in the following
information
•
Your first name and last name
•
Your desired username. It’s a good idea to try to use your own name then
your mail recipients will know who is sending the email.
•
Select an 8 character minimum password.
•
Put in a birth date, and gender
•
You may put in a mobile phone number, and another email address if you
have one. This is an added security measure if you ever need to authenticate
your Gmail account. These two boxes are optional.
•
Type in the characters that you see for the word verification.
•
Type in country
•
Tick "I agree to the Google terms of service"
•
Click on Next Step
3
Click on Continue to Gmail to go to your new email account!
You will be taken to your Inbox. This has the emails that are sent to you
Inbox
has the
emails
sent to
you
Click on Compose
to send a new email
4
To Read Your Email Messages
•
Double-click on an individual message to open and read it
To Send a new Email
•
Click on Compose
Sending an Email Message:
•
Type in the email address of the person/business etc you are sending the
email to.
•
An email address is usually a name, followed by the email provider. For
example [email protected], or [email protected]
•
When you have typed the email address, add a subject (e.g. Hi from Bob)
•
Then in the body of the email type your letter. You can choose to add a file,
this may be a document already prepared in Word, or another format.
•
When you are ready to send your email, click on Send.
5
After you have finished using your email;
•
SIGN OUT! Be sure to click on the sign out button which appears in the dropdown menu at the top right hand of the screen. It is not a good idea to leave your
email open, this means someone one else can access it.
Sign out
6
What do I do next time?
•
Now that you are have a Gmail account, next time you want to check your mail or
send an email, follow these two steps:
•
Type www.gmail.com in the address bar. This will take you to the Gmail
sign in screen.
Sign in
to your
Gmail
here
•
Then sign in with your Username and Password. Your username is the part of
your email address before the ‘@’ sign. (e.g. [email protected] )
7
HELP IN USING GMAIL.
Gmail has a Help screen to assist you with using its various functions. To access
it click on the small cog in the top right hand corner of the Gmail screen, then
click on Mail help.
Click on cog, then
Mail help
Keeping track of your email address
When you set up you email for the first time it is useful to write down the following
information:
Your Email provider’s web address:
www.gmail.com
Your Username. _____________________________ @gmail.com_
Your Password:_____________________________
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APPENDIX 1.
ADDING AN ATTACHMENT TO AN EMAIL
•
•
Click on Compose, to bring up the Compose screen.
After entering the email address and the subject of your email, click on
Attach
a file.
Click here
•
To attach the file you will have to have a document saved on the hard drive of
your home computer, USB stick, cdrom, or floppy disk.
9
•
Click on the arrow next to Desktop so you can choose from the appropriate drive.
For example 31/2 Floppy (A) for a floppy disc. Once you have clicked on the
appropriate drive then search the folder for the appropriate document. When you
find the document, double click on it with the left side of the mouse and it will
attach the document to your email.
Attachment has
been added to email
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APPENDIX 2.
Keyboard Skills
Some familiarity with the keyboard is useful for finding your way around the
Internet. The layout of the keyboard is similar to a typewriter but there are
some extra keys.
Delete
Backspace
Caps
lock
Shift
Enter
Space Bar
Arrow Keys
SOME IMPORTANT KEYBOARD KEYS
Caps Lock
Makes all letters "Capitals”. The Caps Lock key should be used with caution.
Typing text entirely in capitals is a usually a no-no as many people have
difficulty reading it. Also, typing emails entirely in capitals can be
misconstrued as “shouting”.
Shift
Holding this key down, allows you to make Capital letters or access the top
symbols (e.g. @ $ ?) on the keys that have 2 characters on the text key
part of the keyboard.
Space Bar
This inserts a space between words. Pressing the Space Bar while viewing a
web page in Internet Explorer will scroll the page to the very bottom. Shift +
Space Bar will scroll the page to the very top.
Enter
Creates a new line. The cursor will move down to the new line.
Backspace
While working with text, use this key to delete characters to the left of the
cursor
Delete
While working with text, use this key to delete characters to the right of the
cursor. This key can also be used to delete selected files.
Arrow Keys
Enables you to move your cursor around pages of text. You can also use the
up and down arrows to scroll up and down a webpage.
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