Get started with Gmail

Create and send email

Next: Organize your inbox

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Gmail

Learn the basics of creating, sending, viewing, and replying to email.

1 Create and send email

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2 See new email

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Unread email arebold. To open an email, click it.

By default, replies to email are grouped into conversations. Keeping all email together in a thread makes it easier to keep track of them and saves space in your inbox.

If you prefer to separate your existing email from future email, you can turn off conversation view.

Open unread email

Turn off conversation view:

To get more space for your email, you can close the left panel by clicking Menu Menu .

3 Reply to email

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You might see existing email at the top of your inbox with a suggestion to reply or follow up. To hide these suggestions, click SettingsSettings and then Settings, go to Nudges and uncheck the boxes.

4 Change recipients or subjects

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Add and remove recipients:

  1. From an open email, click a recipient's address.
  2. To add more recipients, type their email addresses.
  3. To remove recipients, next to their email address, click Remove "".

Tip: To add someone in the body of an email, type + and the person's name.

Edit an email subject:

Edit recipients and subject fields

5 Save and print attachments

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When someone sends you an attachment, such as a photo or document, you see a preview of the attachment in the email.

You can quickly add images and attachments to your email by dragging them from your desktop to your Gmail compose window, or drag pictures and attachments from your email to your desktop if you want to download them.

Learn more about Gmail attachments.

Save attachment options highlighted

6 Email without an internet connection

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Chrome Browser only

Use Gmail offline to read, respond to, and search your Gmail messages when you aren't connected to the internet. Any email you write, archive, label, or delete while you're offline will be sent or moved when you're back online.

When you enable Gmail offline on a device, your messages sync with the browser's storage on the computer you're using. Enable Gmail offline on each device for which you want offline access.

Enable Gmail offline:

  1. At the top right, click Settings"" and then See all settings.
  2. Go to the Offline tab and check the Enable offline mail box.

    Note: If you don't see this option, contact your administrator.

  3. (Optional) Next to Sync settings, choose how many days of email you want to store offline.
  4. Next to Security, choose whether to keep or remove offline data on your device.

    Note: If you don't see this option, contact your administrator.

  5. Click Save Changes.

Read, write, and search emails offline

7 Turn your vacation responder on or off

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Note: To use Vacation responder, your account must be at least 24 hours old.

  1. Open Gmail .
  2. At the top right, click Settings"" and then See all settings.
  3. Scroll down to Vacation responder and select Vacation responder on or Vacation responder off.
  4. If you turned on the vacation responder, enter the dates you're away and add a message. Then, select who should get a response.
  5. At the bottom, click Save Changes.

Set a vacation responder

Next: Organize your inbox

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