Getting Started with Google@UH Gmail

Overview

Gmail is an email application with many advanced features including: contacts, labels, chat, the ability to send and receive attachments, etc. Since Gmail is a Web-enabled email client, you will need a reliable Internet connection and a supported web browser which has cookies and JavaScript enabled.

There are several advantages to using Gmail:

  • access to your email from your office and home computers or on the road
  • intuitive, easy-to-use interface
  • search for messages that meet certain criteria

This document is a general introduction to Gmail and will cover commonly used features. For detailed information, refer to the Google's Gmail Help Center. It provides the most complete information on the features of Gmail in a clear, easy-to-understand format.


How do I login and logout of Google@UH Gmail?

UH Login screen

To access Gmail, point your web browser to http://gmail.hawaii.edu. You will be prompted to enter your UH Username and Password. (To apply for a UH Username, visit this site: www.hawaii.edu/username.)

If the UH Username and Password are entered successfully, you should now see the initial Google@UH Gmail screen.

To end your email session, click on your selected image (or your initial, if you have not setup an image) in the upper right corner of the screen and select Sign out.


Basic Tasks in Google@UH Gmail

When you first login, a summary of the messages in your Inbox will be displayed. Your Inbox is a folder (a collection of email messages) where new mail is initially stored. If you see no messages, then your Inbox is empty. New messages will be bolded; read messages will be grayed out.

Read a message  - To read a message in your Inbox, click on the message's Sender or Subject. The email message will be displayed.

Once a message is opened, the Gmail tool bar will appear.

Email toolbar

Hover your cursor above the icons to find out what they do. The tool bar icons from left to right are: 

Back to Inbox - returns you to the inbox listing of messages
Archive - to archive the message
Report Spam - to report the message as spam to Google
Delete - to delete the message
Mark as Unread - clicking this will display the message as unread, preventing it from being greyed out
Snooze - Depending if you have notifications enabled on your desktop for Gmail or if you have UH Gmail on a mobile device, the Snooze function will alert you of the message at a later time that users can set themselves
Add to [Google] Tasks - This is a function that comes within UH Gmail, and can be overlooked if you do not use Google Tasks. For more information on Google Tasks, please reference this webpage:>https://support.google.com/a/users/answer/9308887?hl=en
Move to - select the folder from the drop down menu that you wish to move the message to Labels - to apply a label to the message; multiple labels may be applied to a message to facilitate organization of email
More - for additional options

 

 

Send a new message - Click on the Compose button in the left pane. The window appears for you to compose your message. Type in the email address of the recipient in the text box labeled To:  (You may enter multiple recipients). Click on Cc or Bcc to add carbon copy or blind carbon copy recipients. (Note: CC stands for Carbon Copy - it means "send a copy to this person also." BCC stands for Blind Carbon Copy - "Don't let other people see that I am sending a copy to this person.") Type in the subject and the text of your message. When finished, click on the Send button to send your message. Once your message is sent, the window with the message will close automatically.

If you wish to delete your draft, i.e. not send the composed message, click the Trash can icon (discard draft) on the lower right of the New Message window.

 

 

 

There are several things you can do after reading an email message: 

 Reply - Reply to a message by clicking on the Reply icon on the top right-hand side of the email (backwards pointing arrow).

reply to icon

 

 

 

  

A new window appears below for you to compose your reply. The To field is automatically filled in with the email address of the person who sent the original message. You may add more recipients by clicking on the Cc or Bcc.

The Subject field is also filled in as "Re: original subject". You may change the subject by clicking on Edit Subject. Type in the text of your message. To send the reply, click on Send. Once your message is sent, the window closes automatically.

Reply to All - If you receive a message that was sent to several people (a message which had multiple recipients), you can choose to reply to only the sender (by using Reply) or to all of the recipients (by using Reply to All). The procedure for using Reply to All closely follows the procedure for using Reply

 

Clicking on More (3 dot icon) in an Email

reply to all

Forward - send one of your messages to another user by clicking on More and selecting Forward from the drop down menu. A new window appears below for the message you are forwarding. Enter the email addresses of the recipient(s). The subject line is filled in as "Fwd: original subject". The original message is included in the body of the message. Add the text of your message, then click on Send to send the message.

Filter - You can filter emails by clicking on Filter messages like this. Gmail will proceed with steps on creating a filter and actions that will be taken for the filter.

Print - to print a message, click More and select Print from the drop down menu.

Delete - you can delete the message by clicking on the Delete button in the tool bar or selecting Delete this message from the pull down menu. This adds the message to your trash. Messages tagged as trash will be automatically deleted after 30 days. If you want to delete the message sooner, you can browse to the trash folder on the left toolbar and select the Trash folder. Click on Empty Trash Now to permanently delete the messages. Refer to the Labels section below on how to permanently delete messages in Trash.

Block - If you do not want to receive any more emails from a sender, you can click on Block to have Gmail automatically send any future emails from the sender directly to the Spam folder. Gmail also has functions to report emails that are spam or phishing with Report spam and Report phishing. To learn more about spam and phishing, please visit https://www.hawaii.edu/askus/687 .

Show original - click on More then select Show original to display the message headers containing information on who the email is from, the date and time it was sent, a list of recipients, and the subject. This is the same as displaying full email headers which will appear in a separate window. You will need to provide full email headers to report phishing messages to ITS.

Translate - Clicking on Translate message allows Gmail to change the language of the body of the email to the language you set. 

Download - You can download the email by clicking on Download message. This will download the email in a .eml format. 

Mark Unread - Clicking on Mark unread from here will flag emails as unread starting from the email you selected.

 


Using Labels in Google@UH Gmail

Rather than using folders, Gmail uses labels.  There are many benefits in using labels as opposed to folders.

  • A message can have more than one label
  • You can search for messages by label
  • Reduce the number of duplicate messages

Here are some of the basic tasks you can perform with labels.  

Create a label -You can create a label by clicking on the Labels drop-down menu, then select Manage labels.  Select Create new, type the name of your new label and select Create.  If you select multiple messages, or are viewing a specific email message, click on the Labels drop-down menu to display the option Create new.  After creating a new label, the new label can be selected by clicking on the Labels drop-down menu.  Any selected messages will be categorized with the label chosen from the drop-down menu. 

 

Delete/Edit a label -To Delete/Edit a label, select the Labels drop-down menu, and select Manage labels.  From the labels screen, you can show, hide, or remove any existing label.  If you select an existing label by name, you will have the option to change the name of the label.  Changing the name of an existing label will rename the label for any messages that were categorized under the label.  Deleting a label will not delete any messages that were categorized under the deleted label; e.g. a message that had been labeled as "Inbox" and "Google", would retain the "Inbox" label after deleting the "Google" label.

Search labels - One benefit of labels versus folders is that a message can be searched by label.  Messages can have multiple labels, which return better search results.  To search for a message by label, enter "label:" in the search box followed by the search criteria.  A list of your labels should display, you can select the appropriate label from the list of labels, or you can contiue typing.  Select Search Mail to search for the desired label.

For more information on labels go to http://mail.google.com/support/bin/topic.py?hl=en&topic=12881 . 


Using Attachments in Google@UH Gmail

It is possible to send files to another person by attaching them to email messages. These files are referred to as attachments . Any kind of computer file can be an attachment: a word processing file, a spreadsheet, a database, an audio or video file, etc. However, please be advised that email with certain extensions are deleted due to security risks e.g. viruses or other damaging programs. For more information, please refer to: http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=6590

Although the recipient may be able to receive an attachment, the file is not usable if the recipient does not also have the appropriate program to read the file. For example, if you send an MS Word file to a person who uses Word Perfect, the recipient may not be able to use the file. Likewise, there are sometimes problems involved in sending files between PCs and Macs.

In addition, Google imposes a maximum email size limit of 25 MB. (As a caution, large files take up valuable quota disk space and should be off-loaded to your personal computer.) As an alternative, please see the File Drop service at: http://www.hawaii.edu/filedrop for transferring large files.

To send an attachment: compose a message and click Attach a file (next to paper clip) on the tool bar. Use the browser to find the file to attach and click Open to attach the file. (If your files are large you may see a progress bar as your file is uploaded) To attach another file click on Attach another file and follow the same procedures. To remove an attachment , uncheck the box for appropriate file. 

It is good practice to mention that you are sending an attachment and specify its format. (For example: "I am attaching a spreadsheet in MS Excel 2003 format.")

To receive an attachment: Read the message as you normally would. If there is an attachment, they will be displayed below the message. Depending on the attachment type, you may have several options to choose from. (Open as Google document, View, View as HTML, etc) You can also choose to Download the attachment to your computer, or if there are multiple attachments 'Download all attachments" (in a zip file).

For more information on attachments, go to http://mail.google.com/support/bin/topic.py?hl=en&topic=12834 .


Using Contacts (Address Book) in Google@UH Gmail

Gmail has a simple Contacts feature. It allows you to create short nicknames for long email addresses and store them in a contact list. This is convenient when you don't care to type in long addresses such as fred_jones@unix21.philadelphia.pennsylvania.edu. The Web mail address book also allows you to create Group lists.

To use contacts, click Contacts in the left column.

To create an entry in Contacts: Click Contacts in the left column of the page.  Select the New Contact button in the upper left of the Contacts screen.  Enter in all appropriate information for the new contact, then select Save.

To create a group contact entry: Click Contacts in the left column of the page.  Select the New Group button  in the upper left of the Contacts screen, this should prompt you to enter a name for the group.  After entering a name for the group, click on OK to create the group.  The group will now be listed under My Contacts.

To add contacts to a contact group: Select any existing contacts you would like to add to the group from the Contacts list, then click on the Groups drop-down menu.  You can Add to any existing group, or you can Add to a group that has not yet been created by selecting New group.

To use contacts: Click Compose Mail then click To, this should bring up a list of contacts.  Most Contacted contacts should be displayed by default.  You can search for contacts by name, using Search my contacts, or by selecting the drop down menu to display other options such as My Contacts, or group contacts.  Any selected Contacts should be listed in the To field after selecting Done from the Choose from contacts window.  

For more information on Contacts, go to http://mail.google.com/support/bin/topic.py?hl=en&topic=12867 .


Other Tasks in Google@UH Gmail

Use the Vacation feature

You might want to have a short message automatically sent to anyone who sends you mail while you are away on vacation. To do so, click on the gear icon in the upper right and select Settings, then scroll down to Vacation responder. You are prompted for a start and optionally a stop date for the vacation messages, also for a subject and some text to include. When you are done, click Save Changes. For more help, click Learn More under Vacation responder.

How to forward a copy of all the messages you receive to another email address

Click on the gear icon in the upper right and select Settings, then click Forwarding and POP/IMAP. Check off the radio button for Forward a copy of incoming mail to..., enter a valid email address into the email address box and select whether to keep a copy of the email, mark as read, or delete the email from Google and click Save Changes.

What does the Get mail from other accounts do?

You can use GMail to read messages sent to a different mailbox using the POP protocol. Click Settings, then Accounts, then click Add a mail account you own. Enter the email address, the username and password and POP server address and port number. There is a check box to leave a copy of the retrieved messages on the server. For more information, click Learn more under Get mail from other accounts.


Known Issues for Google@UH Gmail

Known issues and recent fixes for Gmail can be found at http://mail.google.com/support/bin/static.py?page=known_issues.cs 

Please consult http://mail.google.com/support/bin/topic.py?hl=en&topic=12914 for General Issues and solutions.


Getting Help for Google@UH Gmail

Google has very good online help articles. Click on the Help button in the upper right corner of the screen, then click on the topic in which you have interest. Or browse directly to http://mail.google.com/support/ 

You may also contact the ITS Help Desk.

Please rate the quality of this answer: Poor Fair Okay Good Excellent
Not the answer you were looking for? Try different keyword combinations and if you still can’t find your answer, please contact us.
Article ID: 1145
Created: Thu, 13 May 2010 9:40am
Modified: Fri, 27 Mar 2015 3:22pm