Gmail

Responding to email

Watch the video (3:55).

After you read an email, you'll have a few different actions that you can take, including opening an attachment (if there is one), replying to the message, forwarding it to someone else, or, if you don't have time to deal with the email, adding a star to remind yourself to read it later. If you're going to be out of town for several days or more, you can also create an automatic vacation reply so people know that you're unable to check your email.

Watch the video to learn about reading emails, replying, forwarding, and creating a vacation reply.

Reading email

By default, any email you receive will go to your inbox. You'll be able to tell which emails are unread because they'll be bold. You can also see the name of the sender, the subject of the email, and the first few words of the email body. That means even before you click on an email, you can tell quite a few things about it.

Viewing message in the inbox

To read an email:

1. From your inbox, click on the email you want to read.
   Clicking on an email
2. The email will open in the same window.
   
   Reading an email

Reading options

In addition to reading the email, you have several different reading options:

• You can click show details to see the email addresses of the sender and any other recipients, and also the date the email was sent.

Viewing the message details

• You can click the Star next to the name of the sender to remind yourself to read the email later.

Adding a star

• Alternatively, you can click More actions and select Add star from the drop-down menu.
  Selecting Add star through More actions
• You can Reply, Reply to all, or Forward the email to someone else.
• You can click Newer or Older on the right side of the window to view the next email (or the previous one).
• You can go Back to your inbox.

Some of the actions you can take while reading an email

Opening attachments

Sometimes, you'll receive emails that contain attachments. Generally, you will need to download the attachment to view it. However, many common file types like Word documents and images can be viewed within a browser window. If the attachment is an image, you'll also see a smaller copy of the image, called a thumbnail, inside the body of the email. You can tell which emails contain attachments because they will have a paperclip icon to the right of the subject.

To open an attachment:

1. Open the email message that contains the attachment.
   Opening an email that has an attachment
2. Click Download or the icon of the file to save the attachment to your computer. If your computer asks you whether you want to Open or Save it, choose Save. You can then locate the file on your computer and double-click it to open it. Alternatively, you can click View to open the file within your browser if it is a file type Gmail recognizes.
   Downloading an attachment

You should generally only open an attachment if it's from a trusted source. Some attachments can contain viruses, especially .exe files. If you don't recognize the sender, or if you don't know why someone is sending you the attachment, it's safest not to open it. For more information, check out Dealing with Email Attachments from our Internet Safety tutorial.