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Advanced Settings

There are many settings to choose from with Gmail. Some control basic features, some add features to the emails, some determine how you reply, who you receive emails from, and how you use your Gmail services. Below is a brief guideline for some of those settings. You can access them by clicking on the “Settings” button on the upper left hand corner of your Gmail window.

General Settings

There are many things you can determine from the general settings. A few examples are:

• Maximum Page size: Determines how many emails you see at a time (the default is 50). Just remember, making that number very large can make your page load slower.
• My Pictures: allows you to upload a picture which will be seen by your friends when they chat with you, move their mouse over your name on the chat bar, on Buzz, or throughout your Gmail pages. It’s a great way to personalize Gmail. There is also a setting to determine whether you get to see the pictures your friends uploaded.
• Signature: You can write something inside the box that would appear on the bottom of every email you write. Some people use that to add their contact information without having to type it every time. Others use it to add something fun, like a quote or a saying they like.
• Vacation Responder: Let’s you add a message that will automatically be sent

to anyone who emails you during a certain period of time. That way if some business email comes in, you can add the auto responder to reply with an alternate contact while you are away and a message saying when you are coming back. It is also useful for friends who might not realize you are away

and who will be wondering why you aren’t replying to their emails.

Accounts and Import

It is under these settings that Gmail has options to help you import your email and contacts from other email accounts. Simply click the button that says import mail and contacts and follow the prompts. It will ask for your email and password and email will attempt to import all of the information. In certain cases, such as when you are trying to import emails from your personal website, you might have to add information such as pop server.

You can also use Gmail as a substitute to using your own URL email such as yourname@yourwebsite.com , without people realizing you are doing it. That’s where the “Send mail as” can be handy. The easiest way to make use of this is to set

whatever your other email is to forward to your Gmail account. From that point, click onthe “Send mail another address” button. Enter your name and the other email address and click next step. Gmail will send that email a confirmation number that you have to type in that box to prove that you are the person receiving that email. One you have added that number, you can select to either make that email your default responder, or it will be one of the emails on a pull down you can select to respond as.

You can also have Google host the email for your domain, by using Google Apps, that way you would use your own domain address but within the Gmail interface. To signup to Google Apps, visit http://www.google.com/a

Check mail using Pop3 allows you to import emails from different accounts so you can read them and reply to them via Gmail. Gmail allows you to do that to as many as 5 email addresses. The difference between that and the forwarding option is that this allows you to get those emails on Gmail while still receiving them on your original email address. You can read more about that feature by checking out Gmail Support or some of our articles: https://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=21289

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/email-hack-easily-access-your-emails-from hotmail-in-gmail/

Among the options here, is also to add more storage to Gmail. If you are one of the super abnormally busy people who are capable of filling several gigs of storage space with simple emails, you can click the “add more storage” button to purchase more gigs annually.

You can also control your Google (and Gmail) account using the button “Google account settings”. You can change your password, access other services and create a profile from here.

It is also worth checking out Gmail for business if you are looking for an affordable way to have your business emails hosted by Gmail.

Filters

The Filter setting allows you to manage spam and choose how to handle certain messages. Click on “Create new filter” and you can decide to “filter” a certain email address, subject and even specific words. You can then decide how you want that filter to be applied. The options include:

• Skip the Inbox (Archive it)
• Mark as read
• Star it Apply the label:
• Forward it to:
• Delete it
• Never send it to Spam

This way, every time you receive an email that fits the filter you set up, that action will be done without you having to do it manually.

For example, let’s say I want emails from a particular sender to star it automatically. I create a new filter, user that email in the “from” field, click “next step”, select “Star it” and click “Create filter”. From then on, every email from that sender will

automatically be marked with a star. For more information on filters, read:

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/set-email-filters-gmail-hotmail-yahoo/

Forwarding and Pop/IMAP

What happens if you have a favorite email client, such as Outlook or Thunderbird, but you still want to use Gmail? You can control your options to either forward Gmail emails to another email address, or to set it up to work with other email clients so you can download your email to view on your computer or as a way of archiving the email in a physical location as opposed to on the Google cloud. To set up forwarding and pop, visit: http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&ctx=mail&answer=75726 for detailed instructions.

Offline

Another great feature is the ability to have access to your Gmail even when you are

not online. So let’s say you are on a plane with no web access, but it is also the perfect opportunity to catch up with all of those emails you haven’t had a chance

to reply to. If you enable Gmail offline, it will download the email to your computer, so that you can reply to and read your email, or catch up on adding contacts and when you go back online, those messages will be sent and Gmail will catch up to everything you did while offline. You can even add attachments that will be sent when you are back online.

It even has a “flaky connection mode” which helps Gmail adjust to the internet connection you have if it is unreliable and download the messages to your computer as the connection comes and goes. That way, you don’t have to worry that you will lose the emails you have typed if you suddenly go offline. Gmail will catch itself up to the changes you made offline when the computer goes back online. To turn Offline on, click on the “create a desktop shortcut” and Gmail will create an icon on your desktop to make it easier for you to access it while offline. It’s almost like having an email program installed on your computer but with the Gmail features and with the knowledge that if your computer breaks, you still have all of your emails and contacts safely stored with Google.