More Gmail features for today to help you out. As in the past, if I ask you to go to Gmail’s settings, do the following. Click the gear icon in the upper-right corner and then “See all settings.” You will be in the “General” settings, which is where a lot of the action happens.
Do you need to type the same or very similar email frequently to send to different people? You may have to invite a group to a meeting or party. You send the email with all the details to everyone. Then someone emails you and cannot find their copy with the details. Or other invitees invited more people, so you need to resend the same email. Or say you have a home business, and you regularly send out repetitive introductory emails. Maybe you send follow-up emails if you have not heard from a client in a week or so. Create a Gmail “Template.” A template is an email you create one time to resend/reuse again.
It is easy to create templates in Gmail. They are built-in and ready to use without having to set up anything extra. Start a new email that you want to use repeatedly and delete your signature, if you have one. I discussed signatures two weeks ago. The reason you remove your signature is that if you have one set up to go out with a new email, then when a template is used, your signature will be added again. Since you do not want two signatures in one email, remove it before creating your template. When you finish typing your reusable email template, make sure all spelling, punctuation, etc. is correct. Now click the three dots in the lower right corner of the email. Choose “Templates,” then “Save draft as template,” and then, “Save as new template.” Give the template a name you will recognize later when you need it.
To use the template, or as many templates as you have created, perform the following simple steps. Start an email as usual, fill in who it is going to, as many people as you would like to receive the email. Click the three dots at the bottom right of the email again and then, “Templates,” then the name of the template you wish to send. It will fill in the email, add your signature and be ready to send. Try it out.
If you want to delete a template, do the same thing as sending one, but choose “Delete template” then choose the one you do not need. To edit a template, start it like you are sending a new email. Choose the template you want to change. Edit it as much as needed and when done, “Save as new template” again, but this time choose the same name. It will ask if you wish to replace the original. When complete, you will have an updated email template.
Next week we will look at “Offline Mode” in Gmail. If you travel, this can be quite an efficient way to do your email when you are not online. However, it will allow you to stay in touch when you get online again without issue.
See you here next week!
