We will start this week of Gmail tips with ways to view your emails. When you start Gmail on a new account, you get what they call the “No split” view. This means that you see a list of your emails in your inbox. If you want to read one, you simply click on that email and it opens. It opens in a new view pane. There you read it, reply to it, reply to all (if multiple people were emailed), or forward it to a new person.
However, there are two other ways you may view your emails. When you are in this “No split” view and finish reading your email, you need to click the left-arrow in the upper left of the current email. This will return to your list of other emails.
But now let us look at the other two, which I hope you find one to be as convenient as I do. There are two ways to get to the setting we need to change. One is the long way; the other is the easy way.
First, the longer way. Click the Gear icon in the upper-right corner of Gmail, then “See all settings.” In Settings, click on the third tab on the top labeled, “Inbox,” and finally, look down the list for “Reading Pane.”
First check, “Right of inbox” go to the bottom and click “Save changes.” Your inbox will reload and you will notice a difference. When you select an email from the list of emails, now on the left, the email will display on the right. While there, you can take any action on that email as you did before. The good part is that when you finish reading the email, click the next one you want to read and it will automatically open on the right as well. So, you don’t have to click the left-arrow button to go back to your list and then click the email you want to read. You only need to click the next email that interests you.
Now the easy way. Click the Gear icon once again and scroll to the bottom of the window and make your choice under “Reading pane.” All choices are there too. You do not have to click Save once you make your choice. If you wish to reset like it was originally, choose, “No split.”
Now you can go back and set the “Below inbox” choice. This does the same thing, but move the open emails below your list of emails.
Finally, for today something that I have not used much in the past. However, due to wars in the world today, I have started using on occasion.
I have gotten a few emails from friends of friends in the Ukraine. Some of them have not been in English, so I needed a translator to read them. But Gmail has this feature built-in. You can cut on translations for many languages while in the Gmail online version. Open the email you wish to translate. On the right-side you will see three horizontal dots. Click them and choose “Translate message.” Now, choose from the dropdown list what language you want it to translate from, and into. It will instantly display so you can read the translation.
See you next week!
