How to send an email in Gmail?
How to send an email in Gmail
Emails are extensively used to send or receive messages or documents online through computer or through Gmail app. In this tutorial, we will come across the various steps to send an email to another Gmail user via computer or mobile phone.
Topics Covered
Interface of Gmail compose Window
Steps to send an email on Computer
Steps to send an email on android via Gmail app
Frequently asked questions/ FAQs
Interface of Gmail compose window
The interface of the email compose window has further three parts:
- Recipients
- Subject
- Message Body
Recipients
The recipient interface is used to specify the users' registered email address to whom we want to send an email. This is a required file that you must specify before sending an email. We can add any contact or groups in this interface. It is further divided into three parts, which are as follows:
- To: ‘To’ represents the direct sender, i.e., your priority to whom you want to send your email.
- CC: CC or Carbon Copy is used to send a copy of the mail to the recipients to keep them in the loop.
- BCC: BCC or the Blind carbon copy is used when you want to send an email to multiple email addresses but don’t want to reveal the other recipient’s information to one another.
Subject
The Subject specifies the heading of your email. It is the first thing that any user notices in your email. It is displayed on the top of the Inbox home page and distinguishes your mail from others.
Although it is not a required field, the Subject validates the email and looks professional. Else Gmail crawlers can dump your mail in the spam folder if it finds it without any subject line.
Message Body
This field is used to specify your content. You can add a signature to make it look more professional. In the message, you can attach your necessary documents, images, audio, excel files, etc., that you would like to share across with your recipient.
It also provides the formatting ruler so you can style your content. You can change the font or the font size, make your content italics, or change the alignment to make your email look more attractive and professional.
Steps to send an email on Computer
Follow are the below step-by step demonstrations to send an email on desktop:
STEP 1: Login to your Gmail Account
- Open the Google Gmail application on your computer browser, or you can click the website: https://mail.google.com/. Enter your password and email address to the respective fields.
- You will be directed to your Gmail Inbox homepage.
STEP 2: Compose a mail
- Click on the “compose button” located on the left position of the Gmail webpage.
- The compose window will be prompted. Enter a “valid subject” in the subject field.
- Specify the email content in the message body.
STEP 3: Formatting the text of the body
Gmail also provides the formatting option to make your mail look attractive and professional. Click on the “formatting” icon placed next to the send button.
The formatting ruler will appear:
- Redo or Undo options: Unlike all the text editing applications, Gmail offers the two arrows or undo or redo the changes.
- Font Style: Although it provides a limited font style, you can still use them to make your mail look different and stylish.
- Font Size: To prioritize different heading, you can alter the font size.
- Bold, Italics, Underline and Font color: You can add Italics and Underline effects to your message.
- Alignment: Gmail enables various alignment options.
- Bullets and quotes: To highlight some points, you can use the bullet formatting feature.
STEP 4: Insert attachments, link, emoji and Signature
- Attachments: Click on the icon (as shown in the below screenshot). The window will be prompted. Select your file and click on open.
- Link: This option is helpful whenever you want to link any word or URL to a website. Enter the text in and click on the “link” icon (refer to the below screenshot).
- Emoji: To add a fun element to your mail, you opt for any emoji in your mail. Emojis are mostly used in personal emails.
- Insert File Using Drive: You can insert any file using your Google Drive as well.
- Insert Photo: This option is used to quickly add any photo from your drive. Click on the icon -> select the photo -> click on insert.
- Turn Confidential mode on/off: If you turn on the confidential mode, then Gmail will automatically send a disclaimer to your recipients informing that they won’t have the option to forward, copy, print or download this email.
- Insert Signature: Signatures authenticates your mails and is advantageous for business mails. You can select your signature using this icon.
STEP 5: Specify the Recipient
To: In the ‘To’ field, type in the email address you want your email to send first.
CC: click on the CC option on the right side of the ‘To’ field. It will immediately add a second field below the ‘To.’ Enter your email address, which you want to keep the loop in.
BCC: Click on the BCC label present on the right side of ‘CC.’ The third field will be added as shown below in the given screenshot.
STEP 6: Click on Send
Once everything is done, click on the blue “send” button located at the bottom of the window.
- That’s it; your message would be successfully sent to the specified recipient email addresses.
Steps to send a mail on Android phone
Below are the step-by step demonstrations to send an email in Android smartphone:
Step 1: Download and Open the Gmail app
- Unlock and open your phone. Go to the play store app and in the search box to download Gmail. Once downloaded, double click to open the app.
Step 2: Login or Sign up
- Login into your email account by entering your email id and password, and you will be landed on your Inbox page.
STEP 2: Compose a mail
- Click on the “compose” button located on the left position of the Gmail webpage.
- The compose window will be prompted. Type in the message in the content body and the subject in the subject field for your mail.
STEP 5: Specify the Recipient
- To: In the ‘To’ field type in the email address to which you want your email to send first.
- CC: click on the CC option at the right side of the ‘To’ field. It will immediately add a second field below the ‘To’. Enter your email address which you want to keep loop in.
- BCC: Click on the BCC label present at the right side of ‘CC’. The third field will be added as shown below in the given screenshot.
STEP 6: Click on Send
- Once everything is done, click on the “send” icon located at the top of the window (refer to the below screenshot).
That’s it; your message would be successfully sent to the specified recipient email addresses.
Frequently Asked Questions/ FAQs
Question 1: What was the need to introduce CC filed when we already have To field to enter the recipient's email address?
Answer: CC or Carbon Copy is used to send a copy of the mail to the recipients to keep them in loop. ‘To’ represents the direct sender i.e. your first priority to whom you want to send your email.
Question 2: What is the full form of Bcc?
Answer: The full form of BCC is the Blind carbon copy. It is used when you want to send an email to multiple email addresses but don’t want to reveal the other recipient’s information to one another. Hence, the recipient receiving a BCC email cannot see the other emails address of the recipients.
Question 3: How is the BCC field different from that of ‘To’ and ‘CC’ fields?
Answer: The recipients in ‘To’ and ‘CC’ are open and visible to all one another whereas BCC recipients are hidden and are not visible to the ‘To’ or ‘CC’ recipients.
Question 4: Do Bcc recipients have the access to see the reply from other recipients?
Answer: No, Gmail does not grant the access to see a reply message from other ‘To’, ‘CC’ or ‘BCC’ recipients.
Question 5: Do Bcc recipients have the access to see the email addresses of other Bcc recipients?
Answer: No, Gmail does not grant the access to a Bcc recipient to see the email addresses of other Bcc recipients.