An Accessible On Ramp

1. An Accessible On Ramp To The Information Highway

2. Lesson 3D Email: Sending Email

3. Composing an Email • Writing an email message is sometimes called “composing” a message. • You can type your message right into the email box, or • You can write your message in a Word Processing program and then paste it into your email, if you know how. • Do what is easiest for you, but we will teach you to type right into the email box.

4. Starting an email Sign in to your Gmail account. Click on the Compose mail button.

5. The Compose Screen

6. Important parts of the compose mail screen You type your message in this area.

7. Message Action Buttons At the top and bottom of the box, you will see these buttons: When you are ready to send your message, you will click Send. If you decide you want to start over or just not send the message, click Discard.

8. Saving Your Messages • If you want to save a message because it is not finished or because you want to think about it, click Save Now. • As you work, Gmail automatically saves your message every little while. You will see a save message next to the buttons.

9. Finding Saved Messages • To find a message that you saved, or a message that was saved automatically, click on Drafts in the left menu. • (The menu item changes color when you put your pointer on it.)

10. Who Are You Writing To? • In the box called To: type the email address of the person you want to send the message to. • If the address isn’t exactly correct, the message won’t get to the person. Be careful!

11. Subject • Type the subject of your email in the subject box. • Write something that will interest the person you are writing to, like “Greetings from John Smith” or “Come to a party”. Important meeting for self-advocates

12. Your Message • Type your message in the big box. It can be as long or as short as you want. • Try to write clearly and use good spelling, punctuation, and capitalization to make your message easy to read. • Read your message over before you send it. You can’t get the message back after you click on Send.

13. Adjusting your message • You can do some things to make your message easier to read. • You can check the spelling by clicking on Check Spelling. • When you are finished, click Done.

14. More Adjustments All of these buttons let you change the way your message looks. The most important buttons are Font and Text Size. Both of these are very important for many people with disabilities, and other people, too.

15. Changing the Font When you click on the you will see a drop down menu of all your choices. Samples are in the text box on the right.

16. How to Change the Font Highlight the text that you want to change. Click on the button and then on the font you want in the drop down menu. If you like it, you’re done. If you don’t like it you can try again.

17. Changing Type Size • This works the same way changing the font works, but with a different button. • Click on the button and you will get a drop down menu. Click on the type size you want. • Be sure to highlight the text you want to change.

18. Setting the Type before you Start • You can also choose your font and type size before you start. • Before you write anything in the text box, click on the font button and click on the style of type that you want. • Then click on the size button and choose the size you want.

19. Typing your message • Type your message in the message box. • It can be as long as you want – the box will hold any amount of writing. • If you want to take a break, click the Save Now button. You can then find it in the Drafts folder in the left menu. • You can also paste a message from a word processing program, if you use one.

20. Review Your Message • It is good to carefully review your message – you can’t get it back after you send it. • Check the spelling using the Check Spelling link at the top right of the message box.

21. Checking Spelling Here is a message with two errors: Click on Check Spelling.

22. Spelling Errors • Gmail will automatically find mistakes and highlight them: • Click on the highlighted word.

23. Spelling Options • Gmail will guess what you were trying to type and give you a list of the guesses: • Click on the suggestion that is right.

24. Gmail Makes Mistakes • Sometimes Gmail Spell Check makes mistakes. Here it missed “Se” for “See”: • You will have to find this mistake yourself and fix it yourself.

25. Correcting a mistake • Move your cursor to the place where the mistake is. • Type the missing letter. • You can also delete by highlighting and “cutting” or by backspacing.

26. Non-Mistakes • Sometimes Gmail thinks you made a mistake when you didn’t, especially with names: • Just leave the highlighting and don’t do anything.

27. Finishing Spell Check • When you are all finished, click Done • Check your message one more time to make sure you said what you wanted to say in a way that the other person will understand.

28. Send Your Email • If you want to think about your message and send it later, click Save Now. • If you don’t like your message and want to start over or give up, click Discard. • When you are ready, click Send.

29. Sign Out of Gmail • If you are finished working with Gmail, don’t forget to Sign Out.