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Create and Send Messages
Creating and sending messages in Gmail is easy.
And is even easier with the help of a few keyboard shortcuts.
Keyboard shortcuts can quicken the creation and sending process
and make you more proficient using Gmail in general.
Before you can begin using keyboard shortcuts, however, you’ll need to turn them on.
To determine whether keyboard shortcuts are on or not,
look in your inbox for a thin blue vertical line at the beginning of one of your messages.
In most cases, you’ll find the line on the first message.
If you see the blue line, keyboard shortcuts are on.
If you don’t see the line, press and hold the 'Shift' key and then press the 'question mark' key.
This keyboard combination displays the keyboard shortcut overlay screen.
Here you can see all the Gmail keyboard shortcuts.
You don’t need to memorize them all right away.
Just try and learn and master a few a week.
Click 'Enable' to turn on your shortcuts.
You can come back to this screen at any time to disable them as well.
Click 'Close', or press the 'Escape' key,
the keyboard shortcut to hide the overlay screen.
You should now see the blue line in your inbox to inform you your keyboard shortcuts are on.
If you don’t, click the Refresh icon or refresh your browser.
To test your shortcuts, use the 'J' and the 'K' keys to move the blue line up and down in the inbox.
The blue line indicates that that particular message
is in focus and that you can take action on it.
To test this, use the 'J' and 'K' keys to focus on a particular message, then press the 'X' key.
The 'X' key selects the message. Press the 'X' key again to deselect the message.
Now that you’ve used a few shortcuts, let’s compose a message.
To begin a new email message, click 'Compose' to display the compose window
or using keyboard shortcuts, just type the letter 'C'.
Gmail displays the compose window over your inbox and places the focus of your cursor in the 'To' field.
Here you can enter the names or email addresses of the
people or groups you want to send the message to.
Just enter a few letters of either their name or email address.
If the individual exists is in your contact list, or you’ve sent the individual messages before,
their name and email address display in a selection pane below the 'To' field.
If you see the individual you want to send the message to listed,
use your down and up arrow to highlight the individual and press 'Enter'.
Or, using your cursor, select their name from the list.
In some instances you may notice a division line in the selection pane.
Names above the line exist in your personal contact list,
while names below the line exists in your organization's global address list.
If the user does not appear in either section, type in their full email address.
After you’ve added all the recipients, press 'Tab' or click in the 'Subject' field
to enter the subject of your message.
Enter a short, concise title for your message;
one that informs the recipients about the content of the message.
To start your message, press 'Tab' again, or click in the main body of the the message window.
Type in your message.
There, it's done and looks great.
But, Gmail gives you plenty of options to enhance your message.
Click 'Rich formatting' to display the email enhancement options
if they’re not already displayed
With the formatting options you can bold words or sections,
change the color and size of your font,
or create links to take your users to a document, video, or web site.
And if you need to add an attachment, click ‘Attach a file’.
You can add as many attachments as needed,
as long as the total of all the attachments and the content of the email itself
is less than 25 MB.
When you’re ready to send your message, click 'Send',
or use the keyboard shortcuts 'Tab' and 'Enter'.
'Tab' places the focus of your cursor on the Send button
and 'Enter' sends the message.
In this short video, we’ve shown you a few keyboard shortcuts
you can use to quickly create and send messages.
But, there are many more shortcuts you can use to become even more proficient using Gmail.
Just use 'Shift' and 'question mark' to display your keyboard shortcuts.
And remember, you don’t need to memorize them all right away.
Just master a few a week, and in no time, you’ll be a Gmail master.