Useful Gmail Features for New Students

Every new student at Carleton receives a carleton.edu email to use for the rest of their academic career at Carleton. As a first-year student who previously used a Microsoft email, there were a lot of features on Gmail that I had to learn for the first time!

Here are some of the features of Gmail I have recently learned which have helped me be more productive.

Gmail Signatures:

Have you ever received an email that came with a helpful list of information about the person who just messaged you? They probably used an email signature and you can too! Email signatures are a great way to end a professional email and can save time when sending emails.

• Here is how to create signatures on Gmail (per Google Workspace):

You may be wondering, what does a professional signature look like? In general for us students, your signature should have your full name, pronouns and job title (if applicable). If you know what your major is, include it as well. Additional helpful information can include phone numbers, personal websites, and a picture of yourself. Finally, for visual clarity that your signature was automatically created, you can add two dash marks above your signature to separate your written email and your information.

However, remember that your email signature should change depending on the context and audience. At the end of the day, an email signature is a way to make a good first impression and successfully brand yourself.

Gmail Filters:

Another helpful feature of Gmail are filters. While I have mainly used Gmail filters to get rid of spam or when I don’t know how to get off an email list, you can also use it to automatically mark the email as read, star it, delete it, and much more! Whenever your email feels overwhelming to look at, know that filters might be a way to give you peace of mind.

Here is how to create filters on gmail (per Google Workspace).

Note: When you create a filter to forward emails, only new emails will be affected. ​Additionally, when someone replies to a message you’ve filtered, the reply will only be filtered if it meets the same search criteria. 

Gmail Schedule Emails:

I have personally not needed to send a scheduled email yet. However, they can be useful to send an email in different time zones and make sure you don’t forget to send an important draft. 

Here is how to create scheduled emails on Gmail (per Google Workspace).

Gmail Vacation Reply:

If you will ever be away from your email for a vacation or because you won’t have access to the Internet, a vacation reply is a great way to let people know you won’t respond immediately. Vacation reply is a great way of letting any potential contacts know you are not ghosting them and that you will get back to them as soon as possible.

Here is how to create a Gmail Vacation Reply (per Google Workspace).

Gmail Attachments:

Attaching files is very important for emailing in today’s world. For Gmail you can add attachments in Gmail up to 25MB. Unfortunately, larger files cannot be sent but can be saved on Google Drive and shared through a link. Gmail  has other useful features such as using confidential mode or forwarding an email as an attachment.

Here is how to use Gmail Attachments (per Google Workspace).

Conclusion:

Managing your email with these simple steps are a great way to help organize your workspace and make your public profile more professional. Hopefully you learned something new and useful in this article. Thank you for reading!