Go to accounts.google.com, click on ‘Create account’ and choose from ‘For my personal use’/’For my child’/’For my work or my business’ then follow the steps. Think carefully about the email address you want and try different options. Using initials and a number will mean a much shorter email but you need to be able to say it clearly. Creating a Gmail email means creating a Google Account so add the details to those pages in the Tomtie Toolkit

The most popular service that Google provides is Gmail with over 1,800 million active users as of 2023 or 22.22% of the world’s population. Gmail includes Google Contacts and Google Calendar which sync easily to your computer, phone and tablet if you use the Google apps. The left hand Navigation pane (or panel) shows from the top; Inbox, Starred, Snoozed, Important, Sent, Drafts, Bin and more) then the top Search box. The vertical bar on the right shows the different areas of Calendar and Contacts. Google uses ‘labels’ to categorise your email. These are like folders (Inbox, Sent etc.) but with a twist as you can apply several labels to an email and find it by clicking any of them from the left panel

Turn on in the Google Account, click on profile icon ❯ My Google Account ❯ Security ❯ 2-Step Verification​ should be ‘ON’, add a second email address, mobile number and if you can the Google authenticator app to your mobile

Open Settings (click on cog icon – top right) ❯ See all settings ❯ ‘General’ tab ❯ Scroll through and set the top options as preferred. Grammar, Spelling, Autocorrect and Smartcompose are useful. Keyboard shortcuts ON will avoid hand pain from over use of the mouse – the letter ‘C’ alone will open a new email (Compose) and Ctrl/Command + Enter will send it. Scroll down to bottom and click ‘Save Changes’

Open Settings (click on cog icon – top right) ❯ See all settings ❯ ‘General’ tab ❯ ‘Default text style’. Select font, text size and text colour. Scroll down to bottom and click ‘Save Changes’

Open Settings (click on cog icon – top right) ❯ ‘See all settings’ ❯ ‘General’ tab ❯ Signature. Click on ‘Create new’, give the signature a name then add text and select font, text size and more. Select ‘Signature defaults’ FOR NEW EMAILS USE and ON REPLY/FORWARD USE. Scroll down to bottom and click ‘Save Changes’