Welcome to the very first Finish Line Hotlap! This is a new series in our Finish Line Blog in which we will deliver short, step-by-step instruction to specific questions that have come to my attention from the needs of my clients. Why the name Hotlap, you ask? In our form of motorsport, dirt track racing, the first event on the schedule each evening is practice. In order to give drivers time on the racetrack, and to avoid drying the track out too quickly while keeping the schedule moving along, each class of car will only be alotted a maximum of five laps. As you might guess, that isn’t much time to get the driver and car up to speed! These laps are regularly called hot laps. My mission in this series is to help handle your questions…and make sure you’re up to speed quickly. Strap yourself in and get ready!
First, sign into your Gmail account. Click “Gmail” in the top left, then click “Contacts”. You have added people you regularly e-mail to your Contacts, haven’t you? If not, when you arrive at the Contacts screen, you’ll see the names of people who are “Frequently contacted”. To the right of the e-mail address you’d like to add as a contact, hover the mouse until you see an icon of a person with + next to it. Click that icon, and that person is now a contact. On the menu to the left, click “Groups”, then “New Group”. Type the desired group name, then click “Create group”. Your new, memberless group, will now appear on the screen. To add people to this group, there are two ways to do it. The first method is to type a name in the “Search for anyone” bar at the type of the screen, and click on the name you wish to add to the group when it appears. At the bottom-left of the contact’s window, click “Add to groups”, then click the name of the group you’ve just created to add that person to the group. Click the back arrow when you’re finished. The other way to do it, is to click the red person with the + at the bottom right of your group page. Start typing a person’s name or e-mail address until it appears. Click the name you’d wish to add to the group, and you’re done.
E-mail distribution groups are a very effective way to organize your life. Never again will you have to think about who to send a message to. If you belong to a book club, for instance, put all the members into a group called, “Book Club”. If the need arises to e-mail everyone in the group, simply type “Book Club” (without the quotation marks) into the “To” field, and everyone’s e-mail address will appear like magic. You have a lot on your mind – take e-mail addresses off of it!