Tutorial: Sign up for a Google account
download this tutorial as a pdfGoogle mail is a free web based email program that can be accessed from any Internet connected computer in the world as well as forwarding any mail received to your usual email program such as Microsoft Outlook, Windows Mail etc.. A Google mail account provides a wealth of other facilities besides email such as calendars, online Word type documents and the Picasa photo album.
Setting up a Google account is very simple if you follow the steps listed below
1. Go to the website http://mail.google.com and you will be presented with the window displayed below
2. Click on “Sign up for Google Mail”
3. Fill in the appropriate boxes. Choose an address name – in this case I have chosen the name ‘winklepippin’ – then click on “Check availability”. You may have to play around with a number of alternatives before you get an acceptable name. Try putting a full stop between two words such as “winkle.pippin” this often results in an acceptable name
4. Choose a password using both letters and numbers but make sure it is something you will be able to remember
5. Choose a security question either from the dropdown list or make up your own question. This is to identify yourself if you forget your username or password
6. Select your location from the dropdown list
7. Copy the ‘warped’ letters into the box below. This is to prevent automatic computer-generated applications
8. Finally click the Accept button to activate your account
9. Go to Contacts and start entering the email addresses from your old address book. You can do this quite quickly by going to your Address Book in Outlook Express or Windows Mail then choose Export from the File dropdown menu. Select the CSV format, give the file a name such as Outlook contacts and save it in the Documents folder
10. The go back to your Google mail page, choose Contacts and click on Import. Navigate your way to the “Outlook Contacts CSV” file and follow the importing instructions
11. To get Google mail to forward your mail to your usual email program click on Settings and then the Forwarding and POP/IMAP settings and follow the instructions. There are good tutorial instructions for almost all email programs – just follow the instructions for your particular program
12. You’re done. Congratulations.
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