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How do you use your Google Gmail Address Book?

I simply want to forward a joke to several people in Gmail, but can't figure out how! If I click on the drop down by reply, then it opens up the TO: In regular email, you click on the TO and it opens up the address book and you can then select whom you want it to go to.

How do I get my address book open, select the people I want this to go to
and have them appear in the to window. I have been reading on the internet and talking to people, and we are all having the same problem. This does not seem to be a user friendly email. I generally don't have problems adapting to new software.

Dave's Answer:

When I first read your question I popped over to Google's Gmail and saw exactly the problem you were talking about. I mean, there's no "open address book" link on the compose message page. However, the reason you can't do it that way is simply because that's not how you use Gmail in the first place. :-)

Instead, the entire idea behind their address book is that you can simply type in the first few letters of the name of the person to whom you want to send your message and it'll pop up and be easily selected. Like this:

Google GMail: Accessing your Address Book

You can see that I've typed in ric and it's promptly popped up with all the possible matches. Some of them are from email I've sent or received, and others are from my address book. Simple enough!

Another way you can do this if you really want to use your contact list / address book in Gmail is to open up the list by clicking on Contacts, checking off the boxes of the folk to whom you'd like to send a message, then clicking Compose:

Google GMail: Using your Address Book to Compose a Message

Then just copy and paste the message you want to forward along. Note also that you can create a group of your frequently sent recipients and simply type in the name of that group to have a simple and elegant shortcut. See: Create a Group in Google Gmail.

Hope that helps clarify how to work with Gmail in this instance. If you're still curious, I have quite a bit of Gmail Help here on the site too.

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Categorized: Computer and Internet Basics (Article 7225)
Tagged: gmail address book, gmail groups, google gmail
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Comments

I am a gmail user and I understand their theory in using email addresses BUT I can't always remember everyone I want to send the note to !! It would be great if gmail would add an option to display the address book and let us choose.

I did create a few Contact Groups and I like that when you select a group in the To: field, it displays all of the names and not just the group name. This way I can see who is getting the note and it is easy to delete anyone I do not want to receive the note.

Posted by: Terry at March 15, 2007 9:30 AM

Dave, In opening a new account to say Google Mail their are four questions that you usually answer. 1. My name. 2. My email address. 3. The questions on bringing in mail. 4. Question on how to send mail. I don't remember the exact wording for the last two. One would be mail.comcast.com. The other would be smtp.comcast.com.
I know these last two are not exactly right. Could you give me the proper phrase on each.
If I am paying for Comcast as my Internet Service Provider, can I use Gmail.
I like to have all of my email address's in one folder, and then put an icon for that folder on my desktop so I can have that as easy access at any time without going back into the mail program.

Posted by: Jack Van Scyoc at May 22, 2007 9:14 AM

Referring to the above, for the last 2 days, my sending of email does not do this. You type a alphabet but nothing happens. I am unable to send the item by email.

Would appreciate your comments. Thank you.

Posted by: aarvidi at October 9, 2007 7:10 AM

seems silly to me and cant think of why google just doesnt have the word addresses and your book would open. that is the way other emails are set up. im switching over from yahoo email to gmail and find gmail very complicating. i read it was the best email service but im becoming disenchanted with it alfe

Posted by: serafino alfe at December 5, 2007 10:51 PM

Just found this thread after searching Google for "google address book" and it came up in second place. Talk about good SEO!

You answered my question, thank you very much, although it could just as easily have been answered with, "durrr, look at your screen more carefully, there is a big blue link called Contacts". The web's making me increasingly blind and impatient.

Thanks for your help.

Ben

Posted by: Ben at April 24, 2008 11:25 AM

I just tried the "check the contacts, then click compose" in Firefox 3.0 using Better Gmail 2... and it doesn't bring the contacts over. Did this break, on the Gmail side, or is it my browser?

Posted by: karl at June 25, 2008 10:27 AM

Funny thing is that gmail doens't have the option of choosing your contact when you want to forward a message instead u have to type the email address under to like all you mentioned, but the funniest thing is that when you use gmail on an iPhone and you forward a message or compose an email it does give u the option to choose and click on which ever contacts u like like yahoo, hotmail, aol. If gmail makes a change and makes the email like the one u check on the iPhone, wow it will be the best email you can possibly have, it's simply amazing. For you iPhone users, go to the safari webbrowser and go gmail and you'll see.

Posted by: Jose at July 2, 2008 6:11 PM

THANK YOU! This was so helpful! I was getting frusterated that I couldn't find my address book. Glad to have found this.

Posted by: Hannah at September 17, 2008 12:29 AM

Question. Can i import my google address book to outlook express on windows xp?

Posted by: ari at September 29, 2008 8:03 PM

How do I transfer my address book from comcast to Gmail without having to manually enter in the information in Gmail?
I have windows XP and I have been using internet explorer.

Posted by: BJ at October 24, 2008 4:04 PM

The Gmail contacts feature has been a point of pain for me for a long time. It makes it really hard for a serious business user to use Gmail over some email clients that take contact management seriously. I've written an open letter to Google about it and would like your feedback: http://shermanboyd.com/2008/11/21/open-letter-to-google-99-ways-to-improve-gmail-contacts

Posted by: Sherman Boyd at December 5, 2008 12:34 PM

Hi there. I typed Google Mail Address Book into the Google search on the opening page in hopes of finding a way to GET INTO MY ADDRESS BOOK. WHERE IS IT? HELP!!! I know I've done this before, but for the life of me, I sure cannot find it anywhere now, and I need to add some addresses to make sure they don't go to Spam. The question that you answered (above) using Contacts doesn't help me, because that just brings up people who are already on my list, or who I want to add for gmail chat. I simply want to "get TO" my address book .. and I do not see ANY link ANYWHERE on my gmail page, anywhere, unless I am going blind. Thank you in advance for your help. :/

Posted by: Lois at January 23, 2009 5:10 PM

Hi Dave

Is there an easy way to import my Yahoo contacts into Gmail? Thank you very much!!

Jill

Posted by: Jill at March 17, 2009 9:14 AM

What do I click to get my email address book. I have a gmail account and am very computer illiterate. Thank you, Pamela Kirkpatrick

Posted by: Pamela Kirkpatrick at April 18, 2009 12:38 PM

I need help..
When I want to email something, Gmail comes up but I can not put my names and address' in it. How can I add my names and address'to the Gmail address book?

Posted by: Betty Holm at April 25, 2009 11:03 AM

I am a new user and I have a new wireless HP after
having Dell dial up . Trying to find the email address book -forget it. I do not want to pay for the
service as I googled it and they said it was a free service.. If I have to I will go to html or
back to AOL. No one is helping me and the Gmail
adress book is aluding me totally. Gmail is confusing!

Posted by: Anne Perkins at May 26, 2009 3:22 PM

I have just opened my account with gmail. I have friends that are already using gmail, but I don't know their addresses. Can I find them somewhere on the gmail page? Both of the friends I am wanting to let know about my account are out of town, and I would just like to leave them a message about my new email. What can I do?

Posted by: ldavis at June 5, 2009 7:23 PM

How do I create an address from incoming e mail ?

Posted by: Sally Lowry at June 13, 2009 2:18 PM

recently gmail had a problem i have lost all my contacts and can not receive or send. how can i get back all my contacts without retyping them all?

Posted by: tom at September 2, 2009 9:21 PM

I have something to say, now that you mention it, but ...

I do have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but first I'd like to say thank you for all your efforts on this Web site by buying you a cup of coffee!

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!