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Gmail's Email Draft feature offers users the flexibility to compose, save, and revise messages before sending. By utilizing drafts, one can ensure well constructed and structured communication that will enhance the effectiveness of your message. When drafting emails, it's paramount to prioritize accessibility, ensuring that content is easily readable and comprehensible for all recipients. This page provides you the practical and accessible steps to creating communication using the Email Draft feature.
Workshop Recording
Workshop Recording
Do you send emails to students, colleagues, or the broader campus community? This workshop gives simple strategies for crafting emails that are easy to read, navigate, and understand for all recipients. We learn tips and tricks for working with Gmail tools to make your workflow easier and ensure accessibility of your communications.
Please see the recording of our workshop or review the step by step guidance below.
Creating the Email Draft
Creating the Email Draft
How to create an “Email Draft” in Google Docs
How to create an “Email Draft” in Google Docs
Open a Google Doc
From the features menu
Select Insert
Select Building blocks
Select Email draft
A table appears simulating the window of an email message
To add recipients in the "To" field, type "@" and search your contacts, or type out email addresses.
Add a subject line
Write text in the email body
Format your draft.
Body of the Email: Make it Accessible
Body of the Email: Make it Accessible
Now that you have the space for the body of your email, it is time to draft easy to read, visually appealing, and accessible content.
Text: Font
Text: Font
Use a sans-serif font such as Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, or Calibri. Email Drafts defaults to Ariel. Simple sans-serif fonts are easiest to read on screen.
Use 12pt or larger for easy viewing on all devices. Email Drafts defaults to 10pt, so you will need to increase the size by clicking on the + sign next to the font size.
Use all capital letters only for acronyms.
Text: Headings
Text: Headings
Headings help to easily navigate your email and locate pertinent information, both for those viewing the email visually and for screen reader users. Headings create document structure, similarly to an outline. You can modify the visual appearance of default heading styles to your preference.
List main topics or sections of your email. These will be your headings.
Add text under each heading.
Make sure that headings are on a different line than the text.
Highlight your first heading. Select the Styles menu, and select Heading 1.
Highlight your next heading. If it is equally important to the first heading, again select the Styles menu, and again select Heading 1. The number of the heading is like the indent of a nested outline. If your second heading is less important, select Heading 2.
Continue with your remaining headings.
Select Show document outline button to view your headings in outline form. Double check that:
Paragraph text is set to Normal text, not Heading
Headings are nested appropriately
Your goal is to have appropriately nested headings that are also visually distinguished from the rest of the text. Read more about titles and headings in Google Docs.
Text: Spacing
Text: Spacing
Balancing the spacing between lines, text density, and white space around blocks of text is essential for readability. Having sufficient white space reduces visual clutter and makes the text easier to scan and comprehend. It is particularly important for reading disabilities like dyslexia. Read more about white space balance.
Use the Line & Paragraph spacing feature to add space before and after paragraphs, headings, and list items. Do not use your return key to add extra lines. Empty lines are read as “blank” to screen reader users and create unnecessary noise.
Text: Color
Text: Color
Colored text can help attract the attention of your reader or distinguish headings from paragraph text. If using colored text:
Ensure that you have sufficient contrast. Use the contrast checker to check your foreground and background color combination.
Use color to enhance your text, not as the only method of conveying information.
Use the Text color dropdown to select your color.
Double check you work. Would someone who can’t see color or who prints in black & white be able to get the necessary information from your text?
Images
Images
Images are a great way to enhance your communication.
Prepare your image:
Ensure that your image has sufficient contrast. Use the contrast checker to check your foreground and background color combination.
Do not use your image to deliver text information. A logo or banner with a small amount of text is ok.
Add your image to your email body:
Select the Insert Image button.
Select your source:
Upload from computer
Search the web
Google Drive
Google Photos
By URL
Camera (webcam on your computer)
Add Alt text:
Alt text, or alternative text, is presented to someone using a screen reader, and allows them to hear a description of an image. Alt text may also be displayed on the screen if the image fails to load due to a slow connection or other technical difficulty. Alt text should be kept short, but informative, so that your readers who cannot see your image can still understand the information it conveys. Alt text is context specific and relates to the meaning that the image presents in your specific email. Alternative text for graphics, such as cartoons or charts, needs to include any text presented in the graphic while describing the overall meaning. See more on adding Alt text in Google Docs. To add Alt text:
Right-click on your image, and select Alt Text from the menu.
Add a short phrase in the Description box. You do not need to say “image of…” as part of your description. Only use words like “photograph of” or “painting of” if the type of image is important to the context.
Links
Links
Web links in your communication can direct your reader to external websites for additional information or resources. Links need to be written as descriptive text which informs the reader what they will access by clicking the link. You can use a short descriptive phrase or a meaningful name of the link destination. Avoid putting the full URL in your communication, or using link text like “click here” or “read more” that does not describe the link destination. To add a link:
Go to the website that you want as your destination and copy the URL (web address).
Highlight the descriptive text that you want to link.
Select the Insert link button.
Paste your copied URL in the box.
Select Apply.
Transferring Email Draft to Gmail
Transferring Email Draft to Gmail
These instructions guide you through the preview and sending step on the “Email Draft” process. Very important! The email draft will be sent from the account you are logged into. Make sure you are signed into the appropriate account.
How to send your Email Draft
How to send your Email Draft
To the left of the email draft, you will notice an “M.”
This is the Preview in GMail button.
Select Preview in Gmail to transfer your document to your email account.
This is a snapshot of the email. Any change to the document after this snapshot will not be reflected in your email.
In this Gmail window, you can make additional changes to your email. However, we recommend deleting this draft and returning to your Google Doc.
Sending options
Schedule Send
Allows you to draft a presentation to be sent at a future date and time.
Click Send
The email draft will be sent from the account you are logged into.
Choose the appropriate sending options to complete the email draft process.
Want a little advice?
Want a little advice?
You can make additional changes to your email, but we recommend deleting this draft and returning to your Google Doc. Use this window as a bridge to send. Why? Let’s us explain
There are more formatting options in your Google Doc.
For example, if you need to edit sections of text, you might find the formatting, font size, isn’t the same. That’s because GMail has a limited range of fonts and sizes compared to Google Docs. You will learn more about formatting options shortly.
Who participated in creating this email?
If you are working with colleagues, making adjustments can only be seen and reviewed with one individual. Unless screen sharing on Zoom, but honestly that’s missing the awesomeness of this feature.
Institutional Memory / Organizational Consistency
Collaborative writing and review are a mainstay for staff on-campus. Creating documentation for repeated use saves time and energy, and lets folks know what happened in the past to review and revise, not to recreate.
Practice what you preach
If you want effective communication, you have to practice effective communication. Sometimes that means taking a step back and working it out both verbally and in writing.
Replies to Email: Make it Accessible
Replies to Email: Make it Accessible
Creating your email using the Email Draft building block in Google Docs is a great strategy for emails that you originate. When you reply to emails, you have two options.
Option 1: Write in a Google Doc
Option 1: Write in a Google Doc
Draft your email in a Google Doc following all of the recommendations in the Body of the Email section above. Once you have written your formatted text with any desired images and links, copy it into your reply in Gmail.
Option 2: Write in Gmail
Option 2: Write in Gmail
In Gmail you will have access to some, but not all, of the text formatting options. You will not be able to adjust text spacing or tag heading text. If you are writing a lengthy reply with multiple sections of text, it is best to follow Option 1: Write in a Google Doc. If your response is shorter, you can write in Gmail using the available tools.
Text: Font
Text: Font
Use the Sans Serif font option in the Font dropdown menu. This is the default for email replies.
Use the Normal font size in the size dropdown menu. This is the default for email replies.
Use all caps only for acronyms.
Text: Color
Text: Color
Colored text can help attract the attention of your reader. If using colored text:
Ensure that you have sufficient contrast. Use the contrast checker to check your foreground and background color combination.
Use color to enhance your text, not as the only method of conveying information.
Use the Text color dropdown to select your color.
Double check you work. Would someone who can’t see color or who prints in black & white be able to get the necessary information from your text?
Links
Links
Web links in your email reply can direct your reader to external websites for additional information or resources. Links need to be written as descriptive text which informs the reader what they will access by clicking the link. You can use a short descriptive phrase or a meaningful name of the link destination. Avoid putting the full URL in your communication, or using link text like “click here” or “read more” that does not describe the link destination. To add a link:
Go to the website that you want as your destination and copy the URL (web address).
Highlight the descriptive text that you want to link.
Select the Insert link button.
Paste your copied URL in the box.
Select OK.
Images
Images
Images are a great way to enhance your communication.
Prepare your image:
Ensure that your image has sufficient contrast. Use the contrast checker to check your foreground and background color combination.
Do not use your image to deliver text information. A logo or banner with a small amount of text is ok.
Add your image to your email reply:
Select the Insert photo button.
Select your image source:
Google Photos
Google Albums
Upload from computer
Web Address (URL)
Add Alt Text:
Add Alt text, or alternative text, is presented to someone using a screen reader, and allows them to hear a description of an image. Alt text may also be displayed on the screen if the image fails to load due to a slow connection or other technical difficulty. Alt text should be kept short, but informative, so that your readers who cannot see your image can still understand the information it conveys. Alt text is context specific and relates to the meaning that the image presents in your specific email. Alternative text for graphics, such as cartoons or charts, needs to include any text presented in the graphic while describing the overall meaning. To add Alt text:
Click on the image to select it.
Select Edit alt text.
Add a short phrase in the Description box. You do not need to say “image of…” as part of your description. Only use words like “photograph of” or “painting of” if the type of image is important to the context.
Select Apply.
Tips & Tricks
Tips & Tricks
Using Contacts? If you have generated a contact list with Contacts, you will want to wait until you copy this over to a Gmail email window to work.
You can have multiple email templates within one document.
Utilize Tables of Contents on your first pages to keep track of the different types of emails.
Use the @menu features.
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