Email for all D-E students, faculty and staff changed from GroupWise to DEmail (D-E's version of Gmail) in March 2011.  Information below may be helpful to those who have not used Gmail in the past.

For information on other Google services at D-E, see the Google Apps page.

Login

You may access DEmail by typing in the address mail.d-e.org into any web browser (such as Google Chrome). You will sign-in using your standard D-E username and your D-E network password.  To do that you may be redirected to the My DE website to enter this information.  This is normal as your My DE login is connected with the DEmail login.

New Interface

Google introduced a new email interface and changed the look in late 2011. The first five minutes of the video below shows where commonly used features are located in the new interface. The last minute mentions some of the improvements in the new interface.

You can also access Google's "New look for Gmail" page for additional information.

Unique Features 

Conversations (a.k.a. threads)

One major difference between DEmail and some email systems is that all messages with the same subject line are grouped together in a bundle called a conversation. Therefore, if you are part of an email discussion where 20 different replies are passed among a group of people, you will not see 20 individual messages in your mailbox.  Instead, you will see one conversation listed. When you open that conversation all of the individual messages with that subject line will be stacked together and sorted by date so you can read through the thread all at once without having to weed through unrelated messages.

For more information see "Conversations" at Google's Gmail help Center.

Conversations may take a little getting used to, but they have a lot of organizational advantages, and we strongly suggest that you give it some time before deciding you don't like it. But if you REALLY don't care for the way that Google organizes your mail in conversations, you can turn this feature off by going to your email settings. (To access settings, click the little sprocket icon next to your email address in the upper right corner and select email settings). On the General tab which is open by default, is a Conversations section about half-way down. Just turn it off here.

Inbox vs. All Mail

When mail is delivered, it goes into your inbox. Once you have read a message, you can leave it in your inbox, delete it, or archive it. Note that if you drag an item to a label or several labels, this does not remove it from your inbox the way messages in some email systems move FROM the inbox INTO the destination folder. It stays in your inbox until you delete it or archive it. If you delete it, it will go into the trash and eventually be deleted forever. If you archive it, however, it leaves your inbox and is out of sight until you search for it again. If you want to see ALL of your mail including things that you have archived (but not deleted), you can click on "All Mail." (You may have to look under more in the label list to find All Mail.)

Folders = Labels

Instead of folders, DEmail has labels.  Labels can be used like folders with the extra feature that you can add more than one label to a conversation. For example, maybe you used to keep all of your subscription list messages in a folder called "subscriptions" and all of the messages you need to follow-up on in "to do".  With labels you can tag a message with both the "subscriptions" and "to do" label so you will see that same message in both places.  Think of this as attaching labels to an email message like you would put a sticky note on a piece of paper.

One important difference between labels and folders is that you have only one copy of an email message even if it is tagged with multiple labels.  Therefore, if you delete the message it disappears from everywhere not just from the label you are looking at when you delete the message.

For more information, see "Using Labels" at Google's Gmail Help Center or watch this two minute video:

(This video refers to an old Gmail interface but the concepts are still correct.)

Sending Attachments

You may email files to others by clicking on "Attach a file" under the subject field while composing a message.

Restrictions

• • Files over 25 MB are prohibited.  The maximum email message size is 25 MB including all attachments.

  • Some file types are blocked: Files that can be executed (such as files ending in .exe, .com and .vbs) are blocked as a security measure. A list of prohibited file types is here. 

A video that shows how to attach a file and summarizes the restrictions is available here.

Viewing Attachments

There are multiple ways to view files emailed to you. Some only work for specific file types. For step by step details about each of these options see "Viewing attachments" at Google's Gmail help Center.

The quickest way to print most attachments is to use View then go to the File menu in the Viewer and select Print (PDF).  If the document does not seem to be formatted correctly, then use Download so you can save a copy to your local computer and open it with software installed on your computer.

Where did that message go? (Archiving vs. Deleting)

(This video refers to an old Gmail interface but the concepts are still correct.)

D-E system groups (system-wide address book)

Just as in the old GroupWise system, there is a centrally manged address book that has entries for everyone at D-E who has an email account.  You can not list everyone in the address book, but if you start typing in someone's legal name or username in the To field of a message, you will get a list of everyone matching that name.

Shared groups (aka distribution lists) are also available in DEmail. Anyone at D-E can use them to email groups of students or staff (teaching and non-teaching staff). To use one, just start typing in the name. Some of the available groups are:

• • gradeX where X is a number from 4 to 12 - All students in a particular grade.  (This replaces the old "Class_Of" groups.)

  • ls_students, ms_students, us_students  - All students (with email accounts) in a particular division.

  • ls_staff, ms_staff, us_staff - All school employees associated with a particular division.

  • all_staff - All employees of the school.

  • all_school - Everyone (students and all staff) with a D-E email account.

  • google-gurus - Group of students, teachers and non-teaching staff (including Computer Services) who have volunteered to answer Google service related questions.

The full address for all groups is the name above with @d-e.org appended.  For example, all_staff@d-e.org. 

You can get a list of most system groups by going into contacts and searching for # (the pound sign).

Contact Groups (personal distribution lists)

View and Edit Contacts

If you would like to read more about Contacts, see Managing Contacts in Gmail help.

Create Contact Groups

• • From the main Mail window, Click the word "mail" below the DE Logo.

  • From the menu that appears, click "Contacts."

  • By default, you should be viewing All of your contacts.

  • Check the box next to the people you want to add to a group.

  • After you have selected a  couple of contacts, you should see the group button at the top of the window. Click it.

  • Select the group you want to add the people you checked off to.

  • If you want to add them to a new group, click "Create new Group."

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I switch between using my DEmail Google account and my personal Gmail account?

The least complicated choice is to use the Sign Out feature to leave one account and then login to the other account. 

However, it is possible to enable the ability to sign-in to multiple Google accounts and quickly switch between them.  See the help article from Google titled "Sign in to multiple accounts at once" for directions to enable that.  Note that the multiple sign-in feature includes some restrictions and somewhat minor complications.

How do I setup my cell phone to access DE mail?

The easiest but least elegant way is to just use your phone's web browser and access http://mail.d-e.org.  However, you can better integrate using DE mail with your phone by following the directions at the article DeMail - Mobile Phone .

How do you us POP to fetch your DeMail into your personal account?

Log into your DeMail and go to the sprocket and select mail settings.  Enable POP account access.  Then log into your personal email.  Add a POP account with the following settings:

More Information

• • Gmail Help Center - by Google. This is also available by clicking Help in the upper-right corner of the DEmail screen.