Video:Create Email Aliases and Forwarding Addresses in Gmail

Transcript:Create Email Aliases and Forwarding Addresses in Gmail

Hi, I'm Don Schechter for About.com Computing.

Today, I am going to show you how to create an email alias in Gmail and how to start forwarding your incoming mail to another email address.

Getting to Gmail Alias Options

Log into Gmail with your username and password. Click the Settings link in the upper right corner. A new page should open where your inbox used to be. Click Accounts.

Gmail Account Information

Your primary email address is shown here with your name and email address. This is what will be displayed when people receive email from you. What we want to do now is add another email address to make it appear as if you were sending email from another email address.

Adding Gmail Forwarding Destinations

Click the link Add another email address. In the window that pops up, enter the name that you want to appear next to your email address and the email address that you want to use. In my example, I will use my name and my other email address for About.com. You can specify a Reply-to address by clicking this link.

Now when people reply to email coming to this address (point to Email address with mouse) it will actually go to this address (point to Reply-to email address) instead.

I don't want to do that at this time, so I'll clear it out and click Next Step.

Destination Verification

In order to make sure you aren't trying to fake being someone else, Gmail requires you to verify that you actually own that other email address. Click Send Verification. An email will be sent to your other email address with a verification link. Once you receive that email, click the verification link. Gmail will add the new address to your account. Click save changes.

Using Gmail Aliases

Click Compose Mail. As you'll notice, you can now select which email address you would like to send from. Email when received by others will appear as though it had been sent from this address. I'm going to send myself a message from the new address to my Gmail account. Gmail will only notify others that it was sent on behalf of Gmail.

Gmail Email Forwarding

Now I'm going to discuss email forwarding. Let's go back to settings again. Click Forwarding and POP. You'll notice that Gmail gives you the option to forward your email to another address. Simply click here, enter the email address you wish to forward mail to, and then select what you want Gmail to do with the incoming mail. Some people like to keep a copy in Gmail as a backup, while you might like to delete it. Click save changes to start forwarding.

And that's how you set up an email alias and forwarding address in Gmail.

Thanks for watching. To learn more, visit us on the Web at Computing.About.com.