Google Groups

A Google group is similar to a mailing list: it contains the email addresses of its members, but also has its own email address. Using just the one email address for the group, you can:

• Send email to all group members
• Invite group members to meetings
• Share Google documents, sites, and calendars with group members

Groups are automatically created for official university organizations, departments, and classes. In addition, you can create your own groups.

Learn More

• Google Groups vs. Contact Groups
• "My Groups"
• Create a New Group
• Group Settings
• Sending Messages to a Group
• Sharing Google Docs, Sites, and Calendars with a Group

Google Groups vs. Contact Groups

You might be wondering how Google groups differ from the contact groups you can create in Google Contacts. The primary difference is that a Google group has its own email address, so others can use it. Your contact groups, on the other hand, are for your personal use, to make it easy to add a list of addresses to your email messages and meeting invitations. Contact groups don't have their own email address, so no one else can use them.

"My Groups"

All the groups that you belong to are listed on your personal My Groups page. To access your page, log into UWF Gmail and click the more drop-down arrow in the upper-left corner, then select Groups.

Create a New Group

To create a new group:

1. Open the My Groups page and click the Create button.
2. Name the group, create a group email address, write a description, choose an access level, then click Create my group.
3. Next, you can invite members to join your group. People you invite will receive an email with the option to join. Alternatively, you manually add members without inviting them by clicking the link to Add members directly (use this feature appropriately - do not send unwanted email). If you are not ready to invite or add members at this time, you can Skip this step and return to it later.

Group Settings

After creating your new group, you should review the settings. Group settings, accessible from the right-side column, allow you to customize how your group works including who can join, who can view messages, and who can post messages. Also through settings, you can change the colors, fonts, and navigation.

Sending Messages to a Group

To send an email message to a group, simply enter the group's email address in the To field of a standard Gmail message. You can find the email address for the group on the group's main page. The first time you send a message to a group, you may need to type the group's complete address. After that, you can just start typing it, and it will auto-complete.

Keep in mind that the group settings dictate who has permission to send to the group - permission to send messages may be limited to the group manager, group members, people at UWF, or it may not be limited.

Share Google Docs, Sites, and Calendars with a Group

In Google Docs, Sites, and Calendar, you can share to all the members of your Google Group at once by entering the group's email address. When members are added to or removed from the group, the changes are immediately applied to Google docs, sites, and calendars. Instructions