Gmail Sign in
Gmail sign in is probably one of the most important aspects of the security of your email account; in this tutorial, we will give you a thorough overview of the sign in form and login options that accompany it. You will find a constant trade-off between security and convenience (with computers in general, not just your Gmail account).
Gmail sign in screen
The Gmail sign in screen is what you see when either you login to your email account for the first time on a given computer, or after Google has automatically signed out of your account (this is a security feature that guarantees that even if someone finds a computer where you remained logged in, they will sooner or later have to enter your account password.
- Here's a screenshot of the Gmail sign in form:
- The "Username" text field collects your email address.
- Tip: Note that this is the sign in form that logs you into your Google account, not just Gmail; this means that you may also enter other (non Gmail) email addresses as user name. But if you sign in to your Gmail account, or if you are using an "
@gmail.com" email address generally, you can enter just your user name without the "@gmail.com" - and Google will assume that it is a Gmail address. - The "Password" field collects your Gmail account password, which is "case-sensitive" (in other words, a letter in uppercase is considered to be a different character than the exact same letter in lowercase).
Gmail Sign in options and the security of your email account
Gmail actually only provides a single, but powerful option in its sign in form:
- You will also find a checkbox labeled "Stay signed in", which is unchecked by default (for your safety). If this checkbox is checked when you click on the Sign in button, and if the login information you entered is correct, Google will create a "cookie", or small text file, that indicates that the next time you type "www.gmail.com" in your web browser, or access your Gmail inbox in some other fashion, Google should automatically login and skip the sign in form altogether. This convenient option needs to be used with care.
- Only turn on the "Stay signed in" setting when you are using your own computer or laptop, not from a public place in other words - otherwise, the next person using that computer and browser will automatically find themselves in your inbox if they try to access Gmail - this can be dangerous, depending on the amount of personal and financial information that can be found in your inbox!
If you share a computer with others, you can "stay signed in" if you each use your own profile in the operating system (put differently, if you each have to login to the computer with your own username to access your files) - because in that case, access to your Gmail account is protected by Windows / Mac / Linux itself, as long as you remember to lock your computer when you need to step away. 
The "Sign in" button initiates the Gmail login process (click on link for detailed behind-the-scenes description).- Tip: if you are currently in one of the two text fields, or the focus is on the checkbox or button, you don't need to use your mouse to click on "Sign in" - you can just hit Enter key (Windows and Linux) or Return key (Mac) on your keyboard.
- Finally, notice that below your Gmail Sign in form, Google displays a "Can't access your account?" link: use it if you have problems signing in, or if you have forgotten your password. We will cover this in more depth in our password recovery tutorial.
This just about covers the simple Gmail sign in form - again, you will become quite familiar with it if you use other Google services (Google Buzz, Google Analytics, or your Google search settings). Remember to always manually sign out of your Gmail account if you are not on your own computer; to increase the security of your login credentials, you should also change your Gmail password regularly, especially if you sign in to Gmail from public places with free public Wi-Fi, or a computer at the library (where anyone can see you type your email address and password), etc.