Tips for administrative assistants

On this page

• Manage your boss
• Manage your team
• Learn Gmail tips & tricks
• Work faster with shortcuts
• Collaborate on documents
• Use generative AI at work

               

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Manage your boss

Stay in touch using Google Chat

Is your boss out of the office and you urgently need to get in touch? Use Google Chat to instantly chat from any device, anywhere.

Learn how: Get started with Google Chat

 

 

Handle your manager’s contacts, email & calendar

Whether you're someone's assistant or you're just stepping in for your manager for a week, you can access and manage their contacts, compose and respond to Gmail messages, or schedule and coordinate Calendar events on their behalf.

Learn how

Manage their contacts

Have your manager delegate their contacts to you. You can then access and manage your manager's contacts. You can add and update their contacts with information such as names, phone numbers, and addresses.

Learn how at the Contacts Help Center 

Manage their Gmail Inbox

Have your manager follow these steps to delegate their inbox to you:

1. At the top right, click Settings See all settings.
2. Click Accounts and Import.
3. In the Grant access to your account section, click Add another account.
   Note: Your organization may restrict email delegation. If you don’t see this setting, contact your administrator.
4. Enter the email address of the person you want to add and click Next Step.
5. Click Send email to grant access.

After your manager completes these steps, you'll get an email asking you to confirm. You can then read, send, and delete their email messages. When you send a message on their behalf, your email address appears as well as your manager's.

Note: It may take up to 24 hours for you to become available as a delegate after you confirm.

Learn more at the Gmail Help Center

Manage their calendar

Have your manager delegate their calendar to you. You can then respond to invitations on their behalf, create and edit their events, and get emails about changes to their calendar.

Learn how at the Calendar Help Center

 

 

Send a daily agenda to your manager's inbox

Help your boss stay organized by showing them how to receive a daily agenda to review first thing in the morning. While looking at their morning emails, they can easily keep track of upcoming meetings and events.

Learn how

Show your boss how to perform these steps for their calendar:

1. In Calendar, go to Settings Settings.
2. On the left under Settings for my calendars, click your name and go to Other notifications.
3. In the Daily agenda field, click the Down arrow next to None and select Email.

Manage your team

Organize team events, travel plans & more

Need to organize travel or event plans for your colleagues? Create and send a Forms survey to gather information on flights and hotels, or to get an event date that suits everyone. Then, create a Groups mailing list to share important updates with people who are traveling to or attending an event together.

Learn how

1. Create your form

1. Go to forms.google.com.
2. Click Blank form .
3. Name your untitled form.

Learn more: Get started with Google Forms

2. Create a group email address

1. Sign in to Google Groups.
2. At the top, click Create group.
3. Enter information and choose settings for the group. Here are some suggested settings:
   • Who can view conversations: Only members of the team (if you want to keep project communications private.
   • Group members: Email address of each person on the project team
   • Group managers: Email address of any team member who might need to add others to the team later.
   • Directly add members: Turn this option On so you can control who joins the group.
4. Click Create group.

Wait a few minutes for your new group to become active before sending a message to it. Otherwise, you might get a notification that your message couldn't be delivered.

 

 

Prepare everyone for meetings with event attachments

Prepare your boss and team members by giving them a chance to preview relevant files before meetings. When you send a Calendar invitation, you can attach documents, spreadsheets, presentations, agendas, and more—so everyone on the team is ready to contribute ideas. Keep your boss and team up to date before a meeting by attaching an agenda, notes, or presentation slides. Now, everyone can have a chance to look through relevant files before the meeting so they can come prepared.

Learn how

Attach a file to a Calendar event

1. On your computer, open Google Calendar.
2. Create an event, or open an existing event.
3. If you create a new event, click More options.
4. At the bottom, in the description box, click Add attachment .
5. Choose a file that's already in your Google Drive. To add a file from your computer, click Upload.
6. When you finish, click Select or Upload.

Learn more at the Calendar Help Center

 

 

Keep track of facility requests

Looking for an efficient way to coordinate facility requests? Use Forms so that team members can fill out requests for services, such as catering or maintenance. Then embed the form in a Sites website so employees have a go-to place for facility requests that they can access from any location or device. When someone submits a form, capture the responses in Sheets. You can even set up email notifications for new responses so the facilities team can carry out the request as quickly as possible.

Learn how

1. Create your form

1. Go to forms.google.com.
2. Click Blank form .
3. Name your untitled form.

Learn more at the Docs Editors Help Center

2. Embed the form in Sites

1. Open a form in Google Forms.
2. In the top right, click Send.
3. At the top of the window, click Embed .
4. To copy the HTML that appears, click Copy or press Ctrl + c (Windows) or ⌘ + c (Mac) on your keyboard.
5. Paste the HTML into your website or blog.

3. Set up email notifications

1. Open a form in Google Forms.
2. At the top of the form, click Responses.
3. Click More .
4. Click Get email notifications for new responses.

Learn more at the Docs editor Help Center

4. See responses in a spreadsheet

Easily see all responses in a spreadsheet.

1. Open a form in Google Forms.
2. At the top of the form, click Responses.
3. At the top right, click Link to Sheets .

Learn more at the Docs Editors Help Center

 

 

Coordinate schedules & availability with team calendars

With large teams, it’s challenging to schedule dates that suit everyone. With Calendar, you can layer your team members’ calendars to see when everyone is available. You can even create multiple team calendars to keep track of meetings, trainings, vacations, and more. Now that you know when people are free, it’s easy to schedule team meetings or events.

Learn how

1. Create a team calendar

You can only create new calendars from a browser and not from the Google Calendar app. Once the calendar is created, you can find it on your browser and in the app.

1. On your computer, open Google Calendar.
2. On the left, next to "Other calendars," click Add other calendars  Create new calendar.
3. Add a name and description for your calendar.
4. Click Create calendar.
5. If you want to share your calendar, click on it in the left bar, then select Share with specific people.

2. Share it with your team

1. On your computer, open Google Calendar. You can’t share calendars from the Google Calendar app.
2. On the left, find the “My calendars” section. To expand it, click the Down arrow .
3. Hover over the calendar you want to share, and click More Settings and sharing.
4. Under “Share with specific people or groups,” click Add people and groups.
5. Add a person’s or Google group’s email address. Use the drop-down menu to adjust their permission settings. Learn more about access permissions.
6. Click Send.
7. The recipient will need to click the emailed link to add the calendar to their list. Learn how to add someone else’s calendar.

Tip: To share a calendar that you don’t own, you need to ask the owner to give you “Make changes and manage sharing” permission.

 

 

Print your Google calendar

Keep track of your schedule the old fashioned way by printing your Google calendar. Choose any date range, set fonts, print event details, and more. You can even print in full color to track different event types.

Learn how

Print your calendar

1. On your computer, open Google Calendar.
2. To select a date range, at the top right, click:
   • Day
   • Week
   • Month
   • Schedule
   • 4 days
3. At the top right, click Settings Print.
4. On the "Print preview" page, change details such as font size or color.
   • To select size options, click Print.
5. Click Print.

Tip: When space is available, the location or room(s) of events are also displayed.

Learn more at the Calendar Help Center

 

 

Keep track of multiple time zones

If you work with people all over the globe, you need to know when they’re available in their time zone. You also need to make sure your bosses and coworkers don’t miss important meetings or events because of time differences when traveling. Quickly see the time in other countries by adding world clocks to your Calendar.

Learn how

Display a secondary time zone

1. On your computer, open Google Calendar.
2. In the top right, click Settings Settings.
3. In the "Time Zone" section, click Display secondary time zone.
4. Click Secondary time zone   choose your time zone.

Learn more at the Calendar Help Center

Learn Gmail tips & tricks

Automatically organize your inbox with filters

Create filters to automatically delete, star, or forward your mail, and to apply labels to relevant incoming messages. For example, your manager’s inbox might be full of irrelevant messages, such as event acceptances and declines. Set up a filter to have Gmail automatically archive them so your boss has a clean inbox and can focus on the most important messages.

Learn how

Create a filter

You can manage your incoming mail using Gmail’s filters to send email to a label, or archive, delete, star, or automatically forward your mail.

1. Open Gmail.
2. In the search box at the top, click Show search options  .
3. Enter your search criteria. If you want to check that your search worked correctly, see what emails show up by clicking Search. 
4. At the bottom of the search window, click Create filter.
5. Choose what you’d like the filter to do.
6. Click Create filter.

Note: When you create a filter to forward messages, only new messages will be affected. ​Additionally, when someone replies to a message you've filtered, the reply will only be filtered if it meets the same search criteria. 

 

Tip: Try these Gmail filters for work or school.

Learn more at the Gmail Help Center

 

 

Easily undo sent messages

Make a typo in your email? Forget to add a recipient? Change your mind about sending a message? Take back a message you just sent up to 30 seconds later by enabling Gmail’s Undo Send feature.

Learn how

Recall an email with Undo Send

Right after you send a message, you can retract it:

1. In the bottom left, you'll see "Message sent" and the option to "Undo" or "View message".
2. Click Undo.

Choose an amount of time to recall a message

1. On your computer, go to Gmail.
2. In the top right, click Settings See all settings.
3. Next to "Undo Send," select a Send cancellation period of 5, 10, 20, or 30 seconds.
4. At the bottom, click Save changes.

Learn more at the Gmail Help Center

 

 

Save time using prewritten replies

Do you frequently type the same message over and over? Want to find an easy way to replicate important information like directions to the office or how to install and access a video meeting, and more? Use Gmail’s templates to save a reply—now, when you send email to new clients on your manager’s behalf, you can use the same template so you don’t have to type the same information every time.

Learn how

Enable templates

1. Open Gmail.
2. At the top right, click Settings See all settings.
3. At the top, click Advanced.
4. In the Templates section, select Enable.
5. At the bottom, click Save Changes.

Create or change a template

1. Open Gmail and click Compose.
2. In the Compose window, enter your template text.
3. Click More Templates.
4. Choose an option:
   • To create a new template, click Save draft as templateSave as new template.
   • To change a previously saved template, click Save draft as template and under Overwrite Template, choose a template and click Save to overwrite it.
5. (Optional) To send an email, compose your message and click Send.

Insert a template

1. Open Gmail and click Compose.
2. Click More Templates.
3. To insert a template, under Insert template, choose a saved template to insert in your email.
4. Compose the rest of your message and click Send.

 

 

Say the right thing with Gemini

Convey your message effectively and with the right tone. Gemini for Google Workspace can create draft emails to help you communicate with a boss, a challenging colleague, or someone who requires additional clarification.

Learn how

You can use this feature only if your organization supports it. For help, contact your administrator.

Gemini for Google Workspace is available when your Google account language is set to an English dialect. Additionally, some features are available in Spanish and Portuguese. Learn more about language availability.

Write a new draft with Gemini in Gmail

1. On your computer, open Gmail.
2. At the top left, click Compose.
   • You can also reply to an email thread.
3. At the bottom left of the window, click Help me write .
4. Enter a prompt. For example:
   • “A thank you letter for my job interview”
   • “A birthday invitation for my 5-year-old”
   • “Ask my friend for restaurant recommendations in Toronto”
5. Click Create.
6. (Optional) After generating your draft, click:
   • Recreate: Generate a new draft based on your prompt. After you create a new version of the draft, you can’t go back to the previous version.
   • Refine: Revise the text in the draft.
     • Formalize: Make the draft more formal.
     • Elaborate: Add additional details to the draft.
     • Shorten: Shorten the draft.
7. If your draft looks good, click Insert.

Tips:

• For better results, include:
  1. Recipient
  2. Topic
  3. Tone you want to express in your prompt

For example, "An apology to my child's teacher for their absence."

• To get a draft you like, it may take a few tries. To submit a different prompt:
  1. At the top right of the draft, tap Close .
  2. Enter a new prompt.

Refine a draft with Gemini in Gmail

1. On your computer, open Gmail.
2. At the top left, click Compose.
   • You can also reply to an email thread or open an existing draft.
3. Write your message.
4. At the bottom left of the window, click Help me write (Labs) .
5. Choose an option from the menu:
   • Polish: Refine your draft.
   • Formalize: Make the draft more formal.
   • Elaborate: Add additional details to the draft.
   • Shorten: Shorten the draft.
6. (Optional) After refining your draft, click:
   • Recreate: Generate a new draft. After you create a new version of the draft, you can’t go back to the previous version.
   • Refine: Revise the text again.
7. If your draft looks good, click Insert.

Give feedback about a draft

Gemini for Google Workspace is constantly learning and may not be able to support your request.

If the generated draft is inaccurate or looks unsafe, you can let us know by submitting feedback. Your feedback can help improve AI-assisted Workspace features and broader Google efforts in AI.

1. Below the generated text, click Good suggestion or Bad suggestion .
2. To share detailed feedback, click Tell us more.
   • To share general feedback, click Feedback .
3. Click Submit.

Important:

• To send feedback with screenshots, click Help in the top right of Gmail Send feedback to Google. Learn more about sending feedback in Gmail.
• To report a legal issue, create a request.

 

 

Easily manage multiple signatures

Need to use different signatures for email within your company or externally? With Gmail, you can use templates to create different signatures. The next time you compose an email, just choose the template with the signature you’d like to use.

Learn how

Create each signature

1. Open Gmail.
2. At the top right, click Settings See all settings.
3. In the General tab, scroll to Signature and click Create new.
4. Name your signature, then click Create.
   This name is not your actual signature, but is a name for the signature template.
5. In the text box at the right, add your signature text.
6. (Optional) To add text colors, links, and images, use the format bar.
7. At the bottom, click Save Changes.

Choose a signature for a message

Tip: If you want to change your signature while you write an email, at the bottom of the window, click Insert signature .

Learn more at the Gmail Help Center

 

 

Save time responding to email

Want to save time responding to email when you’re on the go? Use Smart Reply in Gmail and get suggestions for quick responses to your messages. After you select a reply, you can send it immediately or edit the Smart Reply text.

Learn how

Turn on Smart Reply in Gmail

1. On your computer, go to Gmail.
2. At the top, click Settings See all settings.
3. On the General tab, go to Smart Reply and select Smart Reply on.
4. At the bottom, click Save Changes.

Learn more at the Gmail Help Center

 

 

Add hyperlinks instead of attaching files

Try hyperlinking a word or sentence in your email, instead of attaching a file from Google Docs, Sheets, or Slides. Even if the email is forwarded, the link will always remain attached.

Learn how

Add a hyperlink in Gmail

1. On your computer, go to Gmail.
2. Click Compose and enter a message.
3. Highlight the text that you want to link and click Insert link .
4. Enter the URL of the file and click OK.
5. Click Send.

 

 

Use Gmail side by side with other apps

You can use Google services, such as Gmail and Calendar, in the same window on your computer or mobile device. Increase productivity without switching between tabs.

Learn how

Switch between Google services in one window

1. Go to Gmail, Calendar, Chat, Drive, or a file in Google Docs, Sheets, or Slides.
2. At the bottom right, click Show side panel .
3. On the right, choose the product you want to open:
   • Calendar : Check your schedule and add or edit events.
   • Keep : Create a note or list.
   • Tasks : Add to-do items and deadlines.
   • Contacts : Access your contacts.
   • Voice : Make a Google Voice call.
   • Maps : Search Google Maps.
4. To close the app panel, on the right, click Close .

Tip: You can get add-ons from Google Workspace to add more options to your side panel.

Learn more at the Calendar Help Center

Work faster with shortcuts

Use keyboard shortcuts

Want to save time and work faster? Check out keyboard shortcuts in Gmail, Calendar, and other Google services. Get more done with fewer clicks.

Learn how: Use keyboard shortcuts

 

 

Add tasks from your Inbox & Calendar

Stay organized and prioritize your assignments with tasks in Gmail or Calendar. You can easily convert email into tasks and create due dates that automatically appear on your calendar.

Learn how

Create a task from an email

1. Go to Gmail.
2. On the right, click Tasks .
3. Find the email you want to save as a task.
4. Drag and drop the email to the side panel.
5. To add a date and time, click Date/time​.

Create a task from your Calendar

1. Open Google Calendar.
2. On the left, under “My calendars,” select Tasks.
3. Choose an option:
   • In your calendar, click an empty slot on your calendar.
   • In the top left, click Create.
4. Click Task.
5. Enter a title and description.
6. To add the new task to a specific list, choose one from the drop down.
7. Click Save.

Learn more at the Google Tasks Help Center

 

 

Get detailed search results for your contacts

Need detailed information for a person on your team? With Cloud Search, you can search all your Google Workspace products for work information related to a particular person. See a profile card with their contact and work details, email address, and any shared drive files and Calendar events.

Learn how at the Cloud Search Help Center

Collaborate on documents

Access your files on any device, any time

Need to access an important file for your boss when you're away from your office and don't have email? After you store a file in Drive or a shared drive, you can access, share, and edit it on any device, any time.

Learn how

• Get started with Drive
• Get started with shared drives

 

 

Keep track of file and folder updates in Drive

Want to view changes and updates to your documents? Save work files and folders in Drive or shared drives and instantly share them with your boss and coworkers. When someone incorporates feedback and approvals, Drive shows you what files have changed, so everyone stays in sync.

Learn how

See who commented, edited, moved, or shared a file

You can see activity on files in My Drive.

1. On your computer, go to drive.google.com.
2. On the left click My Drive.
3. In the upper right, click Info .
4. Select an option. To access:
   • Recent changes, select an option:
     1. Click Activity.
     2. Scroll down the right side.
   • The activity of a specific file or folder, click the file or folder.

See who's viewed your file or who you've shared it with

Availability of this feature depends on your edition of Google Workspace and permissions set up by your administrator. Who is my administrator?

1. In Docs, Sheets, or Slides, open the file.

   Note: You will need to have edit access for the file to see the Activity dashboard data.

2. Click ToolsActivity dashboard.
3. You can see information about the activity on your file, including:
   • Shared with tab: Shows people you’ve shared the file with. You can also email collaborators.
   • All viewers (organization) tab: Shows people in your organization who have viewed the file.
   • Viewer trend tab: Shows a chart of viewers over time.
4. (Optional) If you don’t want your view history to appear in Activity dashboard, click Privacy Settings and choose an option:
   • Turn off view history for all files: Under Account setting, turn off Show my view history for all Docs, Sheets and Slides files.
   • Turn off view history for one file: Under Document setting, turn off Show my view history for this document.
5. Click Save.

 

 

Easily collaborate on documents with your coworkers

Need feedback from your manager or team on an important document? Want to chat instantly with people reviewing a file instead of emailing back and forth? Create and share a document with everyone and communicate in real time using Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms, and Drawings.

Learn how

Share a file from Drive

1. Select the file you want to share.
2. Click Share or Share .
3. Enter the email address or Google group you want to share with.
4. To decide what role people will have on your file, select Viewer, Commenter, or Editor.
5. If your account is eligible, you can add an expiration date for access.
6. Choose to notify people.
   • If you want to notify people that you shared an item with them, check the box next to Notify people. If you notify people, each email address you enter will be included in the email.
   • If you don't want to notify people, uncheck the box.
7. Click Send or Share.

Learn more: Get started with Google Drive

Tip: If you're collaborating with a group of people on many files, you might want to set up a shared drive instead.

 

 

Find changes in documents faster

If you’re collaborating on a document with your boss and colleagues, it can be difficult to pinpoint who made certain changes and when. Use the revision history in Docs to review all the updates to your document. If you prefer an earlier version, you can revert to any previous versions at any time.

Learn how

View or revert to earlier versions of Docs, Sheets, and Slides files

Note: You need Owner or Editor access to see the version history.

1. In Drive, open your file.
2. Click FileVersion historySee version history.
3. Click a timestamp to see a previous version of the file. Below the timestamp, you’ll see:
   • Names of people who edited the document.
   • A color next to each person’s name. The edits they made appear in that color.
4. (Optional) To revert to this version, click Restore this version.

Upload a new version of a file to Drive

1. On your computer, go to drive.google.com.
2. Click the file you want to replace.
3. At the top right, click More   Manage versions  Upload new version.

Learn more at the Google Drive Help Center

Use generative AI at work

If your organization supports it, you can use the artificial intelligence add-on, Gemini for Google Workspace. Use Gemini directly in Google Workspace apps like Docs, Sheets, Slides, Meet, Vids, and Gmail, to help you write, visualize, organize, and connect. You can also use Gemini as a standalone experience at gemini.google.com. 

Learn how

• Get started with Gemini
• Get tips for writing prompts

• For Google Workspace administrators: Get Gemini for your organization

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