Archive for September, 2009

Using Your GMail As Your ToDo List

Friday, September 4th, 2009

I have long used my InBox on any email system I’ve had access to as my “to do list”; if there’s an old email in my InBox it means I have to do something … maybe you’re the same. However, when there’s emails flooding in from all over the place the “to do” messages can get lost amongst the noise.

How’s this for a solution for all GMail users?

  1. Turn on the following in Labs (Settings / Labs tab)
    note: your Google Apps administrator may have turned off Labs

    • Superstars
    • Multiple InBoxes
  2. Click on Settings / Multiple Inboxes tab
  3. Enter “has: red-bang” and give it a name of “ToDo”
  4. Return to your InBox (or labels) and star the “ToDo” items with the red “bang/!”
  5. Voila

You can use any type of star, to find the name of each star type go to Settings / General tab and hover over each star to get its name

Don’t forget you can set up “InBoxes” containing any type of mail search – show me all the emails from Client X, marked with a yellow star containing an attachment – check out the complete list of GMail search options

And finally, you don’t have to go back to the InBox to get to your ToDo list, it’s merely a search! From the search box you can easily enter “has:red-bang” and push ‘Search mail’ and there’s your ToDo list.

This post was totally inspired by James T from Google, thanks

Posted in Google Apps, How To | 1 Comment »

Get Help With Google Apps Services

Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009

As Google Apps grows across your organisation there are always lots of questions users have. There is also lots of cool functionality that unless users are made aware of they can miss out on – and heck, you’ve paid for it all why not let them use it!

Being a web-based service from such a user-centric organisation as Google means we can all leverage off the rich user help they provide. A tip for all using (or running a pilot/POC) Google Apps is to create separate Google Site focussed on pointing the users to the relevant help pages and embed appropriate videos (nothing helps a user than seeing it in action).

The site can also be used to collect feedback, allow your users to answer questions and manage their own learning – create a list for this (here’s how).

To give you users the links to the Google Apps Help that looks like http://google.com/support/a/users/?hl=en, the following code can be added to your site homepage (copy it, edit the page, click the [html] button and paste it in):
————

<h2>Get help with Google Apps services</h2>
<div>
<ol style="list-style-type:decimal">
<li style="font-size:1em;margin-top:0.5em;margin-left:0.5em;list-style-type:none"><a href="http://mail.google.com/support/?ctx=ausers&hl=en"><img alt="Email" src="http://www.google.com/a/help/intl/en/images/gmail_icon.gif" style="border-top-width:0px;border-right-width:0px;border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;border-style:initial;border-color:initial;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;vertical-align:top;border-style:initial;border-color:initial"></a> Email - <span style="font-size:12px;color:rgb(102, 102, 102)">Visit the <a href="http://mail.google.com/support/?hl=en">Gmail Help Center</a></span>
</li>
<li style="font-size:1em;margin-top:0.5em;margin-left:0.5em;list-style-type:none"><a href="http://www.google.com/support/calendar/?ctx=ausers&hl=en"><img alt="Calendar" src="http://www.google.com/a/help/intl/en/images/calendar_icon.gif" style="border-top-width:0px;border-right-width:0px;border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;border-style:initial;border-color:initial;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;vertical-align:top;border-style:initial;border-color:initial"></a> Calendar - <span style="font-size:12px;color:rgb(102, 102, 102)">Visit the <a href="http://www.google.com/support/calendar/?ctx=ausers&hl=en">Google Calendar Help Center</a></span>
</li>
<li style="font-size:1em;margin-top:0.5em;margin-left:0.5em;list-style-type:none"><a href="http://www.google.com/support/sites/?ctx=ausers&hl=en"><img alt="Sites" src="http://www.google.com/a/help/intl/en/images/sites_35.gif" style="border-top-width:0px;border-right-width:0px;border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;border-style:initial;border-color:initial;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;vertical-align:top;border-style:initial;border-color:initial"></a> Sites - <span style="font-size:12px;color:rgb(102, 102, 102)">Visit the <a href="http://www.google.com/support/sites/?ctx=ausers&hl=en">Google Sites Help Center</a></span>
</li>
<li style="font-size:1em;margin-top:0.5em;margin-left:0.5em;list-style-type:none"><a href="http://www.google.com/support/talk/?ctx=ausers&hl=en"><img alt="Chat" src="http://www.google.com/a/help/intl/en/images/talk_icon.gif" style="border-top-width:0px;border-right-width:0px;border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;border-style:initial;border-color:initial;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;vertical-align:top;border-style:initial;border-color:initial"></a> Chat - <span style="font-size:12px;color:rgb(102, 102, 102)">Visit the <a href="http://www.google.com/support/talk/?ctx=ausers&hl=en">Google Talk Help Center</a></span>
</li>
<li style="font-size:1em;margin-top:0.5em;margin-left:0.5em;list-style-type:none"><a href="http://docs.google.com/support/?ctx=ausers&hl=en"><img alt="Docs" src="http://www.google.com/a/help/intl/en/images/docs_icon_sm.gif" style="border-top-width:0px;border-right-width:0px;border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;border-style:initial;border-color:initial;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;border-style:initial;border-color:initial;border-style:initial;border-color:initial;vertical-align:top;border-style:initial;border-color:initial"></a> Docs - <span style="font-size:12px;color:rgb(102, 102, 102)">Visit the <a href="http://docs.google.com/support/?ctx=ausers&hl=en">Google Docs Help Center</a></span></li>
<li style="font-size:1em;margin-top:0.5em;margin-left:0.5em;list-style-type:none"><a href="http://www.google.com/support/a/bin/answer.py?answer=106608&hl=en&ctx=ausers"><img alt="Video" height="35" src="http://www.google.com/a/help/intl/en/images/video_icon.gif" style="border-top-width:0px;border-right-width:0px;border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;border-style:initial;border-color:initial;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;border-style:initial;border-color:initial;border-style:initial;border-color:initial;vertical-align:top;border-style:initial;border-color:initial" width="35"></a> Video - <span style="font-size:12px;color:rgb(102, 102, 102)">Visit the <a href="http://www.google.com/support/a/bin/answer.py?answer=106608&hl=en&ctx=ausers">Video FAQ</a></span></li>
<li style="font-size:1em;margin-top:0.5em;margin-left:0.5em;list-style-type:none"><a href="http://www.google.com/support/a/?ctx=ausers&hl=en"><img alt="Admin Control Panel" src="http://www.google.com/a/help/intl/en/images/controlpanel.gif" style="border-top-width:0px;border-right-width:0px;border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;border-style:initial;border-color:initial;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;vertical-align:top;border-style:initial;border-color:initial"></a> Admin Control Panel - <span style="font-size:12px;color:rgb(102, 102, 102)">Visit the <a href="http://www.google.com/support/a/?ctx=ausers&hl=en">Admin Help Center</a></span>
</li>
</ol>
</div>
</div>
<h2>Also see</h2>
<ul><li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/googleapps">Google Apps YouTube channel</a></li></ul>
<div><img src="http://www.google.com/chart?chc=sites&cht=d&chdp=sites&chl=%5B%5BYouTube+video%27%3D16%27f%5Cbf%5Chv%27a%5C%3D211%270%27%3D210%270%27dim%27%5Cbox1%27b%5CDBD9BB%27fC%5CDBD9BB%27eC%5C15%27sk%27%5C%5B%22Google+Apps+Quick+Tour%22%27%5Dh%27a%5CV%5C%3D12%27f%5Cbf%5C%5DV%5Cta%5C%3D212%27%3D0%27%3D211%27%3D352%27dim%27%5C%3D212%27%3D0%27%3D211%27%3D352%27vdim%27%5Cbox1%27b%5Cva%5CFFFEF0%27fC%5CDBD9BB%27eC%5Csites_youtube%27i%5Chv-0-0%27a%5C%5Do%5CLauto%27f%5C&sig=n6ZPbwVo6o3UbBuVCQM7jM5Akqk" origsrc="kJT3pagjd8s" type="youtube" props="wrap:false;align:center;showBorderTitle:true;showBorder:true;borderTitle:Google Apps Quick Tour;" width="425" height="355" style="display:block;margin:5px auto;text-align:center;"><br>
</div>

Posted in Google Apps, How To, Information | No Comments »

Designed For The Teams Of Tomorrow, Not The Office Workers Of Today

Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009

I would love to claim that the title came out of my brain, but it didn’t.
It does, however, succinctly highlight EXACTLY what I believe “cloud based”* office tools are all about.

Focussing on “words” (yes, wordprocessing, usually done with Microosft Word) I have previously discussed how applications such as Google Apps are coming at this from a very different point of view – from the team and not the office worker, Google Docs … So What – The ONE Reason Why You Should Care:

Google Docs lives to share the words:

  • knows that words want to be shared and that’s why you’ve typed them.
  • its world view knows/understands its connected environment
  • its capabilities are built to use this environment

Living on the worlds biggest network allows this to happen.

It’s not about pretty words for the vast majority of users, it’s about sharing ideas, collaborating on goals and working together. The few times that “desktop publishing” is required the appropriate tools should then be chosen.

* I’m sorry for using the “cloud” word, it sucks as anything more than hype but I seems to be widely understood. The earlier it goes away the better :-)

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »