Saturday, January 16, 2010

Google Tutor

at 8:37 PM

Google Tutor

Be a Gmail Ninja: Catapult Your Gmail Productivity in High Gear

Posted: 15 Jan 2010 10:45 PM PST

Gmail has a large number of functions to make our life easier, help us get more done, and get our Gmail inbox more organized. Just looking at the GT archive for Gmail, it’s obvious that Gmail is more than just a generic email account. You can use it to organize your tasks, and as a universal address book. Google wants you to get more out of your Gmail account, and has very specific tutorials to help you achieve this, based on how much email you receive.

Become a Gmail Ninja

Gmail has organized their tips based on how much email you receive, and named the different usage ‘levels’ based on the Gmail ninja theme. Gmail users are nicknamed, and your usage level starts off at ‘white belt’ for the light user, to Gmail Master for the heavy user.

Highlight from the White Belt Tips

If you are just receiving a few messages each day, perhaps your success doesn’t depend on being able to organize your inbox, but there are still a few things you can do to propel your productivity into the next level:

Use stars to differentiate messages that need immediate attention or are important.
Search, don’t sort messages.
If the sender of a message is online, you can reply by chat instead of a regular message.
Use labels to organize and categorize your messages.
Import email messages and contact information from your previous email account.

Highlights from Gmail’s Green Belt Tips

A more intermediate user, categorized by Gmail as receiving a dozen or so messages a day, can benefit from the following tips:

Use video chat to talk face to face, and finish up the conversation faster (to get back to your task list).
Gmail has a built in to-do list, called ‘tasks’. Use it to strike off completed tasks and get through your day faster.
Use filters to direct emails to different labels/folders as they come in. This cuts down on manual organization, and makes your messages easier to find.
‘Use undo send‘ to take back what you’ve just sent, and edit it a second time.
Use your vacation responder when you will be away from Gmail for a few days, or a few weeks.

Tips for the Black Belt Gmail User

If you don’t just get a few, or a dozen messages, but a lot then you may benefit from some advanced Gmail functions, such as:

Fly through your messages by using keyboard shortcuts to surf your inbox.
Use advanced search operators to dig through thousands of messages, and find exactly what you’re looking for.
Take filtering messages to the next level with personalized email addresses.
Here is a tip I will use every single day: send empty messages without being prompted to add more in the email body, if all you need is a subject line. For example, when you are asking someone a simple question like “Did you receive that book we ordered last week?”. Stop the prompt by typing “EOM” in the subject line (=End Of Message).
Use canned responses instead of tying the same thing again, and again, and again….. and again.
Send and receive messages from different email addresses, without ever leaving Gmail.

The Gmail Master

Being a Gmail Master means you get more messages than you can count, and you rely on Gmail to keep your personal and professional life organized and running smoothly. Chances are, many of us fall in this category! Here are some of the top tips Gmail offers for the heavy duty Gmail user:

Too busy to grab your phone, send SMS messages directly from Gmail. Turn it on in labs before you can use it.
One of the best tips, for Gmail users of all levels is to sign out remotely. Fear you’re still signed in at the library, and the next stranger using the public computer can delve into all your sensitive personal and work information? Here is how you sign out from a remote location.
Select multiple messages by holding down shift, then click the first message and the last message in the series to select multiple emails at once.

Check out many more tips on using Gmail, I’m sure you will discover some tips and tricks you never knew about. I certainly did, and some of them I can put to use right away!

What are your favorite Gmail functions? I look forward to seeing them in the comments!

Buy an ad right here. You are reading this aren’t you?

Share this post!

Thursday, January 7, 2010

Google Tutor

at 8:39 PM

Google Tutor

The Google Phone (Nexus One) Is Here

Posted: 07 Jan 2010 03:21 AM PST

Unless you were hiding behind a rock for the last 2 days, I am sure by now you would have heard about Google’s own smartphone called Nexus One.

nexus one phone

Nexus One, which was long rumored and anticipated, was finally announced by Google the other day in a detailed blog post. What’s interesting is that they started off by announcing a Web store for buying and purchasing Android based devices, and as Ars Technica notes, that was a huge announcement too.

The phone is manufactured by HTC and based on Andriod 2.1. It has already got some rave reviews and many consider it a serious threat to iPhone. Om Malik from Gigaom has called it the best Android Phone yet.

Take a look at the technical specifications of the phone :-

nexus one tech specs

Here are some cool features of Nexus one :-

Effective voice based keyboard that could eliminate the need to type while texting
Excellent integration of Google Apps like Gmail and Google Voice
5 mega-pixel camera with flash, color effects and other features
Command the phone with your voice
Live wallpapers and a 3D photo gallery
Easy navigation and Wi-Fi connectivity

Take the 3D tour of Nexus One and check out their Youtube Channel to watch some cool videos about the different functionalities of the phone.

The unlocked device comes at a cost of $529. Check out the pricing details.

So what are your thoughts on this new entrant in the smartphone space ? Will you buy it ? Let us know in comments.

Follow me at Twitter

Share this post!

Monday, January 4, 2010

Google Tutor

at 8:08 PM

Google Tutor

How to Change Your Default Font and Styling in Gmail

Posted: 04 Jan 2010 05:00 AM PST

Personally, I don’t spend too much time thinking about how my emails look. Most of my messages are quick, to the point, and have a professional goal. I’ve never really felt like spending the time to change the color and font of my Gmail messages, before hitting the send button. I’ve always liked receiving emails that are a little more personalized, and often businesses will send emails with a distinct font or characteristic color that matches their brand. Friends often send me emails in all colors of the rainbow, some easier to read than others. Nonetheless, making your email stand out and more personal is a way a lot of people like to express themselves. I would have done the same, had it been effortless and simple. In Gmail, now it is.

How to change your default text styling

A new function in Gmail labs lets you decide the default font and style your emails are composed in. This is how you change your Gmail messages from plain black text, to a default setting that is completely personalized:

Browse to Labs in your Gmail account.
Look for the function called “Default Text Styling”, the easiest way to find it is to use ctrl + F or command + F to do a search using these words on the page. It is about halfway down the list of Labs functions.
Change the function to Enabled, and save your changes by clicking on ’save changes’ at the bottom or top of the page.
You are not brought back to your inbox view. Now, click on “Settings”.
On the “General” tab in settings you will now see a box with Default Text Style about half way down the page:
You can highlight the sample text in the text box, and change the settings using the buttons displayed above. For example, you can change the font:
You can also change the color of your email text:
I changed both the font and color of my default text, and this is what it looks like now:
If, after playing around with the settings you regret your choices, and want to go back to the default settings and start over, you can do so very easily with the button on the far right:

After clicking this button, my settings went right back to the default:

Are your messages going to be more colorful now that you can change your default text settings? I might keep the dark purple look, but I’m curious to see whether or not you will use this new feature in Gmail Labs in the comments!

BOTW drives traffic. Save 15% with the new BOTW coupon code!

Share this post!