This screencast by Tom Kulmann explains nicely how to manage multiple email accounts through Gmail.
I had been thinking about setting up another gmail account and was wondering just how to handle more than one. I knew it could be done, but Tom’s Screenr video arrived in my Twitter account (retweeted by @elearning) at just the right time. Thanks, Tom!
Gmail Labs is making it possible for us to add more gadgets to Gmail if we choose. The first thing you need to do from your Gmail is to activate Gadgets by going to Settings, then Labs, and enabling “Add any gadget by URL.” It’s at the bottom of the list at the moment. Be sure to save changes.
Now navigate to Settings > Gadgets in order to add new gadgets. They are all added by copying in a URL and saving your settings when you are finished. Makeuseof.com has a list of URLs for 10 gadgets you might be interested in.
You probably won’t want them all in your sidebar. If you are often on your Gmail page and wish you had easy access there to Twitter, too, you can add the TwitterGadget by copying in the URL from makeuseof.com’s post. I tried it out just to see how it worked and it looked pretty usable.
I already have ways I manage Twitter, however, so I deleted the gadget and looked at the other possibilities. They include Wikipedia, FriendFeed, World Clock (which I have on my Calendar), Digg, Calculator, Facebook and MySpace, none of which I decided I wanted in my Gmail sidebar. (If you add several of these, it is handy to be able to minimize them when you don’t need them.)
However, the URL shortener, bit.ly, looked like just the thing — I frequently send links in my gmails and they can be quite long. I added the gadget (the URL is long: http://hosting.gmodules.com/ig/gadgets/file/107368512201818821991/bitly-shortener.xml) and found a use for it right in the next message I composed. Works fine.
I already have the bit.ly URL shortener in my Bookmarks Toolbar, but having this gadget easily at hand in Gmail is great. By the way, Firefox also has an extension called bit.ly preview so you can see “what lurks” beneath a bit.ly-shortened URL when you encounter one. You might like to know before you go there.
I have been thinking of purchasing a new cell phone for quite awhile. I’ve been using an early Windows Mobile device that worked well for me while I was still relying heavily on Microsoft products such as Outlook email and calendar.
However, I have gradually been shifting more and more to Google, so when the T-Mobile G1 phone came out last fall, I was very interested in its close connection with Gmail and calendar, but I wasn’t quite ready to bite. I am glad I waited for the T-Mobile MyTouch.
Since I was a T-Mobile customer I was able to order my phone for delivery before it is available in stores — August 5, I believe. My phone came yesterday and I have been spending many hours playing with my new toy; er, that is, mastering my new communication device. I just love the integration with Google — Gmail, calendar, maps, and the Android Market continues to develop interesting new apps. Of course, the MyTouch comes with all the bells and whistles new cell phones have: camera for stills and videos, music, BlueTooth and dozens more. I just tried “voice search” and was taken to the correct search results page immediately.
One of the first things I did was download the free AppPack, and then I downloaded Sherpa by Geodelic, which I have seen many positive comments about but haven’t really put to the test yet. Here’s a review of MyTouch by MobileCrunch. There are still many aspects I haven’t explored yet — more fun to come!
I opened my Gmail this morning and saw that a new feature has been added. The image below popped right up to inform me and I’ve already made use of drag and drop convenience.
There’s a new location for labels — right above your chat list and grouped with Inbox, Drafts, etc.
Gmail starts you out with the two labels you most commonly use, but you can easily change the settings to show more, less, or others. Hiding some labels clears the clutter and the real estate, but you can access them quickly by clicking the “more” link. To show, hide or delete a label, click the down arrow to its left and choose from the menu.
Want to overhaul your labels in general? Go to Settings > Labels and edit in bulk.
You can drag messages onto a label, or drag the label to the message. It’s easy. See the Official Gmail blog for illustrations.
Windows 7 release impressions
Engadget has taken the new build of Windows 7 “for a bit of a spin around the block.” You can explore with them a few Windows 7 tidbits and observations.
They comment on the look and feel, remote media streaming, Windows XP emulation, and more, and speculate on the release date — before Jan 2010?
More Gmail emoticons
For the fun of it:, if you’d like to add a couple of extra smileys and images to your gmails, you can go to the Labs feature and enable the one called Extra Emoji.
Save the setting; and now when in “rich text editing” mode, you can click the smiley, and then select from several image sets, some with animation.
Another reason to use Gmail’s Multiple Inboxes
A couple of weeks ago a new Gmail Lab feature called Multiple Inboxes was launched. It allows you to customize different “inboxes” in one view.
Now Gmail Blog suggests that if you forward all your work or school email to Gmail, you can use Multiple Inboxes to see your two accounts separately within the same browser window.
First go to the Gmail Labs tab under Settings and enable Multiple Inboxes. Set up a filter to auto-archive all mail sent to you from your other email address, then customize one of your multiple inboxes to show mail sent to your other address. To do that, go to the Multiple Inboxes tab under Settings and set up one of the panes to search for mail sent to your other address. A separate inbox will help you see messages without cluttering your primary inbox.
Global mobile award winners
The World Mobile Congress in Barcelona just concluded. Winners for 2009 in the “best mobile …” are listed here.
Categories include best mobile handset, game, music or video service, best technology advance, breakthrough, green mobile award, and more.
Bargain Blu-ray players
Haven’t gone for a Blu-ray player yet? PC Magazine suggests some good, but relatively inexpensive equipment to enhance your HDTV experience.
Some players “upconvert” your regular DVDs’ image quality.
Gmail Labs has a new feature they call “multiple inboxes” which gives users the ability to view up to five different panes in a choice of position on the page — to the right, above or below your regular inbox.
To turn on Multiple Inboxes, go to Gmail “Settings,” then select “Labs.” Scroll down a bit until you come to Multiple Inboxes, check “enable” and save your new settings. After you have enabled the feature, you can select it from the settings option to configure what you want to see, as well as set the number of messages displayed and the positioning of your panels from the Multiple Inboxes.
For users who frequently label their messages and have saved searches, this upgrade will make Gmail even more efficient. Creating a pane seems to be a little counter-intuitive, says TechCrunch. “You’ll need to manually enter the Gmail ‘code’ of your label (for example, “label:friends” would display a list of messages tagged with the friends label). But the system is also flexible, as it allows you to combine multiple attributes into a single pane (for example, “is:drafts OR is:starred” would show messages that are either drafts or starred).”
And for those who were expecting to actually see the inboxes of multiple email accounts, advises Google Operating System Blog, you can achieve this by using Gmail’s mail fetcher, which automatically labels the messages fetched from other accounts and archives them. You can then create panes that have the following format: label:myotheraccount@gmail.com or to:myotheraccount.com.
While looking closely at your Gmail, you may also notice a recent button redesign.
Designer Douglas Bowman says, “The buttons are designed to look very similar to basic HTML input buttons. But they can handle multiple interactions with one basic design. The buttons we’re using are imageless, and they’re created entirely using HTML and CSS, plus some JavaScript to manage the behavior. They’re also easily skinnable with a few lines of CSS, which was a key factor now that Gmail has themes.”
Wired Blog Network is saying that an offline Gmail mode will be rolling out over the next few days. Google’s new offering will letusers access Gmail from their browsers even when they aren’t online.
“For those of you that want offline access, and the web-based interface, the new Offline mode is what you’ve been dreaming about,” they say. You will be able to read, star, label, archive and compose new mail although you are not connected.
Since the feature is still in the experimental stage, it will be enabled through Gmail Labs. If you don’t have Gears (the offline web application API), you will be prompted to install it the first time you try to sync your messages. Click “settings” and then the Labs tab to select the “Enable” button next to the Offline Gmail feature, then hit Save Changes at the botton of the page.
You should then see a new “Offline” link in the upper right-hand corner of the Gmail window, next to your username. Just click that link and Gmail will start the offline synchronization process. Be patient, the initial sync can take a little while, writes Wired.
After that moving between offline and online modes happens automatically in the background. Compose e-mails whenever you like. They will be stored in the outbox when you are offline and “send” them. They will automatically be sent out the next time an internet connection is available.
There are two main drawbacks to offline Gmail in this early release, notes Wired: 1) You can’t add attachments to new messages composed while, offline although you can view attachments that are part of any synced messages; 2) There is no way to access the Contacts section of Gmail. See the article for complete information.
I first read yesterday that Google was gradually rolling out themes for Gmail, giving us the option to further customize what some of us see a lot of — our Gmail.
Themes didn’t show up in my Gmail account until this morning. I have had fun playing around with them to see what I like best, at least for right now. When I selected “mountains,” I was informed that the look would change according to my location and invited to enter it.
Convert PDFs to Word Online PDF UNdo Online is easy, free and works on any computer with no registration, says Lifehacker.
Find an Adobe PDF document on your computer, click to convert it to Microsoft Word, then click to download the converted file. If the PDF is password or copy protected, you will not be able to alter it. If not protected, it is now editable with any app that supports Word docs. There is a free desktop PDF converter that you can download, as well.
Also take a look at PDF Online which converts your edited files back to PDF (as well as other tricks).
More expressive Gmail with new emoticons
Noting that the black and white days of text-based emails have had their day, Gmail blog announced a slew of new emoticons to help you express yourself if you use the rich-text mode to compose your emails.
I already have ways I manage Twitter, however, so I deleted the gadget and looked at the other possibilities. They include Wikipedia, FriendFeed, World Clock (which I have on my Calendar), Digg, Calculator, Facebook and MySpace, none of which I decided I wanted in my Gmail sidebar. (If you add several of these, it is handy to be able to minimize them when you don’t need them.)
I have been thinking of purchasing a new cell phone for quite awhile. I’ve been using an early Windows Mobile device that worked well for me while I was still relying heavily on Microsoft products such as Outlook email and calendar.
