10 Great Google Apps Tips
Google continues to spiff up Gmail, Calendar, Docs, and other Google Apps. Take advantage of the improvements with these smart tips.
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Google grabbed a lot of headlines this year, from its advancements in Google Glass to Android news to the company's mysterious barge in the San Francisco Bay. But the search giant also pushed out updates to its cloud tools, Google Apps.
More than 5 million businesses and 50 million people now use Google Apps, which launched in 2006 and includes Gmail, Calendar, Drive, Docs, Sheets, and Slides. This year, Google announced a major redesign of Gmail that included customizable tabs to make it easier to organize emails; it revamped the Google Drive menu; and it launched a new interface for Google Groups. Google released a number of other new productivity features and tools, from Google Wallet integrations to tweaks that make composing emails, managing your calendar, and sending files easier.
[ Google's Web-to-TV media device has also been updated. See Google Chromecast Adds 10 Apps. ]
Google has made so many improvements you might not be aware of some of them. Whether you've been using Google Apps for a while and want to learn about the changes, or you're a new user still finding your way around, check out our 10 tips for making the best of Google's cloud applications.
1. Use Google Keep reminders.
Google Keep, a note-taking service, lets you set reminders, insert images, and create lists. Google introduced Keep earlier this year for Android, Chrome, and the web. From the web, you can set reminders via Google Drive.
The latest version of Google Keep works with Google Now, a mobile location service, to remind you of tasks and errands while you're at the right time and place. For example, you can create a shopping list in Google Keep, then set a reminder for time and place. When the time comes -- or when you're near the supermarket -- Google will remind you. To start, select the "Remind me" button from the bottom of any note and choose the type of reminder you want to add: You can add time-based reminders for a specific date and time or a more general time of day, like "tomorrow afternoon." You can add locations, too. If your plans change and you're not ready to complete a task, you can snooze it and choose a better time or place.
Keep displays all notes that have upcoming reminders. Active and archived notes that have past reminders are displayed on the main Notes screen. Keep shows the time or location of past reminders when you open the note. To delete an existing note, tap the X next to the reminder.
You can get the Google Keep update in Google Play or on the Web.
Senior editor Kristin Burnham covers social media, social business, and IT leadership and careers for InformationWeek.com. Contact her at [email protected] or follow her on Twitter: @kmburnham.
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If you need to reimburse a friend or add money to your teenager's checking account, just send an email. You'll notice that this feature is enabled for you if you have a ($) button added to the Gmail compose window. This new feature is also available for iOS.
To send money, compose a new email and click the "Attach money" button. On the form that appears, enter the amount you want to transfer and click send. Transactions are free if you send money from Google Wallet or directly from your bank account. A 2.9% fee per transaction is charged if you use a credit or debit card. Receiving money does not cost anything.
Recipients will receive an email confirmation and the funds will be available almost instantly. If you send money from a bank account, the transaction could take several days to clear, Google said.
If your mother-in-law included you in an irrelevant email thread and you want out, Gmail has one feature that will keep your inbox from filling up. "Mute conversations" is a feature that prevents the thread from reappearing in your inbox.
To mute a thread, select it by checking the box beside it. Then select the "Mute" option from the drop-down menu under "More." After you mute a conversation, the emails are removed from your inbox and archived. You can still see the conversation in the "All Mail" label, where you'll see a new label called "Muted."
To unmute a conversation, check the box and click "Move to Inbox."
If you use Gmail to make plans or schedule meetings, you can quickly add them to your Google Calendar.
You'll notice that dates and times in emails sent to you are now underlined. Hover over one to preview your schedule and change the date, time, or title of the event. Then click "Add to Calendar" to confirm and add it to your schedule. The event in your calendar will include a link back to the original email to make referencing the details easier.
Sometimes email attachments can be too big to send the conventional way using Gmail. If this is the case, you can now use Google Drive to send the large files. Google's cloud storage feature lets you insert and send files 400 times larger than the traditional attachment -- with a maximum file size of up to 10 GB.
To send a large email attachment, make sure you've uploaded it first to Google Drive. Then, click the Drive icon from the Compose window, and choose the file you want to send. Gmail will verify that your recipients have access to the file you've chosen. If they don't, Google will prompt you to change the sharing settings.
A new feature called Gmail Quick Buttons lets you act on some emails from your inbox without opening the individual message. For example, you can RSVP to a friend's party invitation, rate a restaurant you dined at, follow Twitter users back, and even view tweets without having to open the message. These buttons appear next to certain types of messages in your inbox and are still rolling out to users.
If you're frequently on the road, it can be easy to forget about an important meeting. That's where Calendar's SMS reminders come in: Plug in your details -- such as phone number and wireless carrier -- and Google will text you a reminder before your meeting.
To set up SMS reminders, go to your Calendar settings page and click the Mobile Setup tab. Enter your information and click save. When you add a new event to your calendar, click "Add a reminder" and select SMS.
If you have decided to move on from your Google account or simply want a backup of your information, the company now lets you export copies of your Gmail and Calendar content using its Takeout service.
To begin, visit Google Takeout and click "Create an archive." On the next page, select the services from which you want to download your data, then click "Create archive." The ability to download your Gmail messages is rolling out to users over December and January. Calendar data is available to all users.
Before, if someone emailed you a Google Doc, Slide or Drawing, you had to sign into your Google account to view it. If you didn't have a Google account, you had to create one -- or you couldn't access the file. Now, Google lets others see docs regardless of whether they are signed in or have a Google account.
No sign in is required. Instead, Google generates a sharing link that lets anyone view the content. Users without a Google account will only be able to view the file; a Google account is required to edit it. Google Apps admins can prevent this feature in the Admin console by disabling sharing outside the domain.
Gmail's latest redesign features a small pop-up composition window that not everyone loves. If you miss the full-screen composition mode for your emails, Google issued an update that enables this feature. To access it, click the Compose button, then click the double-arrow icon at the top-right of the compose window. To make this option your default view, go to the options menu at the bottom-right corner of compose and choose "Default to full-screen." Both types of compose screens can be minimized by clicking the black bar at the top.
Gmail's latest redesign features a small pop-up composition window that not everyone loves. If you miss the full-screen composition mode for your emails, Google issued an update that enables this feature. To access it, click the Compose button, then click the double-arrow icon at the top-right of the compose window. To make this option your default view, go to the options menu at the bottom-right corner of compose and choose "Default to full-screen." Both types of compose screens can be minimized by clicking the black bar at the top.
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