Tag: Gmail

  • How to Send and Receive Other Email in Gmail

    The easiest way to use Gmail with your organization is to buy Google Apps, but sometimes that’s not possible. However, there is still a way to use Gmail with your company email address.

    How do I get my email in my Gmail account?

    There are a couple of ways to do this. Your web host may have the option to forward your email to your Gmail address. Check with your company’s IT department to see if this is possible. If that is not possible, the next best option is to have Gmail check the email the way Outlook does using “POP”.

    Gmail SettingsHow do I add a POP email account in Gmail?

    In Gmail, click on the gear ‘settings’ icon and click on “Settings”. Click the tab “Accounts”. Click “Add another email address you own”. A pop up will appear, enter your email address “youremail@yourdomain.com” and click on Next Step. The way this is done varies by web host.

    In the following example, I will be using specific instructions for 1and1 webmail.

    Accounts and Import

    Under Username enter your email address “youremail@yourdomain.com”, enter the password you usually use for your email address. For 1and1 email use POP Server: pop.1and1.com and Port: 995, check the box “always use SSL” and check the “Label Incoming messages”, (Note: if you would like to keep a copy of your emails on your 1and1 server, check the box “Leave a copy of retrieved message on the server.”) and finally click on Add Account.

    Click finish, go back to your inbox, and wait for the confirmation code to be emailed to you. Since it is forwarded to your email, it will come to you. Copy the code and go back into your settings > accounts and add in the confirmation code. You will now also be able to “Send as” this new email. It will be an option in a drop-down menu when composing new emails.

    How would I put this on my cell phone?

    The simplest way is to check it via the Gmail app in your phone after you add it to your Gmail.

    How do we create a signature for it?

    For signatures, you have to setup the signatures in Gmail. In the General tab you can setup a different signature for each email account listed in Settings > Accounts.

    While the Gmail app on your phone won’t show the signature on the screen, it will attach the signature on send. When you go to send an email from your Gmail app in your phone, click your email address. A drop-down list will appear. Choose the email you want to send from and it will use that signature.

  • How to Sort Emails in Gmail

    Gmail originally came out in 2007, but believe it or not there are still people learning how to use it. I recently created this guide for one of my clients and thought I’d share it here to help others who might be learning Gmail for the first time. Here is a guide on how to use Gmail’s filters, labels, and search functions.

    Gmail uses Labels and Filters to help sort email. Filters are like Inbox Rules in Outlook and Labels are like Folders in Outlook. Filters can be used to delete, ignore, or label emails. There are a couple of different ways to setup email filters.

    Setting Up Email Filters from within an Email

    If you look in the right-hand corner of each email, you’ll see a “More” drop-down and one of the choices is “Filter Messages Like These”. When you click that you’ll see options to create filters. Gmail will guess as to what you’re trying to filter (usually by auto-filling in the email sender or the to:address), but you can change these. At this point you can decide what you want done with the messages and do it for all emails in the past or just the future.

    Gmail Filters

    Setting Up Email Filters from within Gmail

    If you’re not in an email message (or even if you are), you can click on the ‘cog wheel’ Settings menu in the upper right and click on “Settings”. From there you’ll see links across the top like General, Labels…and one of them is Filters. This is mostly used to edit existing filters, but you can also add new filters by scrolling all the way to the bottom of the page.

    Setting Up Labels

    If you like the idea of color-coding your emails or sorting them in a way that makes sense to you, such as with Adsense emails, you can always label things. This makes it easier for you to find things later because you can always go to the search box and type “label:[label name]”. I’ll cover searching in a bit, but to continue on with Labels, these can be applied to any email by clicking the “Label” button above the email or through a filter. Once a label is setup, it’s color can be changed on the left menu by clicking on the color box.

    Using the Search Box

    As you would expect from Google, this is one of the best features of Gmail. Here are some example searches to show you how it works. For this example, we’ll suppose there is a label named, “Square”. This search will show you all emails labeled with “Square”:

    label:square

    Fun fact: all emails in your inbox have the label “inbox”. When you archive an email, the “inbox” label gets removed. When you delete an email, the “deleted” label gets applied. All deleted emails are deleted permanently after 30 days unless you manually delete them. This search will show you all emails from erich@domain.com:

    from:erich@domain.com

    This search will show you all emails you’ve sent to joynreese@gmail.com:

    to:you@domain.com

    Answers to Your Specific Question

    Q, How do I make a folder that will hold all of my emails from a certain sender?

    A. Create a Label for that sender and Filter to assign that Label to that person’s email address. The easiest way to do that is to find an email from that person, use the “More” menu in the upper-right of that email, and click “Filter messages like this”. Make sure the person’s email address is in the From box and click, “Assign a label”. If a label does not already exist, click “New label” and then assign that label. You will then have the opportunity to assign all emails in the past or just the ones going forward.

  • Are You Overwhelmed with Spam in Your Email?

    When business owners ask me what they can do about all the spam they’re getting, I recommend Google Apps. Not only does Gmail stop most of the spam they’ll get, but it also allows them to create email addresses for all of their employees, setup distribution groups, and access their email from anywhere, including their mobile devices.

    But while spam might be the reason to switch to Google Apps, Gmail is not the only benefit. Your company will also get shared calendar, contacts, documents, and an internal website which you can use as a wiki or as a CRM. And if the tools Google Apps provides by default aren’t enough for you, there are hundreds of add-on software packages for project management, accounting, and customer relationship management that make Google Apps one of the most compelling tools for business owners today.

    Erich Stauffer has helped many businesses switch over from their standard POP accounts to the enterprise-level services that Google Apps provides. If you’re looking to reduce spam in your email and communicate more effectively with your employees and your customers, Google Apps may be right for you.

  • Syncing Outlook Calendar, Contacts, and Tasks with Android Using Gmail

    Tips for Outlook users wanting to sync their calendar, contacts, and tasks with their Android mobile devices

    People wanting to sync Outlook with their mobile devices are going to soon discover that syncing software has not quite gone “mainstream”. What programs and apps that are currently available may seem more like a hack, but they will get the job done.

    The Run-Down

    With the iPhone, iTunes is used to sync Outlook, but with Android devices, you have Gmail. Android users must use Gmail to sync Outlook to their mobile devices, which generally occurs in two steps:

    1. A program on the computer running Outlook uploads and downloads information to and from Gmail.
    2. An app on the mobile device running Android that pushes and pulls information to and from Gmail.

    Programs and Apps

    Syncing the Outlook Calendar with Gmail

    For syncing the Outlook calendar with Google Calendar, the most widely used program is Google Calendar Sync (free) from Google. This program runs on the computer running Outlook and can sync 2-ways or 1-way from Outlook to Gmail or from Gmail to Outlook. It works with XP 32-Bit, Vista, and Windows 7 for Office 2003, 2007, and 2010.

    Once Outlook’s calendar has been synced with Gmail, your Android mobile device will sync up the Android calendar app natively, provided the same Google account is used. In this way, your calendar is synced from your computer running Outlook to your Android mobile phone or tablet computer using Gmail as the ‘middleman’.

    Syncing the Outlook Contacts with Gmail

    There are two popular programs to sync your Outlook contacts with Gmail (both free) and they both run as an add-in inside Outlook rather than a stand-alone program like Google Calendar Sync. The first one is GO Contact Sync Mod and the second is Outlook4Gmail.

    Each have their options for syncing such as who wins out when their is a discrepancy and whether or not to delete a contact when deleted in either place. One thing I noticed about GO Contact Sync Mod though is that discrepancies cause a Window’s pop-up and Outlook asks for permission to allow the add-in when it begins to run. If either of those annoy you, you might try Outlook4Gmail.

    As long as the Gmail account used to sync from Outlook is the same as the one in use on the Android device AND the account is enabled in the contacts list (People), the contacts will be synced. Please note that if you chose to respect the deletes from Gmail, there is a chance that if you delete a contact on your phone or tablet that it will be deleted from your Outlook.

    Syncing the Outlook Tasks with Gmail

    Outlook tasks can be synced to Gmail with Gogtasks ($9) and gTasks is the app used on the Android device to retrieve and view them. It’s worth noting that in Outlook, tasks are organized by “Categories” and in Gmail tasks are organized by “Lists”. gTasks defaults to showing all of your categories/lists at once, but there is an option to show one at a time if you want.

    Looking for one program that does it all?

    CompanionLink (pictured) has Outlook to Gmail syncing software ($49.95), but it’s going to cost you over five-times as much as the other three solutions alone. A less costly option is gSyncit ($19.99) from Fieldston Software, which also syncs Outlook’s calendar, contacts, and tasks, but it also can synchronize notes and tasks with Toodledo, Evernote, Simplenote, and Dropbox.

    For tasks, regardless of if you go with CompanionLink or gSyncit, you’ll still have to use gTasks to view Outlook tasks on your Android device. This is because Android has no native app for tasks even though Tasks are native to Gmail.

    Want a comprehensive list of all of the Android sync programs?

    SyncDroid is a great resource for all of the apps and programs used to sync items on your computer to your Android device. Their metrics include: Price, Calendar, Contacts, Tasks, Notes, Encrypt / Password, Email, Android Apps, Uses Gmail, Uses USB, Uses Wireless, Uses Wi-Fi, Uses Bluetooth, Exchange, Auto Sync, Outlook Version, Platform, Support, Android Version, Calendar Subfolders, Contact Subfolders, Calendar Categories, Contact Categories, Multiple Contact Folders, Multiple Calendars, Sync Contact Notes, Sync Contact Photos, Sync Direction, and Free Trial. You’ll find that no one program or app does it all, but this is very helpful for honing in on the what you need synced and what level of support you need for the syncing.

    For Android support in the Indianapolis area, call Erich Stauffer at 317-572-7521 or send us an email to setup an appointment. The first hour is $95, followed by $65 an hour after that billed at 15 minute increments. We look forward to being your Indianapolis Android support technician.

  • Microsoft Updates Hotmail

    Although Hotmail popularized web-based email, it has fallen behind the competitors Yahoo and Google in features

    Down, but not out, Hotmail is still used by millions of people around the world and is still a critical aspect of Microsoft’s online business strategy, especially as Microsoft moves more into the cloud with its more traditional revenue models like Microsoft Office, which is releasing version 2010 this year. Hotmail is particularly useful to non-english speaking users because of its large language support and according to Comscore its still the most used web email with 360 million users compared to Yahoo’s 300 million and Gmail’s 200 million. Still, Hotmail hasn’t changed much since Microsoft bought it in late 1997. This was after starting up in 1996 and garnering over 9 million users.

    So what is changing?

    Microsoft announced that this summer they will begin rolling out new, advanced features that are akin to what Gmail users are used to:

    • The option for viewing emails as conversations (although the default will still be as single emails)
    • Automatic filter buttons to filter emails from people on your contact list, emails from social networks, shopping sites, and others.
    • Larger attachment sizes, up to 10 GB using Microsoft’s SkyDrive

    One thing that remains the same is the huge banner ads running alongside your email, ala 1996, in addition to the text ad tagged onto all of your emails beneath your signature. That is, unless you pay $20 a year to remove the ads.

    Our First Web Email

    Despite all it’s shortcomings, we still have a spot in our heart for Hotmail, which provided me with my first personal email account, which I still have, back in 1997.

  • Google Mail (Gmail) Query String Parameters

    Gmail Query String Parameters

    To pass these Gmail query string parameters on to Google Mail, simply paste the query into Gmail’s search box.

    Query

    Translation

    from: Used to specify the sender.
    to: Used to specify a recipient.
    subject: Search for words in the subject line
    OR Search for messages matching term A or term B (OR must be in all caps).
    The hyphen (the “minus” sign) is used to exclude messages from your search
    label: Search for messages by label (There isn’t a search operator for unlabeled messages)
    has:attachment Search for messages with an attachment.
    list: Search for messages on mailing lists.
    filename: Search for an attachment by name or type.
    ” “ Used to search for an exact phrase (Capitalization isn’t taken into consideration)
    ( ) Used to group words or used to specify terms that shouldn’t be excluded
    in:anywhere Search for messages anywhere in Gmail (Messages in Spam and Trash are excluded from searches by default)
    in:inboxin:trashin:spam Search for messages in Inbox, Trash, or Spam.
    is:starredis:unreadis:read Search for messages that are starred, unread or read.
    cc:bcc: Used to specify recipients in the cc: or bcc: fields (Search on bcc: cannot retrieve messages on which you were blind carbon copied)
    after:before: Search for messages sent during a certain period of time (Dates must be in yyyy/mm/dd format.)
    is:chat Search for chat message.
    deliveredto: Search for messages within a particular email address in the Delivered-To line of the message header.

    Check out Google’s Advanced Gmail Search page for examples of how to use Google Gmail search.