Category: Gmail

By default, Google thinks that we don’t want to see emails that we send to email lists that we’re a part of. So, for example, if a faculty member sends an email to faculty-all@lists.carleton.edu, all the other faculty on that email list will get a copy of that email delivered to their inboxes, but the sender will not.

If you choose, you can set up a filter that will change this default behavior so that you also get a copy of your email delivered to your inbox when you send to an email list. Here’s how:

1. Click the little downward arrow in the far right of the Gmail search box at the top of the page.
2. In the “From” line, enter your email address.
3. In the “To” line, enter the address of the email list followed by upper case OR followed by your own email address. (You can add multiple email list addresses separated by OR if you want.) So, for example:
   
4. Click the “Create filter with this search” link in the bottom right corner of the search box.
5. On the resulting page, check the box that says “Never send it to Spam.”
   
6. Click “Create Filter” and you’re all set. From now on emails you send to the lists you included in your initial search will also show up in your own inbox.

High-volume mailing lists (carlslist would be an example) can clutter up your inbox.  Today’s Minute to Learn It video will walk you through how to create a filter to apply a specific label and automatically move those messages out of your inbox.  Watch it here!

With everyone at Carleton migrated to Gmail, we’d like to share some tips on how to get the most out of it, new things you can do with it, and answers to common questions. We’ll be aiming for about one tip a week, pulled from the ever-growing library of tips and tricks found here. In addition, there is an extensive list of frequently asked questions, located here. In the next few weeks we’ll also be providing instructions on how you can record your own tips for things you’ve discovered that you’d like to share with the campus. For this first edition of “A Minute to Learn It” we’re including two tips. The first is the answer to one of the most common questions we get: “How do I edit the subject line of a reply or a forward?” You can find the answer here. The second highlights a new feature with a very short video showing how to change your Gmail browser tab to display the number of unread messages you have.

One of the questions we get frequently is about having both a work and a personal gmail account accessible on your phone or tablet. The answer is, YES, you can have multiple gmail accounts (and google calendar accounts) on the same mobile device.

If you’re having trouble setting this up, feel free to stop by the helpdesk or contact them (webhelpdesk@carleton.edu or x5999) and they’ll be happy to help you get set up. It’s difficult to write a complete set of instructions since there are so many platforms and phones out there, and since some platform/phone combinations look different depending on the carrier you use, so these are just a sketch of the steps to use and we’re happy to work with you individually to get things running.

In general:

1. Go to your device settings area (not app settings for mail or calendar, but the settings for the entire device)
2. Find the place that lists your Accounts
3. Add your various Google accounts there (you may already have your personal Google account there, so simply add a second Google account following the steps your device presents to you). CAVEAT: Occasionally a platform/device/carrier/app combination will not allow you to authenticate through Carleton’s login screen for your Carleton Google account. These instructions on setting up a device-specific password may be useful in such situations, even though the instructions were written for one particular mail client.
4. As you add your various Google Accounts, you should be presented with options to say whether you want your calendar, mail, etc from that account to sync to your phone. Turn those on.
5. Now open your calendar and mail apps, and you should see items from all your relevant Google accounts. Sometimes they will be integrated and sometimes there will be an account switcher so that you can look at only personal or only work accounts. Either way, both accounts should now be accessible on your device.
6. Often there are additional settings within the app to govern how the apps function, and you may want to explore these options at this point.

And of course, if you have any difficulty, the helpdesk is happy to work with you. Stop by or contact them (webhelpdesk@carleton.edu or x5999) with any questions.

One of the most frequent questions we’ve gotten so far is “How do I edit the subject line of a reply or forward?” It seems to be one of the best hidden features of the Gmail interface! Here’s how you do it:

1. Start your reply or forwarded message.
2. There will be an arrow at the top left of the address area, near your picture. Click that and you’ll get a menu that includes “Edit Subject.”
   
3. Edit the subject line however you wish!

Today, the final group of people moving from Zimbra to Gmail got their “all clear” message stating that all the email for all the people in this migration cohort had been copied to Gmail. This means that individual accounts for all Carleton people are now officially complete. Meanwhile, the project team continues to work hard to move all the shared inboxes in use on campus from Zimbra to Google.

As you settle into using Gmail and Google Calendar, if there are things you can’t figure out how to do, we invite you to contact the helpdesk (x5999 or webhelpdesk@carleton.edu) or try the “help” tool available under the gear-shaped button in Gmail and Google Calendar.

Turning attention to Dropbox, we are excited that Dropbox will soon implement features that will be quite beneficial to the Carleton Community, and we have signed on to be a beta testing campus for these new features. As we learn more about these features and about the beta testing process we will use this information as we work with departments to determine a good date for each of their moves to using cloud storage (Dropbox and Google Drive) for departmental files and folders.

[reposted from the Carleton Weekly]