Going Google
Volume 14
Google Tip #1 - Priority Inbox
One way to organize your emails and work through them quickly is to use the Priority Inbox feature.
This allows you to have your emails sorted into sections based on the criteria you set up.
Below is a screenshot of an gmail account that has 3 inboxes set up - Unread emails, Starred Emails and Everything Else. There is no right or wrong way to do it, only the way that works for you.
To set up Priority Inbox:
- Click on the Gear Icon on the upper right side of the screen - choose "Settings"
- Choose "Inbox" on the top bar.
- Change Inbox type to "Priority Inbox"
- Customize your Inbox sections according to your preferences:
- Unread
- Important and Unread - Important is determined by Google and is indicated with the yellow flag - you can add an email to the important list by clicking on the empty icon and turning it yellow
- Important
- Starred - To star an email click on the empty star to toggle between star options - stars can mean whatever you want them to!
- A Label - choose a one of your labels to populate this inbox option.
Once your choices are made click on "Save Changes"
Now on your inbox screen you should see your new sections.
To switch to another inbox view - hover over the Inbox label on the left and use the drop down carrot to change the inbox view.
Google Tip #2 - Google Goggles
Want to know how to utilize your phone as a reference tool?
- Download Google Goggles from Google Play (Android) or App Store (Iphone).
- Search by taking pictures from your phone. Find out more information on books, landmarks, logos, contact info, artwork, barcodes, text, and more. If you don’t get an exact match you can browse similar images. You can translate text to different languages by taking a picture and choosing the translate option.
Students are able to research authors or book information by taking a picture of the book.
Searching is made much faster with the snap of a picture!
Google Tip #3 - Video Chat
Did you know that you can now use voice and video capabilities in your Google Chat? From within the Gmail service, you can chat face-to-face, have an actual videoconference with another classroom, or bring a real world expert into your classroom.
All you need to get started is to connect a simple webcam to your computer. Then:
Open Gmail and click beside the camera icon next to the person’s name in your chat list.
- You will receive a prompt to Install Plugin.
- Download the voice and video chat plugin. (Note: You do not need Administrator privileges to download this plugin.) You will see a thank you message and several messages indicating the status of the install.
- Next, you will see a message indicating that the install has completed.
- Click “Start chatting right from Gmail."
- If the other party doesn't have a camera next to their name in your chat list, you can invite them to download the voice and video chat plug-in from the Video & More menu in a chat window. Even if they don't have a video camera, you can still have a voice chat or a 1-way video chat.
- Click on the person’s name in your chat list.
- Click on the video camera icon. Google will begin calling your party and you will hear a series of chimes until they accept your invitation to video chat.
- If there is no answer, you can close the “hangout” and Google will notify you if the other party becomes available to video chat.