Gmail just announced that they are expanding the ability for Gmail to import contacts and email from many different sources. Right now, the function is up and running for all new Gmail accounts created adn will roll out to all existing Gmail users over the coming weeks.
The list it will import from currently looks like this:
If you use MSN email, HotMail, Gmail, AOL email, Yahoo email or other online email services, you can save a bunch of time and clicks when you select files for deletion. These past two weeks I have seen many people painstakingly click the selection box one at a time when cleaning their email folders. Instead, you can Continue reading →
photo credit: neys
For new (or veteran) Gmail users out there who missed having the ability to insert images directly into their messages, the wait is over. Today, Google announced that if you enable the Inserting Images option under Labs.
This new feature gives me the opportunity to introduce a second Gmail feature to you that enhances the way you work with Gmail. In order to enable the Insert Image feature, you first have to know about Labs. Google introduced Labs as a part of Gmail about two years ago. This feature contains many add-ons and enhancements that Google engineers have developed that can be optionally added to Gmail. To get to Labs, all you do is click Settings at the top of your Gmail screen, then click the Labs tab.
In addition to enabling the Inserting Images option (it’s towards the bottom of the Labs list), you might also want to try: Continue reading →
This week’s video tip is a HelpMeRick.com first…it involves 3 videos to cover the topic of Gmail. Directly above each video below, I give a short synopsis of the videos contents. The more I use it, the more impressed I am with Gmail. If you currently use Gmail, don’t be afraid to watch these videos as you might pick up a tip or two yourself.
Google offers a good Help section covering their email system, and you can find it by clicking here. My short video series here are meant to just get you started quickly and give you the highlights of this email system. Continue reading →
Here is a tip to cut down on those hideous email headers and help take a huge bite out of email spam.
If you are planning on sending an email to more than a few people, use the BCC or “blind carbon copy” function. Instead of addressing them all in the “to” section of your email, use the BCC instead. This allows you to still send the email to all the people on your list, but the recipients will not see any of the people to whom the mail was addressed!
In the follow video, I demonstrate how to use the BCC in Outlook 2007, Windows Mail (Vista version of Outlook Express and same method as Outlook Express), Mozilla Thunderbird, Yahoo email, and Gmail.
Please, watch this video, learn the technique, use the technique, and forward this tip to all your friends using the BCC method!
Email truly revolutionized communication. The ability to retrieve a message from anywhere in the world in a matter of seconds is mind boggling. However, judging by the size of your inboxes (a poll I posted recently showed that 60% of email users had more than 100 messages in their inbox), you could benefit from some tips on how to keep your inbox clean.
I used to keep as many as many as 50 or so email stacked up in my inbox, but I always felt that I was behind in my work and consequently much of the email went unread and unanswered. A little more than a year ago, it all changed after I read an article that struck a chord with me called Email Zen. I immediately started practicing the techniques and suggestions in the article and found myself with a cleaner inbox and a better overall outlook (no pun intended) about email and my email communication. I continue to strive for the empty inbox and find that if i get more than 10, I start to get a little jumpy.
From reading that article and my own experience over the past eighteen months, here are my suggestions for reaching harmony with email:
Another good article for learning how to handle email in an efficient manner is Inbox Zero over at 43folders.com If you have some other techniques that you find work well for keeping email under control, leave a comment and share it! If you are one of the 60% plus who have 50 or more email in their inbox, give these techniques a try and let me know what you think.
Photo by PatrickO’Shaughnessey
After running into this issue one to many times lately, I finally found a fast solution. Problem: Outlook users who want to export their address books (contacts) and import them into Gmail can get almost everything imported except street addresses. It’s maddening. Madness be gone, the solution is now just a few steps away.
After the import finishes, remember to click back to the Newer Version of Gmail in the upper right of the screen.
Gmail should now have all your contacts from Outlook complete with street addresses. Come on Google, fix the import function on the newer version of Gmail!
I closed Outlook and started using Gmail exclusively one year ago. At first, I thought it would be a good experiment to see what Gmail was really all about, but I was also fed up with Outlook and its limitations. It took me two or three weeks to wean myself of thinking of my email in the same way that I used to with Outlook. For the experiment to work, Gmail had to satisfactorily accomplish 3 key functions of email that I handled pretty well with Outlook:
If Gmail could equal or exceed what I could do with Outlook, then I would consider it a success. Gmail’s spam filtering quickly impressed me. In fact, one year later, I can say confidently that Gmail’s spam filtering is superior to that of the Cloudmark system that kept me sane for years with Outlook. Feature #1, check!
I learned to use the Accounts feature in Gmail to successfully and seamlessly pull all my email addresses (and sort them) into my Gmail account. Beautiful; Feature #2, check!
Organizing my email, without the use of folders, proved to be the biggest learning curve. One year later, however, I am happy to report that the learning curve was worth it. Gmail’s Label system for organizing email becomes an astonishingly superior method of organizing email compared to folders once you get the hang of it. Combining the use of Gmail Labels and Gmail Filters makes organizing and managing email almost painless. Feature #3 check.
Since Gmail handled all my key elements of email use with aplomb, I stayed with Gmail and for the time being have no interest in changing. I’m always on the look out for a quicker, easier, and more intuitive to accomplish any technology task, but when it comes to email, every other service, in my opinion, has much to learn from Gmail. In addition to accomplishing all the things I need email to do, I find that the two other features that keep me tied to Gmail are the superior and quick searching ability and the fact that I have access to my email from any computer or phone in the world. Using Gmail made me start to enjoy email again and I know that I’m much more organized and responsive to my email than I was just one year ago.
To learn more about email, read my tip and watch my 3 how-to Gmail videos by clicking here. Do you have a Gmail story to share? If so, please post it below…good or bad.
Story photo by Tim Norris
Although this tip targets one particular Internet provider, ANY computer user will benefit from the advice I give at the end of the article. In Western Colorado, a company called Bresnan provides a large swath of the cable services…including cable Internet. Overall, I have no problems with the Bresnan service. They run an extremely speedy and pretty stable Internet connection.
However, my beef with the service has always been their sub-standard email service.
Over the past few weeks, Bresnan customers have been pleasantly surprised to see that all of the sudden 99% or more of their spam messages have stopped arriving in either their screened mail folder or their inbox. They were happy. What they and I didn’t start to figure out until this week was that Bresnan’s new anti-spam system was so stringent that many legitimate individual and business emailers no longer can send to a Bresnan address. They swung the pendulum too far the other way.
Unfortunately, there is no solution that I can see for the moment except to strongly consider the advice I have dished out for years: DO NOT USE YOUR INTERNET PROVIDERS EMAIL SYSTEM! I hope I said that plainly enough. When you sign up for Internet service from any entity, a complimentary email address automatically comes with it. You are NOT obliged to use that email at all.
For a much better email experience and have the ability to check your email from any computer any time AND get an email address you will never have to change no matter who buys out who and how many times you move or switch Internet providers, change your email to one of the online systems like Yahoo Mail, Gmail, or Hotmail. Gmail is my current email system of choice. OR, consider creating your own personal email address by registering your own domain and use it for your email. Either of these options will allow you to avoid the frustration that Bresnan customers here in Colorado and elsewhere are experiencing.
In our monthly computer user group today, the discussion some how made its way to disposable email addresses. Many web sites offer free, disposable email addresses you can create for one time use to sign up for a temporary web services, or make an inquiry to a web site that you don’t want to have your real email address. Beyond anonymity, using a disposable email address will reduce the amount of spam that comes into your real email inbox.
My first line of defense in fighting spam is maintaining more than one email address. I have email addresses for family and friends, one for shopping, one for newsletters, and one strictly for junk. I recommend opening multiple accounts via any of the online web mail systems like Gmail, Yahoo Mail, or Hot Mail (now known as Windows Live Hotmail). These accounts are free and easy to manage.
If you prefer not to have mulitple email addresses, try one of these services to create temporary, disposable addresses instead:
HelpMeRick.com started as a monthly tip site for beginners in 1996, and now supports our popular call-in computer show, and hosts thousands of useful computer tips and links.
Even if you are an experienced computer user, use our site as a resource to provide help to the friends, family members and co-workers you provide tech support for every day.
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