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Gmail

Inserting images into body of Gmail

chemical reaction
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:Read More »Inserting images into body of Gmail

Gmail guide for beginners – 3 Videos – Video Tip

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.

Sending email blindly (BCC) – Video Tip

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!

Import Outlook Contacts into Gmail WITH Street Addresses

Old Gmail Link

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.

Exporting your contacts from Outlook:

  1. Open Outlook (note this is NOT Outlook Express)
  2. Click File –> Import/Export
  3. Click Export to a file
  4. Click Next
  5. Click Comma Separated Values (Windows) option
  6. Click Next
  7. Click Contacts from the list of your

My first year with Gmail

MailboxI 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:

  1. Spam filtering (I used Cloudmark Desktop with Outlook for years and am convinced that for Outlook/Outlook Express or Thunderbird users there is no equal).
  2. Aggregate all of my email addresses (5) in one system.
  3. Organize my email with categories (folders) and automated filtering for shifting email to their appropriate category/folder.

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

Bresnan Email Woes

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.

  • Only 50 megabytes of space per email address (most services offer 1000 megabytes and up)
  • Horrific spam filtering…filters legit email, and lets a lot of spam through
  • Web mail application is among the worst I’ve seen

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

Use Disposable Email Addresses to thwart spam

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.