gMail is my favorite mail application,as I have blogged about here previously:
There are other reasons in other posts,but here is an excellent succinct list of why and how gmail is useful: 
I wrote about it in another of my blogs –http://joanvinallcox.ca/galaxy-tab-starting/ and http://joanvinallcox.ca/galaxy-tab-quibble/ and I’m cross posting this there too. Sometimes it quicker and/or more personal to send recorded audio messages. As a teacher,I’ve sent emails using audio apps on my iphone,but it takes a long time to send and it’s a bit tricky to add email addresses. Today I tried using the free,downloadable audio software,Audacity,and the free richly-featured web mail app,gmail. I’ve alread had a student email back that it was a “neat”way to get feedback. Here’s how it’s done.
Once you have sent out a few dozen,you’ll have the hang of it,and you’ll discover that it (probably) takes less time than writing out the feedback and sending it. Have fun! I use most of the extensions in the video below. You might find them helpful too. I use Dropbox everyday,many times everyday. When I presented on Social Media to the Toronto Branch of PWAC (Professional Writers Association of Canada) I had my PowerPoint on my laptop,on a usb stick,and in Dropbox,which I can access from any online computer,as it stores my files in the “cloud”. It’s not that I was worried,but when I present,I make sure I have what I need. Having my PowerPoint file in Dropbox was the ultimate assurance! To learn more about Dropbox possibilities and why you might want to download the free version,check out these links: It’s also handy for backing up important files. A good idea,that didn’t work too well,and is now closing!
I send out email to a variety of people,some of whom open and answer messages daily or even hourly and some of who go on the internet a few times a week –or less. Sometimes,I need to know if they got my message,and take further action (like phone them) if they haven’t. But what if they’re doing what I sometimes do –deciding to answer later (maybe). I don’t want to seem like a nag by phoning them when they aren’t ready to respond. Or if it’s to a group where we share responsibilities,knowing who has got the message and who hasn’t can be helpful. EmailOracle for gmail changes the game. Now I can know who has read my emails and who hasn’t. I think this new gmail app is kind of creepy,but I’m going to try the free version of emailOracle out. However,even if I weren’t trying it out, knowing about it has already changed my email habits. (I won’t just leave messages I don’t want to deal with waiting;I’ll acknowledge and give at least a temporary answer.) TechCrunch has provided a good description –http://techcrunch.com/2010/10/11/emailoracle/ and below is a screenshot of my gmail Compose screen.
Now that you’re using gmail,do you ever find yourself writing a message,but needing information from a previous message or from your Contacts? It can be annoying to save the current message as a draft,(1) or open a separate copy,(2) just so you can search (3) for what you need.
There’s a new free service that makes this kind of searching while composing a message in gmail much easier. It’s available for the Firefox and the Chrome browsers,(both of which are excellent browsers and far superior to IE,but that’s a future topic). Here’s the video explaining how CloudMagic works - http://www.cloudmagic.com/welcome.php?s=n
Here’s the information I want,and I can copy and paste it into my message!
CloudMagic is SO-O-O convenient,and quite easy to install. Try it out! Labels in gMailMost email applications let you set up folders for storing messages you want to save. You have to decide what category your message fits into,if you want to keep it (but not in the Inbox),make sure you have a folder with that name,and store the message there. Then,when you want the message,you have to remember what folder you saved it in. gMail offers a different system where you label messages and,if you want to store them rather than leave them in the Inbox,you can archive them. The big difference is - You can use as many labels as you want for one message!
So that’s the story with gmail’s labels instead of other mail application’s folders. I find it way more convenient to organize my messages when I can add my own multiple labels and archive messages,and then sort by colour and clicking on labels. Give it a try;it will probably work for you too. p.s. Thanks to Barry Sampson –http://barrysampson.com/ and Donna Papacosta –http://trafcom.com/ for their helpful comments on the previous post http://jnthweb.ca/2010/08/gmail-other-email-addresses/ Years ago I had a Hotmail address as well as an address based on my service provider and one for the institution I worked for. Three email addresses:
Of course I could use Webmail for my work and home addresses,but it was a pain. And so was opening three different addresses. The Hotmail address died from neglect and forgetfulness,but the other two were important,and it was irritating to have two different email accounts. (Hey,laziness and forgetfulness aren’t my dominant characteristics,but I do avoid any web stuff that isn’t EASY!) I found a solution,and that’s what this,the first in a series of posts about gmail,is about:how gmail lets you read all your email in one place,yet answer from other sites. (This post has been inspired by a friend leaving the institution where she has worked for years,and where her email address will be terminated when she leaves.) Why gMail?
To do this,set up your own gmail account. You can do this by googling gmail,and following the links,for example –http://www.webdevelopersnotes.com/basics/create_free_gmail_account_how_to.php (My friend’s son did this for her,so she had her gmail address,but she still had to check her other addresses. Here are the instructions for how I did the next step for her.) Click on “Settings”on the upper right of the gmail page. Then,go to “Accounts and Import”-
Click on the Import button –for more detailed instructions go here Don’t forget to click on the button that lets you reply from the same address the message is sent to. Just add your addresses one at a time and answer the confirmation email that arrives at your original address. That’s it! Now all your addresses funnel into your gmail account so you only have one place to look,making your life easier! And my friend really likes that part of gmail,(which her son hadn’t set up for her.) Soon,I’ll explain how to use Labels in gmail,and why they are better than folders in other email applications. |  Joan works and plays on the web and is happy to speak to groups or individuals about the web's communication possibilities |
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I can choose to track or not,and even to get a reminder if I don’t hear back in a certain number of days. The base of 20 tracked emails per month is free;for more than 20 a month,there’s a graduated cost scale. So I won’t be tracking all my messages,just the ones I’m really concerned about. (But I will be careful about what I open and how soon I answer.)
These will take me to Settings/Labels (or I can just go directly there) and I can manage my labels.
It’s easy to add the labels that are useful for you,and if you have a lot of labels,you can choose which ones to hide or show.
I simply click on the space beside the label and choose the colour. Easy.
or,and this is what I really,really love – you can click directly on the label on the left,and all the messages with that label,whether in the Inbox or the Archive,will appear.
