Work Life: Make your GMail act like Outlook with Labels, Filters, and Archive

Is your GMail Inbox overloaded with messages?  Have you tried using labels for your mail, but you find yourself buries in a cluttered Inbox anyway?  Here is one way to keep that Inbox clean without missing mail!

By using labels, filters, and the Archive feature in GMail, you can keep your Inbox looking neat and keep your messages organized the way Outlook does!  It's like creating folders and rules!

   find a message that you wish to apply this.  For example, a message from your boss.
   click the checkbox to the LEFT of the message.
   click the drop-down menu named "More actions"
   choose "Filter messages like these".  The "From:" should have your boss' email address filled in
   Click "Test Search" to make sure it only pulls messages from your boss
   Click "Next step"
   Check the "Skip Inbox" box
   Check the "Apply the label..." box, then in the drop-down select an existing label or create a new one.  In GMail, "labels" can be used like folders in Outlook.

DO **NOT** create the filter yet!!

   Select the checkbox for "Also apply filter to XX messages"
   NOW, you can click the "Create Filter" button.

After a few moments (depending on how many messages this filter applies to), you will see a "Filter Created" message and then you will be returned to your Inbox.

Your boss' messages should be gone!!  Oh no! Where'd they go!?  Look on the left!  See the label you just created?  Click that, and you will see your boss' messages!

** Repeat the above steps for each type of messages you want to act like folders/rules. **

NOTE: You may have to play with some of the fields to get the results you want.  For example, you may have to use the actual name of a listserv instead of the email address the messages come from.  You can use any one or multiple fields in the filter creation section to narrow down the results.

Also note, I would only apply *ONE* label to any messages that I am putting through this procedure.  I have no idea what happens if you try to archive with multiple labels.  My gut tells me you would just have multiple ways to pull up the archived messages (like putting them into multiple folders), but I don't know that and I haven't tried it.  Worst-case scenario is that if it doesn't work the way you want, you can always MANAGE FILTERS to edit or delete a filter you created.

Work Life: Toshiba Copiers No Longer Send Email - FIXED!!

If you are a Google Apps environment, you may have issues sending email from your network copiers. I'm not sure what changed recently (June 2016), but there is a FIX!

Though the steps below are specific to Toshiba copiers, the general concept should apply to just about any copier or other device being used to send email from your site:


Thanks to user DeenMustapha on the SpiceWorks community boards for the following fix!

On the Toshiba:

- Enable SMTP Client: Enable

- Enable SSL: Disable

- SMTP Server Address: smtp-relay.gmail.com

- POP Before SMTP: Disable

- Authentication: Disable

- Login Name and Password: I left my Google Apps User and Password

- Max. Email/InternetFax Size: 15MB

- Port Number: 25

In the Google Admin Console: See here - https://support.google.com/a/answer/2956491

- Go to Apps > Google Apps > Gmail > Advanced settings

- Scroll down to SMTP relay service - Configure

1. Allowed senders: Only addresses in my domains

2. Authentication: Check Only accept mail from the specified IP addresses - Add your customer's static IP. Leave Require SMTP Authentication unchecked.

3. Encryption: Leave Require TLS encryption unchecked.

Then click Add Setting and Save. Could take up to an hour to have the settings take effect...

Give it a try and let me know if it works for you. Good Luck!

Work Life (though anyone can use this info!): Use Stylish Extension for Chrome for Cool Transparent Effect

Use Chrome? Use GAFE or Gmail? Use a cool theme but it's mostly unseen? Install Stylish Extension for Chrome, click your Gmail tab, Click the Stylish extension icon in upper right, then paste in this script to set transparency of mail list and the messages being read:

--- SNIP BELOW THIS LINE --

/* Unread message rows - background colour and opacity and text */
.zE {background-color: rgba(255,255,255,0.5) !important; color: rgb(0,80,0) !important;}

/* Read message rows - background colour and opacity and text */
.yO {background-color: rgba(207,207,207,0.5) !important; color: rgb(0,80,0) !important;}

/* Selected rows - background colour and opacity*/
.x7 {background-color: rgba(255,250,205,0.5) !important;}

/* Row dividing line colour and opacity */
.xY {border-color: rgba(255,255,255,0.5) !important;}

/* Background of Messages being viewed */
.Bu {background-color: rgba(255,255,255,0.5) !important;}

-- STOP SNIP ABOVE THIS LINE --

I used white and light grey for my colors of choice, but you could pick any colors to match your theme, etc.

I got the original Stylish Script from http://gmail-miscellany.blogspot.com/2012/06/beyond-gmails-themes.html, but modified it a little. I also did some poking around to find the code for the background while you are reading a message (the last two lines in the code above). The blog post has a LOT of information about themes, customizing, etc.

You can get the RGB numbers from RapidTables: http://www.rapidtables.com/web/color/RGB_Color.htm

You can get the Stylish Extensions clicking on the menu (upper right, three lines in Chrome browser), Point to TOOLS, then click on EXTENSIONS. From there, scroll down to "Get more extensions." Search for "Stylish Extensions" and look for the 4-square icon with the "S" on it:

Enjoy!!

Why I don't like the new GMail

I've switched to the new GMail because, well, they will eventually force me to anyway, so I figured I had better jump on it so I can support the folks at work.

First of all, let me make this clear: I hate the new GMail.  There. I said it. Now, brass tacks time:

For starters, I had to switch to "compact view" so that I wouldn't have a bunch of wasted space on my screen.  One of the things I liked most about GMail was the simple, clean interface. No frills, no nonsense. Bye-bye.  Now, we have views with more white space between messages than the actual length of the messages themselves.  Luckily, GMail must have known some people didn't care for all that "breathing room" and gave us an option that is close to the original layout (though not exactly).

I hate CHAT. I don't use it. I want to be able to turn the dumb thing off.  Again, it is a matter or screen real estate.  I'd rather have my label list down the side than have that dumb chat gizmo there, or anywhere.  Users should be allowed to turn that off.

I hate cute little icons where words work perfectly well.  maybe it is because I like to write and enjoy reading.  Maybe it is part of the whole 'streamlined' thing I enjoy.  Whatever the reason, I *HATE* stupid little icons that are supposed to represent the tasks I want to perform.  See them up there?  The irony is that you have to hover over them so that a TEXT BOX will appear to tell you just what you are supposed to do with them. Stupid.  I like my words. I like menu systems.  One of peeves with Office 2007 was the whole "icons on ribbons" thing. UGH.  Show me the words that tell me what I want to know, what I need to do.  I think cutesy little icons just waste space and waste time because I have to now figure out what each one does or means or represents.  have we fallen so far as a society that we can't have actual WORDS anymore!?  Soon, our writings (electronic or otherwise) will revert back to cave drawings - icons that show and tell our life stories.  instead of Facebook, we'll have.. Imagebook or Iconbook or Cavecarvings or some other wordless means of "communicating."  Supposedly, a picture's worth a thousand words.  In this case, it barely even covers one.

I am not a fan of the whole 'theme' thing. I never have been.  I like certain things neat and clean, no frou frou. Email is one.  i want my email to be...(GASP! SHOCK AND AWE!) **EMAIL**  I don't want little dancing smiley faces in my emails, I don't want a pink background with falling hearts from the sky.  I don't really even like the 'desktop' background I have in mine right now, but it was the easiest to look at for more than 5 minutes.

I know Google isn't switching it back, and that's fine.  Since we switched to Google Apps for our corporate mail system, I have to take what they give me - a certain drawback to going to "the cloud."  It is a drawback that no one talks about until after the fact. 

Oh, I know, in the scheme of life, this is petty and small and doesn't amount to a grain of rice for a starving child (go to freerice.com to help with that, though!!), but I am free to express myself.  And for that, I am eternally grateful to people like my Father, Grandfather, Uncle, and the other millions of people who have served in our military so that I *can* say what I feel.  The sacrifices made by those folks in uniform amount to much more than email interfaces, cloud computing, and even food on the table.  They served (and serve) OUR country for all the good, all the bad, all the freedoms, and all the choices we have as Americans.  I thank you all from the bottom of my heart, knowing full well that my petty rant is nothing but a grain of sand in the scheme of life.