Tracking Packages

Did you know Gmail can spot package tracking numbers and provide you with an automatic link to track them? Find out how by listening to this episode!

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Map This

Google is great at integration! They found a way to identify street addresses in your email message and provide a link to Google Maps if you want to see where that address is located. Listen to this episode to find out how to use this feature.

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Chat Status

Inspired by listener feedback, I decided to explain how to set a custom chat status message and explain what those colored dots mean next to your contact names.

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Composing Tricks

Composing a new message may sound simple enough, but there are some features you may not have known about that can help you be more effective when writing down your thoughts.

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Tougher Spam Filtering

Those pesky spammers are getting tougher and tougher to beat. This little hint should help keep their latest tactic from bugging you.

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Apply New Filters to Old Mail

Learn a little bit more about filters and how you can apply them to existing mail conversations.

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Anti-Virus Explained

You may have not even realized that Gmail provided anti-virus protection, but it’s there. Listen and find out more about how it works.

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Google Checkout

You can use your Gmail account as a secure way of checking out of dozens of online stores. Many offer a discount! Learn more by listening!

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Selecting Multiple Conversations

Here’s a quick tip how to select multiple conversations with just two mouse clicks.

To check a range of conversations from the index, click the checkbox next to the first conversation then hold down the shift key while selecting the last conversation. If you are familiar with selecting a range of cells in a spreadsheet, this is very similar. Automatically, Gmail will highlight and select all the conversations from the first one to the last. Again, check the first conversation, hold down the shift key while selecting the last conversation. Instantly you’ll have 3, 12, or 20 conversations selected at once. You can do this repeatedly on the same screen if you have multiple ranges to select. Unfortunately I haven’t found a keyboard shortcut for this yet.

Once the conversations are selected you can label, archive, delete them, or any other regular action that you perform on one or more conversations.

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PowerPoint Viewer

Gmail now recognizes Microsoft PowerPoint attachments. When you have a message with a PowerPoint attached, Gmail will present a link labeled “View as slideshow” near the attachment. When you click on that Gmail will open a new window and start displaying the slides. In theory, it’s pretty straight forward, but here’s what I found in reality.

First, Gmail does not yet support PowerPoint 2007 files. Also, when I sent a PowerPoint file from my Mac (one that was originally developed on a PC) it did not recognize the file and said it couldn’t convert it despite the fact that it opened up fine on the Windows and Mac machines.

I also noticed using the Gmail web interface with Firefox on Mac, that the file attachment icons on the right, next to the date on the message index, the icons showed up as file types, for example a little PowerPoint icon when a PPT was attached, not paperclips like on Windows (Firefox or Internet Explorer)

Finally, despite the fact that Google does not currently allow you to edit the PowerPoint file, they claim they will have a way to edit PPTs “this summer”. We can only hope.

Quick Tip: If you haven’t already noticed, Gmail increased the file size limit on attachments. You can now attach up to 20MB files, up from the former 10MB. A word of caution, that’s more storage than the typical ISP mailbox. Be careful who you are sending large attachments to, unless of course they are using Gmail.

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