Google Calculator and Life Lessons

What I love about having my own blog is that it is such a window into life.  Sometimes you feel like putting yourself out to the world and sometimes you need to hole up and hide.  Since it has been a month and ½ since my last post, you can tell that stuff (aka life!) has kept me away.  How you do anything is how you do everything.  Sometimes I just need a break from things.  It has taken me a seriously long time to come to the realization that it is perfectly ok to do this.  It is ok to slow it down.  Take a little time to just feel and observe.

Our expectation in the workplace (and pretty much everywhere!) is that results are fast.  You send a text, and you expect an answer PDQ.  You write an email, and if you don’t get a response in a day, you can feel annoyed.  You post something on your Facebook wall and if you don’t have a comment or a like the next time you check, your mind starts to race wondering why.  Alright, already,  I am here to tell you that it is ok to turn off, check out, stop talking and reflect for a while.  Sometimes, when you create the space for realizations come to you it brings you much bigger gains and lessons than all the technology in the world can provide.  So here is my suggestion to you:  When you are feeling stressed or overwhelmed, try taking an afternoon, a day, or a week, whatever feels good to you completely off from all things technology.  Turn off the computer, put the phone away and go out in nature and just give yourself the gift of slowing down a bit.  You might be surprised at what juicy bits of insight come your way.

With that being said, I am now ready to rock with some more Google tips and trick coming down the blogging path.  Here is a cool one.  Did you know that Google has a built in calculator?  Go to a browser and open Google and type in 40 * 1020 and check out what happens!  Next time you need to make a quick or complex calculation, just Google it!

Wishing you Peace in this season of change and color,  Jean

If you need some techie help online or in person, please get in touch!
 

8 Really Useful Chrome Shortcuts

Summer Greetings!  In this blog I am going to give you some helpful Chrome Browser shortcuts.  Chrome is the best browser to use if you are using Gmail or Google Docs or most any other Google tool.  These handy dandy shortcuts will get you around your web browser a little quicker and save you some time!  Enjoy!

8  Really Useful Chrome Shortcuts

1. CTRL + T =  Opens a new tab
2. CTRL+ W  = Closes the current tab.
3. CTRL + SHIFT + T = Reopens the last tab you’ve closed. Google Chrome remembers the last 10 tabs you’ve closed.
4. CTRL + H = Opens your browsing history
5. CTRL + SHIFT  + DEL = Takes you directly to the page to clear browsing history, cache and cookies.
6. CTRL + J = Opens the downloads page
7. CTRL + D = Saves your current webpage as a bookmark.
8. CTRL + SHIFT +V =  Paste content from the clipboard without formatting (ie, pastes plain text)

Here is a short fun Chrome vid you will like!

If you would like to work with me on a 1 on 1 basis to get some tech relief, I have three 1/2 day spots available and would love to help you get your technology organized, help you answer some questions that have you stumped with your computer, or do some training in an area that would make you feel so much better to get it handles and figured out. 

Go to www.jeanthecomputertutor.com for more infomation or to contact me to shedule a time.

Peace, Jean

Organize your usernames and passwords

Tech-Tip-o-the-Day!  How to  organize your usernames and passwords!  Save yourself a lot of headaches later!

I visit with clients and am always fascinated at the methods that people have for saving their important usernames and passwords.  Some people have sticky notes under their keyboard, or a book next to their computer with all their important login information.  One friend, has a little notebook that he keeps in his shirt pocket.  He doesn’t go anywhere without it!  One method that I see all too often is that people use the same username and password for all their logins which is not secure.

This week I want you to start a spreadsheet to keep track of all of your website and other userid/logins and passwords. As you probably know with all the online resources and programs that you use on your computer, there are more and more logins and passwords to keep track of.  These can add up FAST and keeping track of where you have accounts can get cumbersome quickly.

First, create a spreadsheet with the software of your choice that contains columns for site name, URL, username, password, and any notes you want to add. Here is a short video on how I created a spreadsheet in Google Docs to store this information.

Now start going through your existing password-keeping system and entering your info for sites onto your spreadsheet.  Remember sites such as Facebook and Twitter, any forums or private groups that you're a member of, any online class logins, any websites you do business on, and any other sites that you may use.   If you've lost your username or password on any of these sites, take a moment to use the "lost password" feature and grab it. Better to take the time now than be frustrated when you need it!

Whenever you sign up for a new site, make sure to add it to your spreadsheet. When you want to update your profiles you now have one central document to go to - no more outdated info living all over the web. 

Drinking the Google Juice!

I am off next week to sunny California to Google Apps for Education Summit California!  This event is sold out so I am sure there will be lots of fantastic new information that I will be acquiring there.  If you have any questions you would like me to find out about, please leave me a comment or send me a message and I will do my best to help.  

Talk with you when I get back!

Peace, Jean


If you need some techie help online or in person, please get in touch!
 

Gmail Tips and Tricks

In this video I will show you 4 Gmail Tips and Tricks that you will find useful.
1. How to turn off ads at the top of your inbox
2. How to move your chat box over to the right side of your screen
3. How to turn conversation view off so your emails are not in a threaded format
4. How to create a signature file for your emails correspondence.
This video is about 7 1/2 minutes long.  If you found it useful leave me a comment below.
Thanks!  Jean

How to make recurring events in Google Calendar

If you need some techie help online or in person, please get in touch!
 

Gmail signature file & vacation responder

Two Short-n-Quik Gmail tips – Updating your signature file and Out of Office message:

I am right in the midst of working with the tech team in moving an entire school district of teachers, administrators and students over to using Gmail as our shared email system.  It is so fascinating to watch the ways that people embrace change.  We have been using an older email system called Groupwise, made by Novell for 12+ plus years.  Some people are not happy with the change.  They like the current system and want to keep using it.  Others are clamoring to get on the new email system and start using it as soon as possible.

Some common questions have come up recently when using Gmail and I thought it might be helpful to you to share a few tips we are learning as we go along.  If you have a Gmail account and have ever wondered how to do the following, here are some short-n-quik instructions.

How to change your Gmail signature:
Log into Gmail
Click the gear symbol
Settings
General Tab
Scroll down to the signature box and enter your info
scroll to the bottom of the screen and click "save changes"

How to send out of office reply in Gmail:
In Gmail
Click the gear symbol
Settings
General Tab
Scroll down to the Vacation Responder: and fill in your info
scroll to the bottom of the screen and click "save changes"

If you need some techie help online or in person, please get in touch!
 

Google Chromebook - What is it like?

I got my hands on a new Google Chromebook today and thought I would share a few details~It is bigger than a net-book or an iPad in size but smaller than a standard size laptop.It is light and feels like it has about medium sturdiness. By this I mean I am not sure your dog could take a nap on it and it would come out unscathed. It could take a bump or 2 no problem but not really hard abuse.The Chromebook runs the Google Operating system which is a version of their web browser on steroids.To use a Chromebook on regular basis, you need to shift you world out to the cloud. What is the cloud you ask?It is a bunch of servers that Google owns and operates all over the country and even out in the ocean where you store your stuff. That's some redundancy if I ever saw it! Anyway, you save all your documents using GoogleDocs and Gmail for your email system. There are a ton of apps to download from the Chrome App Store many are free. A few we tried out today were File Cabinet and apps for email and docs. There is no school based server that we would use with a Chromebook. Instead, we move all our documents onto Docs and work from the internet. This begs the question of, "What happens when the internet goes down?" and the answer is you are pretty much out of luck and have to wait for it to return.I'll tell you more about this tomorrow, I've got to dash.Peace,Jean