Your Peddie Backup

As I hope you know, the multicolored umbrella icon on your desktop is a very convenient way for you to backup files stored on your local hard drive, but do you know...

• what folders get backed up?
• that photos, music, and videos do NOT get backed up?
• where your files go?
• how you can check to make sure your files are really getting backed up?

It you don't know the answers to these questions, then you are probably not aware that if you have been storing your irreplaceable photos on your Peddie laptop and you are not backing them up to an external hard drive or an online photo service then your photos will be irretrievably lost should your hard drive fail.

Spending time ensuring that your files are backed up is like buying insurance--if you wait until you need it then it will be too late. Please don't wait until after you have lost irreplaceable files (years of family photos, countless hours of school work, etc.) to invest time making sure that your files are backed up.

We maintain a KB article named Peddie User Backups which thoroughly explains Peddie user backups. Please take a few minute to review this page so you understand the limitations of the Peddie backup program. If you have any questions, stop by the Technology Center and we will be glad to answer them.

Gmail Gems - The "Labs" Tab

If you haven't spent a few minutes scanning the Labs tab of Gmail settings, it is well worth your time. The Labs tab contains dozens of tools which can be used to customize the way Gmail behaves and to add functionality. While officially these tools are only experimental and may "change, break or disappear at any time," we have found that most are very stable and Google rarely removes a Labs feature.

To view the available Labs features click the gear icon in the top right corner of your Gmail screen and then select Mail settings. When in the Mail settings screen, click the Labs tab. Note that Labs also appears as an option right on the gear icon's drop down menu, but I'm not sure it will stay there whereas the Mail settings option will always be there. To enable a Labs tool, simply click the Enable radio button next to the tool and save changes.

Below are some of my favorite Labs tools. If you have a favorite that's not listed feel free to post its name and what it does in the comments section of this post.

Inserting Images
Standard Gmail still only allows you to include images as attachments, not embedded in your email (i.e. appearing in the body of your email). While including images as attachments is best if all you want to do is send someone some images, if you want to write a comment about an image then being able to insert the image into the body of your email is important. To do this, you need to enable the Inserting images Labs tool.

Canned Responses
If I were only allowed to enable one Labs feature, this would be it. Canned Responses allows you to create a clipboard of frequently used content and easily paste it into any location in the body of an email. Some uses include:

• Create multiple signatures that you can select from when replying to an email. I have a standard signature, a signature for posting to listservs, etc.
• Create email templates for messages you send often.
• Create boiler plate instructions for questions you commonly answer.

Undo Send

Did you ever click Send on an email only to realize you forgot to CC someone? Or worse, realize you sent your email to the wrong person? The Undo Send labs feature delays your email for a configurable about of time (5 to 30 seconds) during which time an Undo link appears at the top of your screen allowing you to cancel the send. However, once the message has been sent, there is no getting it back.

Mark As Read Button

This is a very simple feature which adds a Mark As Read button to your Gmail button bar. Without this Labs tool if you want to mark an email as read you either have to open it or select the option from the More drop down button. While a very simple tool, if you often have to mark emails as read it is a click saver.

Corralling Group Emails

One of the more common complaints we hear about Peddie email is that emails sent to groups (e.g to the Class of 20xx or FacultyStaff groups) fill up your inbox making it hard to quickly process the more important emails sent directly to you. If there were an easy fix for this we would have implemented it years ago. We have looked at many different options from Google Groups to custom applications, but in every case the cure either would not work or would be worse than the disease.

However, don't despair! There is an effective way to corral these emails using Google email labels and filters. Below is an example of how to do this for emails sent to the Class of 2015 group.

Example: Corralling emails sent to the Class of 2015 group.
After following the instructions below, all emails you receive that are addressed to classof2015@peddie.org will skip your inbox and the label _Class of 2015 will be applied to these emails. Whenever new messages arrive, the _Class of 2015 label will be bold and the number of unread messages will appear next to the label. While this will not reduce the number of message you receive, it will keep these messages from swamping your inbox and allow you to process them much more efficiently when you have time.

1. In your email, click the small gear icon in the upper right of the screen and select Mail Settings.
2. Go to the Labels tab and click the Create new label button. When naming your label, we recommend prefixing it with an underscore or the number zero so the label will appear at the top of your label list. (e.g. _Class of 2015 or 0 Class of 2015). You might also find it helpful to click the show if unread setting which will cause the label to be hidden if it contains no unread messages. Also, make sure the show setting is selected (if it is not a link, it is selected)--this should be the default setting.
   
   
   
3. Go to the Filters tab and click the Create a new filter link at the bottom of the page.
4. Enter classof2015 in the To: field and then click the Next Step >> button.
   
   
   
5. Select the following actions: Skip the Inbox, Apply the label: _Class of 2015, Never send it to Spam. Leave the Mark as read setting unchecked.
   
   
   
6. Click the Create Filter button. To return to your inbox click the inbox link on the left side of the page.

Advanced Filtering Tips
The example above was for a simple filter applied to all messages sent to classof2015@peddie.org. For many, simple filters like this will be all that you will need, but if needed filters can do much more. Below are some examples of more complex filters. When entering complex filters, you should enter the entire filter expression in the Has the words: search criteria field.

Example 1: Suppose you want to create a filter to include all-school emails (i.e. emails sent to all of the classes and to faculty and staff). To do this, enter the following in the Has the words: field:

to:(classof2015 AND classof2014 AND classof2013 AND classof2012 AND facultystaff)

Example 2: Suppose you want to create a filter to filter emails sent only to students (i.e. emails sent to any "class of" group but not to faculty and staff). To do this, enter the following search expression in the Has the words: field. Note the "-" in front of the "to:" which prevents emails sent to facultystaff@peddie.org from matching the filter.

to:(classof2015 OR classof2014 OR classof2013 OR classof2012) AND -to:(facultystaff)

The two examples above just scratch the surface of what is possible. For a complete description of all the advanced filtering/searching options available please see the Google help article Using advanced search.

Lastly, if you don't know how to create a filter to do what you want, stop by the Technology Center or send an email to techhelp@peddie.org and we will be glad to help.