Below are the IITS recommended settings for your Google Apps account. To get into settings look for the Gear icon in the upper right corner, and then click Settings.
If you want more information about any setting click the Learn More link at the left of the options you need help with.Email Settings:
Below our recommended settings are listed by the "tab" they are in. These are listed along the top of the page to the right of the Compose button.
- In General:
- You may wish to change Maximum page size to show more messages. We recommend changing to 100.
- Conversation view is the feature that groups related emails together. We suggest leaving this on, but if you don't like it set conversation view to off.
- When first starting out with Google Mail you may want to change the icons to text under the Button labels option. This changes it to show the button name in text instead of just a graphic.
- In My picture you can choose to add a photo that shows up to everyone or only people you chat with. This is a nice way to personalize your account.
- Especially for Faculty and Staff we recommend adding a signature to your email. See our signature template page for instructions.
- If you're planning on being away from your email for any reason this is where you can set a vacation message, also known as an auto-reply. Just type the message you want sent back like "I'm out of the office I'll respond when I get back." and the dates you want it set for. Note that this will include your email signature if you set one, so you don't have to type that in.
- Be sure to click Save Changes!
- In Labels:
- Here you can see any labels you may have created. Clicking "hide" takes the label out of the list on the left side of your email. Clicking the "show if unread" options hides the label unless it has new mail. Doing this for labels you don't access often can make your list shorter and easier to browse.
- In Inbox:
- We recommend leaving Classic as the inbox type but other options are available if you wish to try them. See also Inbox Tabs.
- Changing Importance markers may be useful to you if you don't want this feature. Google tries to predict what messages are important based on what messages you've read in the past, what you've deleted without opening, etc. Setting to "No Markers" turns the feature off.
- In Accounts:
- If you use a general office account, like "Helpdesk@utica.edu" you can login to that account and in the settings go to the "Grant access to your account" section. Click Add another account and go through the steps on screen. Add your own primary email account and this will allow you to access this account from your own. Just click on your email address in the top right and you'll see other accounts you have access to. See also Delegated Email instructions video.
- In Filters:
- Click the Create a new filter link if you wish to have specific messages handled in special ways. For instance if I get a newsletter and I want it automatically labelled "Monthly Newsletter" and skip my Inbox, a filter can be made to do that.
- Caution: You can fairly easily make filters that accidentally delete all incoming email or have other unintended consequences. If you need assistance contact the Help Desk.
- In Forwarding and POP/IMAP:
- Do not use POP, we recommend you leave POP disabled to be sure that you don't accidentally setup your email wrong and remove your email from Google. It's also better for overall security.
- If you'll be using a mobile device, like a tablet or smartphone, to get your UC email you'll need to go to the IMAP access section and click Enable IMAP.
- Then Set Auto-Expunge to Off and set it to Move messages to Trash on delete.
- Remember to save the settings.
NOTE:
The Computer Help Desk does not support email clients such as Outlook, Thunderbird, and Apple Mail. If you choose to setup software like this you can consult the instructions Google provides but we cannot be of assistance if you experience problems. If you need help getting the Google web interface to do something please call rather than setting up other software to do it.
- In Chat:
- If you'd like to turn off chat you can do so here. This means the chat feature is never available. It is not common to use this.
- In Labs:
NOTE:
Google Labs features are experimental and could break, be removed, or change at any time. Google doesn't guarantee the functionality of these options. We currently do not recommend enabling any labs.
Calendar Settings:
Open the Calendar via the link at the top of the screen and click the Gear icon to open the settings. You can use the menu on the left to jump to specific settings or you can just scroll down in the main part of the screen.
- In General:
- Many options exist here for customizing how you wish to display the calendar. Much of this depends on your preferences, but we recommend setting the Scheduling section for the days and hours you're in your office and the hours you work. This will warn others if they invite you to a calendar event outside of your normal hours.
- Turn off keyboard shortcuts if you're prone to accidentally hitting keys.
- In the Mobile setup area you can add a cell phone number so you can receive text message alerts from your calendar.
- In Settings for my Calendars:
- Each calendar you have (initially just one, but others may be shared with you), you'll have settings. Click on each calendar and configure them how you'd like.
- Under Access Permissions you can uncheck "Make available to public" but we recommend checking "Make available for Utica College" and then setting that to "See only free/busy(hide details)" Doing this lets people peek into your availability without knowing exactly what you are doing. This also allows the "Find a time" feature to work when someone is trying to schedule an event with you.
- Use the "Share with specific people" area to add office mates and other people you wish to see or manage your calendar events.
- You can use Add calendar on the left to make different calendars for different things. You could have one for personal events and keep it private, you could have one for your class schedule and make it public, one could have athletic events an could be shared with teammates, etc.
Google+ Settings:
"+" Is Google's social networking system, similar to Facebook. You can use it but we don't currently have support or tips for you.
Drive / Documents Settings:
Drive lets you create, edit and store files online.
TIPS:
- Note that it's not required to install Google Drive on your computer. Just Click the Create button to make documents, spreadsheets and presentations (similar to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint) or click the upload button to store your current files online.
- Don't look for the Save button, it does it for you as you type.
- Open the Settings menu after clicking on the Gear icon at the top. Google has their own type of files, called Docs, Sheets, and Slides. These are equivalent to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files but by using the Google type of these files you can edit them online. When uploading Word, Excel, or PowerPoint type files you can choose if they get converted to the Google type. Uncheck this if you want them to remain in the original format.
- On the left of this settings screen click on Notifications. Disable them if you wish, but we recommend keeping "Get all updates about Google Drive items via email" checked.