Tag: gmail tips

Minimal Reasons to prefer Gmail over other Mailing systems

I love GmailEverybody is already well acquainted with the mailing system’s usages. In brief it’s a platform through which you can send, receive your messages with/without attachments. Attachment may include audio, video, books, exe files too! (Beware of social engineering!).

There are hell lot of mail providers are there like yahoo mail, rediff mail, hotmail, Gmail , gmx, in.com and now facebook too!  You can read the features of mail providers from here.

But I personally prefer Gmail over other mailing services due to various reasons:

  1.  Provides space more than 7GB and its continuously increasing bit by bit every second. If you need more space (very rare), you may buy by paying $4.99 for 20GB space. Here are the features of space offer.
  2.  Layout is very simple and easy to use. (May be I am little biased over here!)
  3. You can send attachment up to 25 MB (I know there are many mail providers who may offer more than this. GMX offers up to 50 MB!). But I am ok with it. If you need to send a file of size larger than 20 MB just split it using winrar or winzip application and just mail part by part.
  4. Access too many accounts just from one login id (Isn’t it fascinating and wonderful). You can have access to web analytics, web master tool, Google adsense,  blogspot, orkut, youtube and now Google+
  5.  I liked its various lab features. Few of them are worthy to mention.

    • Undo sent mail within 30 seconds Priority Inbox
    • Showing no of unread mails over tab icon
    •  Move icon column. Now I don’t need to see at the right side of the mail that if anything is attached with it or not. It shows the attachment icon in the left side. Easy for me to identify if anything is attached with mail or not. (Simple but effective)
    • Title Tweaks. I can easily see how many new mails have arrived under tab. It is very useful when you have opened many tabs in a single browser. Instead of Inbox (7) it will show me (7) Inbox.
    •  Sending in the background. Now I can read or do anything with my mail systems while sending mail in parallel.

    6. To read more about these features, please read our post on Gmail Features That You may like

  6. Google’s chat functionality is also cool. Audio chat, video chat, group audio chat and now group video chat too (They call it hangout under Google+ banner).
  7. Now you can take backup of your Gmail contacts, buzzes, Picasa albums and probably mails too.
  8. It have various other features too like Google calendar, Event organizer, Google docs, Buzz which makes it more useful in comparison to other mail providers. (Almost everything you can do at one place with a simple click.)
  9. You can login to more than one account with switch account functionality.
  10. Account Activity facility makes you aware that who accessed your account at what time and from where. If anything unusual would happen in accessing your account Gmail will notify you.
  11. Google tackles with spams in a very smart way. Its mail filtering technology really amazing. It saves our time and electricity too! (Why electricity? Relate it with Global Warming)
  12. Waiting for Google voice and sms functionalities in India. Its available in US already.

Note: This is my personal view about Gmail. If anyone has similar or different views, please revert here with your comments 😀

 

 

How to send executable files through mail

exe files attachedHave you ever noticed that you cannot send any executable file format through mail?
Whatever mail agent would be, say Gmail or Yahoo or Rediff. No one allows you to send files which have executable format like .chm, .exe, .js, .vbs etc

But there are two most common ways to send such files through your mail id. I would show it using Gmail Account.

Problem:  While attaching above mentioned formats, I got error stating that it’s an executable file. For Security reason Gmail doesn’t allow you to send this type of file.

Solution:  There are two methods to bypass this security issue.

Method 1

Steps Included

  • Error in gmail file attachmentRename the file’s extension  to most common extension which will not cause any security issues.  “txt” or “doc” or “pdf” would be the most useful extension to send executable files.
    For ex: If file name is testing.exe Change it to testing.txt
  • Now attach this converted file to your mail id and send. (Gmail would not show any error with such files)
  • Tell the recipient that after downloading that attached file change it to proper file extension. In this case, change it from testing.txt to testing.exe
  • Done! (It shows that Gmail only checks the file extension not the contents inside it. Even it is not checking for signature/pattern to determine whether it is proper file or not. )exe file download-gmail

Method 2

Problem: Method 1 would work if you have to single file or separate files in the same mail but by attaching one by one separately. What if you have lots of files of same or different extensions which you want to sent as a whole. Rather say you want to send a folder containing various executable files. 

Solution: We can send it through any compressing tool which has the feature to set password to your file or folder. Winrar being the best example for this scenario. Download it from the here


Steps Included:

  • winrar optionsRight click on the file or folder that you want to send and click on add to archive option
  • Set the passwordset password in winrar

    • Click on Advanced tab 
    • Now click on set Password button (see at the right center )
    • Type the password and reconfirm it again.
    • Click Ok
    • Again click Ok to get out of making rar file.
  • Now you will see one new file with .rar extensions. Ex: If you have file called abc.chm or a folder called setup which is have lots of executables files inside. Then after doing above steps, you would get abc.chm.rar or folder-name.rar.
  • Attach that file in your Gmail account and send to the specific user.(Maximum file size allowed by Gmail per mail is 25 MB)
  • Done! It shows that It checks the files and contents inside it but cannot scan the files which is password protected. So it simply allows it!password protected file

If you know any other way to send such files, please do comment. I tested it on Gmail but I think it would work in almost all mail clients.

 

Make gmail more social : use Rapportive

Rapportive optionsMany of us use gmail account for mailing purposes. If you will open any mail to read, you will notice that in the right side bar of mail; Google ads showing which is of no use for us (almost).
1. Will not it be nice, if we could get something useful instead of those advertisements? 
2. How about getting social updates from different linked sites from the mail sender?

Rapportive gmail screenshot Rapportive is a  CRM (Customer Relationship Management but i would say Content resource Management though), a  Firefox plug-in for Gmail which will do the same as I said above. It will update sender’s social updates from Facebook, Linkedin, Gmail contacts, blogger profile, twitter, picasa etc. It’s one of the best CRM in the market which can be used as google mail plug-in.

You can install it from here  (Detailed instruction will be there with screenshots).
It get s the information based on sender’s mail ID and also allows user notes at the bottom of the page for personal use.

It’s not only that, even you can comment on his/her updates. Like you can comment on sender’s facebook status, recent pics added, can like or even can retweet or reply to his/her tweets. I liked it very much and its really worthy to use.

Something about Rapportive:
It’s a small company founded in January 2010 by Rahul  Vohra, Martin Kleppmann and Sam Stokes. Check this out: http://rapportive.com/about .
 Rapportive’s fund now have crossed $1 million and this plug-in was suggested by lifehacker.com, techcrunch etc.

What they say: You can immediately see what people look like, where they're based, and what they do. You can establish rapport by mentioning shared interests. You can grow your network by connecting on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and more. And you can record thoughts for later by leaving notes. Imagine relationship management built into your email. For free.

Security Concerns:
People may think that it can read our contents form various accounts, can get our all personal mails etc. But just ask this question again to yourself. Whenever you are linking one account with other, are not they sharing your details?
What matters is trust and second thing is, it requires Google’s authorization to show you the details. Its works in the same way as other third party authorization tool works. So no harm in using it!

Any Alternatives? Yes

  1. Gist
  2. Whosent.it

Top 10 Gmail labs for Gmail lovers

  • sujit
  • February 17, 2011
  • 0

Gmail LabGmail is one of the most popular free Email service from Google. Gmail has a feature call Gmail labs, using it you can add many new features to your Gmail account. You can access Gmail lab under Setting -> Labs.

Gmail settingsgmail labs

 

 

 

If you will enable at least one of the lab then a shortcut will create at the top right corner as shown below:

 

As if Gmail wasn’t powerful enough, you can find all sorts of goodies and extra features in Gmail Labs. The list is pretty massive, so I’ve narrowed down to 10 favourite labs to help increase your email productivity.

1. Multiple Inboxes This is one of our favorite Gmail features —there’s just so much you can do with it. Multiple Inboxes has you covered by letting you stack extra lists of emails—whether they are labels, starred messages, or any other Gmail search—in your main inbox window. There’s no limit to what you can do with Multiple Inboxes, so if you’ve ever felt anything was missing from Gmail’s inbox organization, you can make it yourself here. Note that, unfortunately, Multiple Inboxes does not currently work with Gmail’s Priority Inbox feature, so you’ll have to decide which is more important to you for a particular account.

2. Message Sneak Peek The Message Sneak Peek feature is simple, but pretty useful—instead of opening up every message you get, you can just mouse over them(or right Click) to see what’s inside a message. That way, you don’t have to go through to trouble of opening it, marking it as unread, or filtering it if you can’t deal with it right away. message sneak peek

3. Inserting Images The Inserting Images lab will help you out by letting you insert images easily—whether you upload them from your computer or link to an external source on the net—with the press of a button. Note that if you’re running Google Chrome or Safari, you don’t need this lab enabled—you can just drag and drop images right  inot the Gmail. 

4. Undo Send This is a great feature. Just imagine this… you have to mail someone an important email and you type the email with some big typos in it. When you just begin to read your email you accidentally click the “Send” button and then you realize that there were some typos. With this labs feature you can cancel the email which is being sent or if it has been sent, you will have 30 seconds to undo this and then you can edit the email and send it with relief. undo send

5. Default ‘Reply to All’ When multiple people are involved in an email thread, one person will break off by accidentally hitting the “Reply” button instead of “Reply All”, and then everyone else misses that part of the conversation. Save yourself from being “that guy” by enabling the Default Reply to All Lab, which changes Gmail’s Reply button into a Reply All button. On the occasions you want to reply just to one person, you’ll still be able to do so by hitting the dropdown menu next to the Reply All button.

default reply to all

6. Google Docs Previews Even if you aren’t the biggest fan of Google Docs, the Google Docs previews Lab is pretty useful—it not only lets you preview shared Google Docs, but it also lets you view any Google Docs compatible format before downloading it. That means the next time someone sends you a Word document, Excel spreadsheet, or PDF and you don’t want to download it and open it up in Office, you can see what’s inside just by viewing its Google Docs preview.

Google Docs in Gmail

7. Custom Keyboard Shortcuts A Gmail keyboard shortcut is another great feature of Gmail. There are a lot of keyboard shortcuts but if you use this great feature, you can change the keyboard shortcuts to your comfort. This feature could make the use of Gmail very easy.

Custom keyboard shortcuts for gmail

8. Message Translation This is another important labs feature. If you have got an important email but it is in another language, you can use this labs feature to translate it to English or your preferred language. It use Google Translate for the translations.

Message ranslation in Gmail

9. Canned Responses If you find yourself doing a lot of repetitive typing, the Canned Responses lab will save you a lot of trouble. Just enable the lab, set up those messages you find yourself sending over and over again, and then send them with the click of a button. You can even send them automatically using filters and use them with external services (like automating Remember the Milk tasks). Note also that you can use OS-wide text expansion if you need to do this outside of Gmail—though what’s nice about Gmail’s canned responses is that you can use them no matter what computer you’re on.

Canned response enable

Canned response in Gmail

10. Mouse Gestures You can use this as another shortcut for using Gmail. Use your mouse to navigate with gestures. Hold right-click and move the mouse left to go to a previous conversation, move it right to go to the next conversation, and move up to go back to the inbox view.

Mouse gesture in Gmail

3 Easiest methods to make gmail your default Email Client

Love for GmailSometimes you don't need a bulky program just for sending an email like MS outlook, isn't it? And gmail lover would rather prefer sending any mail through their gmail account right? Sometimes you just need to send a website link, or just a screen-shot of  current web page  it really doesn't make much sense to start Outlook for these tiny things.

If you see any emailto: field, that will prompt you to open MS outlook by default which is annoying sometimes. (I really don't like). So if you click on that emailto: admin@aliencoders.org (say an example), it would rather shoot gmail instead of MS outlook. You can do this in three different easiest ways:

  1. Tweaking Firefox settings:

    • Click on  tools-> option
    • Click on Application tab
    • You will see content type and action column. Search for mailto content type and choose gmail from drop-down option against mailto column (you can choose yahoo mail or any other email client too)
    • I would prefer this method over any other methods, because there is no need to install any extra application.
    • It will work only if firefox is opened for sending mail
  2. Using Google-talk settings:

    • Double click on the Google Talk icon in the system tray(you need not to be logged in)
    • Click on the Settings link and go to general tab option
    • Now check the “Open Gmail when I click on email links” box in the Settings window.
    • Click “OK” and You are done hurray!
    • Many people use gtalk, so this is also fine and i would give it second preference
       
  3. Using Gmail notifier:

    • You need to have Gmail notifier installed in your system
    • Right click on its system tray icon
    • Select the Options menu and tick the box next to “Use Gmail for internet mailto: links”.
    • Select your favorite browser in the drop down menu and you are done now.
    • You may get error saying  “Cannot connect to your mailbox. and it always have an unnecessary pop-up to prompt whenever you try to connect gmail at startup.

       

    Personally i avoid installing unnecessary application, if that work will get accomplished by other easier way, isn't it. i would use Gmail notifier when i will not have any option (which will never happen unless and until Firefox or gtalk is there :P)

Firefox and Google Talk settings images:Gmail option in Firefox  Gtalk settings for gmail I hope you will surely like this. need your comments! Happy Alien browsing 🙂