Setting Gmail as your Default Mail Client

Recently, in our district, we have switched to Google Apps for Education.  I personally I have enjoyed the process of gaining a better understanding of the ins and outs of the administrator panel.  We have been Google for about 3 months now.  There have been a few hiccups along the way but overall it has been very smooth.  Today I had a question about how to set Gmail as your default mail client so when you click on an address it goes straight to Gmail instead of Outlook.  These are the steps that we took.

Inside of your management profile, under advanced tools, you can go down to Google Apps desktop features and install the exe file that will make GMail, Docs, and Calendar a shortcut on your desktop.  Once you have this installed you can change the default mail client.  Now, go to your start menu, Click Default Programs, Under programs click Google Apps- it will have the mail icon  beside of it.  Click okay and you are set!

This isn't life changing but it can sure change your mood once you have eliminated copying the address, closing Outlook, and pasting the address into Gmail.  Have a great day!

Extending your Gmail Address

This is so exciting!  I just learned it this week via +Lars Fosdal  on Google+.  I love learning new stuff!  Makes my day every time!  You can extend your Gmail address so basically what this means is that you have your typical email address i.e. username@gmail.com.  You can extend it by adding a +word to your username.  The e-mail will still come to your regular inbox but it gives you a way to see how they acquired your e-mail address in the case of spam.  Here are some examples:

username+Amazon@gmail.com
username+Ebay@gmail.com
username+TpT@gmail.com

While this isn't something that I think I would use everyday it is something that I would defiantly use when I reluctantly sign up for a newsletter that promises not to sell my info.  Very exciting!