Day 1

I.  Introductions

• Take class survey (Google Forms)
• View results (Google Spreadsheets)

II.  Introduce class blog (professionaldevelopmentlps.blogspot.com)

III.  Log into Google account if not already there

• Exploring email (Gmail)
• Settings options
• Configuring tabs, click the + icon at the end of the tab bar to view a list of tabs that you can switch on or off.  Removing a tab doesn't remove the mail - it will get distributed into other tabs. You may tick "include starred in Primary" to quickly move starred ail to main tab.
• Setting up "labels" to organize email (folders)
• If you access Gmail from other ail apps such as Outook, you'll need to enable POP/IMAP.  Go to the "forwarding and "POP/IMAP" tab in settings and click the enable buttons for both of these.
• Searching your Gmail
• Archive messages to tidy up your inbox without deleting anything.
• Gmail gives you tons of free storage space so you can save everything you want. While messages in your trash get deleted after 30 days, archived messages are kept forever. Archiving messages moves them out of your inbox and into "All Mail" for safekeeping, so you can search for them later. It's like moving old email to a giant storage room that you never have to organize.
• Spice up your inbox with a theme.
• Choose from over 30 options to personalize your inbox. Go to the Themes tab under Settings and pick from nature themes, themes that change with the weather, and many more.
• Add an email signature.
• Sign off every message with a customized signature. You can add additional contact information, or even an image. You can add a signature in Settings.
• Use Tasks as a handy to-do list.
• Add new items to your tasks list by clicking "Gmail" and then "Tasks" on the top left of your screen, or you can convert emails into tasks by clicking the More menu and selecting "Add to Tasks." You can also access your task list from your mobile phone at www.gmail.com/tasks.
• Add "(EOM)" to the subject of one-liner messages.
• If you ever want to send a quick note where the subject is the entire message (like "Want to grab lunch at 12:30?"), but are annoyed when Gmail prompts you to add body text, just type "EOM" or "(EOM)" at the end of the subject line (short for End Of Message), and Gmail will politely send the message without the extra prompt.
• Send and receive mail from multiple addresses.
• If you regularly check several email accounts, you can use Gmail as the hub for all of them. Select "Add POP3 email account" on the "Accounts and Import" tab under Settings to start receiving mail from other accounts. To send mail from other accounts, click "Send mail as" and set-up custom-from addresses for each account you want to send mail from. Keep in mind that the email accounts you'd like to fetch from must support POP access and, in the case of Gmail addresses, have POP access enabled.
• Send SMS text messages right from Gmail.
• How often do you try to chat with somebody and they don't respond because they just walked away from their computer? You can keep the conversations going with a Labs feature that lets you send SMS text messages right from Gmail. Enable it in Labs under Settings, and then type a phone number in the chat box search window. We'll even save your friends' numbers in your Contacts, so you can just type names into the chat box and select Send SMS.
• Search for superstars by name.
• Enabling superstars in Settings gives you 11 more ways to star your messages. You can use the "has" operator to search for emails with different types of stars, like "has:yellow-star", "has:blue-star", or "has:red-bang". In Settings, just hover your mouse over each superstar icon to find the star names.
• Send email from your phone.
• Install the Gmail app for iPhone or Android, or use Gmail for mobile to read and send emails on the go. Just type m.google.com/mail into your phone's browser to get started.