Step One: What the heck are we doing?

After visiting the Google Apps website, there are several guides to help you get going, but the best one I found for this situation is Setting Up Google Apps for Small Business.  

So far so good.

Went through the initial sign up with no surprises.

One of the first things you are asked to do is to verify your ownership of the domain name.  There are several choices, but I opted to add google code to the DNS record.  After making the choice, Google gave me a list of domain providers and upon choosing GoDaddy, I was given very detailed directions specifically for the GoDaddy interface.  It even included screenshots from GoDaddy.

I made the changes to the record and even though both Google and Godaddy warn that it may take up to 24 hours for the record to update, it was ready as soon as I got back on the Google page and clicked to verify button.

After verifying the domain name, the wizard within Google Apps, began to take me through the remaining steps to complete the transition.  Mind you nothing at this point has changed for my Dad’s email account.  Nothing will substantially change until after I update the MX records.

Before going any further, I turned the reins over to my father so that he could get up to speed and help configure the account as he chooses.  Because the domain name is under my GoDaddy account, I will still need to make the MX record changes, but I will wait until I get the go-ahead from him.

I am very happy to report that this has been a relatively painless process.  So much better than when I signed up my first account 3 or 4 years ago.  I didn’t even know what a DNS record was or where to find it.  Now you don’t have to know, Google will guide you completely.

So, Step 1 — Success.  So far, so good.

Putting My Money Where My Mouth Is — Setting Up A Google Apps Acount

I’ve been talking up the advantages of using Google Apps for email to a lot of my friends and family.  This last week, my Dad agreed to take the plunge.  Because the details of the process seem to fade with time, I wanted to document my experience as we navigate the through the process in real-time.  Hopefully, this will be enlightening for you and not too embarrassing for me.

Goal: switch over email for Dad’s domain, daddomain.com* to Google Apps.
(*not his real domain)

Details:

Currently using secureserver through GoDaddy for email.
Already owns domain name.
Would like to use Gmail and other tools in Google Apps
Plan to transfer existing emails into new Gmail account for archival purposes

So that’s the plan and I will post updates along the way.

Other Gmail thoughts

I had a few additional Gmail thoughts that really didn’t need their own post, but needed to be covered.

1) Getting your old emails from Outlook into Gmail.

If you’re wondering why you would want to further clutter your email box, let me offer some reasons why you might want to bring the old stuff along.  First, you’ve got some important stuff in those old emails.  I search multiple times daily to recover an old conversation or bit of information that is now an archived email.  Additionally, consider the power of Google’s search to find that hidden treasure.  Secondly, you can organize your old emails into folders and hide them out of the way or anymore, I just archive it all and just use search.  Each Gmail account comes with over 5GB worth of space, so there’s no real reason to delete old emails, just archive them and then they are there when you need them.

Especially if you are upgrading a business email, you will want to have your hands on all of your old quotes and conversations with clients, so when you upgrade bring your old email with you.

If you have a Google Apps account, you can utilize their Gmail uploader, but if you don’t try using these steps to get everything in one place.  Export and Backup Emails from Outlook by Blog, from Computer and Internet Tips.

2) Use labels and filters to Automate your Email

Often when we think of mail, we think of using folders to organize it all.  Gmail implemented labels in lieu of folders to make organization simpler and more powerful.  Labels look a lot like folders in you can click on the Waiting for Response Label and you will find all of the email stored under that designation just as you would with a folder, but the magic happens when you want to have an email in the Jones Account Proposal folder and in the Waiting for Response folder.  Folders make you either copy a file to put it in multiple folders or you need to choose where you want the file to live.  Labels don’t have the same restrictions, the new proposal email can sit in Waiting for Response, the Jones Account Proposal and a number of other locations by utilizing labels.

It really gets fun when you can use labels along with the automation of filters.  Filters let you set up a set of rules with a specific action.  e.g. All files with the “Doughnuts” in the subject, add the “Police” label.  Or all emails from mywife@home.com, label “Urgent — Wife Email”.  It also can help you ignore some of the distractions,  you can filter all emails that contain “Egyptian” “Prince” and “Request to help Launder Money” to automatically delete.

One of the most useful label techniques that I use is highlighting all emails from one of my alternate email addresses.  e.g. Add the label “Trey Work” to all emails addressed to “trey@work.com.”  While all emails come to one box, those from my work email show up in the inbox with the label Trey Work.  Additionally, I can click on the Trey Work label and quickly review all emails sent to my work address.

Check out this article for more information on how to harness the power of automation:  Gmail Smart Labels Add Automatic Inbox Filters for Mass Mail, Combat Email Overload by Lifehacker.com

Ten Must-Have Gmail Filters Available for Download by Lifehacker.com

3) Getting Started with Gmail or Becoming a Gmail Ninja

Found both of these links that are helpful and wanted to share.  Happy Gmailing!

How to Get Started with Gmail by Lifehacker.com

Becoming a Gmail Ninja by Google

 

The power of IMAP — How to simplify your email retrieval

IMAP simply is email as it should be.

Long gone are the days when you only retrieved your email from the one computer in the den.  Now you access your email on your desktop, laptop, tablet, web and phone.  Soon we’ll use “Minority Report“esque hand movements and answer email projected on the wall from an implant on our forehead.  In the meantime, let’s make all of the places you receive mail work together.

If you’ve ever had to sort through the same email on your phone and your desktop, you know how frustrating it can be when life is out of sync.  There is an easy answer — IMAP.

IMAP is a mail protocol similar to pop3 that retrieves mail from a mail server.  In the simplest of terms (and not necessarily completely technically accurate) pop3 is a little like snail mail — the mail carrier drops it off at your house, but then doesn’t care what you do with it beyond that point.  You can request to delete it or make it available to another drop box, but otherwise is ambivalent about your mail.  IMAP is more like Netflix — The file is stored in one location and the server cares what you do with the file.  Just like Netflix syncs your viewing progress in a movie on your Xbox and your iPad, the mail server will let all retrievers know if you’ve read an email or will delete it from all locations if you delete it.  Additionally, it knows the disposition of the file.  If you archived an email to your “Waiting for Response” folder on your phone, that’s where you will find the email on your desktop.

Essentially, IMAP keeps everything on the mail server and your email retriever borrows the emails and reports any changes it makes so that everything stays in sync.  It’s a great way to reduce a lot of the stress in your life.

So, imagine that you have taken my advice in previous posts and are consolidating all of your email addresses into a single Gmail address and you use IMAP to retrieve your mail, then every device that you own will be set-up with one email account and they will ALL BE SYNCED!!  If you think that the use of all caps and exclamation points is a little over the top, wait until you have actually gone this route.  Or even better, once you’ve got one email to rule them all, try to go back to the old ways of pop3 and you’ll feel like you’ve traveled back to the days of Little House on the Prairie.

I’ve included some links bellow with instruction on how to set this up, but in short make sure you have IMAP enabled in Gmail, then follow the instructions on the Gmail settings page for your email client.  Now go forward and enjoy life in the 21st century!

Getting Started with IMAP and POP by Google

Supported IMAP Client List by Google

How to Make Gmail Play Nicely with Your Desktop Email Client by Lifehacker

How to Set Up Gmail with a Desktop Mail Client by Lifehacker

How to Set Up an Email Account on Your iPhone by Lifehacker

Consolidating all of your email addresses and accounts into a Super Gmail Account

I have at least a dozen active email addresses.  Some are common addresses, such as example@gmail.com, others are associated with unique domain names like me@examplecompany.com.  Even with all of these separate accounts from a number of sources, I only have to search one email account for my emails ididntwanttowritemymainemailaddressinthisblogpostsoiamusingthisexample@gmail.com.

You can achieve this result by forwarding your emails from another account or by utilizing the pop3 collection from Gmail.

1)  I often set-up forwarding emails for those you have a work email address, but are unlikely to remember to check it.  For example Jane has jane@home.com and when Jane came to work for me, she now has jane@work.com.  Her clients and coworkers will expect to email her at jane@work.com, but she’d prefer to just receive any emails with her @home account.  With her new @work email, many services have a setting to forward all email to another address.  Within the Gmail environment, you can even forward and archive any incoming email.  This was her work email account will have a record of any emails she received, but she will receive any email to her work address in her home email.

2)  The preferred method (if available) is to collect your email in your Gmail account just as you would in Outlook or other mail programs.  Basically, any email that is sent to @work will be collected in the @gmail account.  This is a great option for those internet provider email accounts that you never check, but may contain important information.  So any @verizon.net email account will immediately be collected in my Gmail account.

You might ask, why would I forward or use Pop3 to consolidate all of my mail when I can simply add additional accounts to Outlook or my iPhone, they both handle multiple email addresses.  You can use this method, but the biggest advantage to consolidation is simply that everything is consolidated.  If I need to check on an email that was sent to either my @work or @home or @random email address, I can utilize the search features in my single Gmail account to find it.  Also when you have all of your email addresses consolidated into a single Gmail account, you only need to setup a single email account on your iPhone, Outlook or other device.

One last comment about this method, if you are concerned about sending work email from your home account, Gmail allows you to send an email using your work email address.  Within settings, look for the feature to “Send Mail As.”  You will need to verify that you own the account, but then you can choose where your outgoing emails will be addressed from.

Consolidating your emails into one place makes sense logically and will save you a lot of time and heartache.

See these articles for more information:

How to use your Gmail account to access your other email accounts by Cloudeight InfoAve

Get Mail from Other Accounts by Google Help