Updates

I recently did an interview with Edutainment Learning and talked to students about my career in EdTech. I actually wasn’t sure exactly what I would be sharing when the interview started but I did manage to get my journey down at a high level. Those of you who know me -- the me before education, the me before graduating college -- know that at different parts of my life I wanted to be… A LOT OF THINGS. At one point in my life I actually thought I was done with what I was going to be but of course, that was not the case (thank goodness). 

Those of us insanely curious folks understand that our learning journey never ends -- the end of an era (or a career) just signals the beginning of a new place to explore, a new person to meet or a new career opportunity.  

As students eagerly asked for general career advice, I shared that being curious can lead you to better opportunities and a more fulfilling life. As such, what one person defines as success in life may...

1. Undo a Sent Message

Sent an email to a client too fast and misspelled their name? Enable the undo button in Gmail to give you 30 seconds to undo a message being sent. Everytime you send an email, a little notification will appear for 30 seconds asking if you want to undo the message. 

2. Search All of Google Workspace

Need to find that important file your boss sent to you a few days ago and you can’t remember if it’s in your email or a shared drive? Use Cloud Search to search through all your Google Workspace interactions with a specific person. 

3. Include Attachments on Events

When you schedule a meeting, you can attach important documents to the calendar for that event, like the agenda and a Sheet you wanted to review at the meeting. By attaching the documents to the meeting itself, no one is searching for the documents they need from an email sent two weeks ago, it’s all ready for them when they click on the meeting link.

4. Use Shared...

1. Undo a Sent Message

Sent an email to a parent too fast and misspelled their name or (even worse) their child’s name? Enable the undo button in Gmail to give you 30 seconds to undo a message being sent. Every time you send an email, a little notification will appear for 30 seconds asking if you want to undo the message. 

2. Search All of Google Workspace

Need to find that great video link your co-worker sent to you for your students, but you can’t remember if she sent it to you by email or through Chat? Use Cloud Search to search through all your Google Workspace interactions with a specific person. 

3. Include Attachments on Events

Whether you’re scheduling an event with co-workers or students, make sure that having the relevant meeting documents is so easy for them that they can’t not be prepared by attaching the documents to the meeting event itself.

4. Create a Bookable Appointment Slot

Whether you’re scheduling parent-teacher...

If you have ever used the offline feature in Google Drive, you know how useful it can be. When you’re working in a place with a bad internet connection -- in a plane, train or automobile, a vacation on a remote island, or stuck in the middle of Yosemite -- being able to edit your document, sheet, or slide presentation without Internet access can be a life saver. 

But if you’re someone who has a lot of PDFs or Microsoft files in their Google Drive, you didn’t used to have access to your files offline unless you had a copy saved to the device you were working on. Now, you can open and edit those files - and any file type - offline, too, as long as they are saved to your Google Drive account and you have an application on the device you’re using that can open them. For example, if you make a Microsoft Excel file available offline, and you try to open it on your phone, you will need to have the Microsoft Excel app downloaded. Or, if you need...

There is a new Google Drive security update that you may have seen a pop up notification for in your personal or work Drive account. The update affects documents you have shared through a link, where anyone can view the document if they have the link (not just the person you sent the link to). This is the option (shown below) that says “Anyone on the internet with this link can view” when you go to share a document with someone. This is also known as a “public” link.

While you may think these links are secure in that unless the person you shared the link with shares the link with someone else, no one can get into the document, there have been instances where unrelated anonymous people have gotten access to files by guessing the link. To combat the problem and make the links more secure, Google is adding a resource key to all shared links. 

This means that some of the links you’ve shared with people that were “public” will now no longer...

The Tasks feature has been around for a long time in our personal Gmail accounts and has gotten a few updates over the last few years that have made it an essential part of my organization process. I create tasks directly from a specific email and move tasks around easily on my calendar almost every day. 

I’m so glad that Tasks is available in Google Workspace Essentials and Enterprise Essentials. If you haven’t used the Tasks feature before, now is the time to take advantage of it. A task appears at the top of a specified day (see picture below), like a reminder, and has a lot of space for a description where you can create individual tasks or an entire To Do list for yourself.

The workplace can get pretty hectic, especially when your workplace is a classroom full of kids. As much as we tell ourselves that we’re going to remember that thing we need to do for that student that we wrote down on a scrap of paper, we’re probably going to forget all about...

Did you know that you can see how connected you are to your Workspace contacts? If you’ve ever sent or received an email from your co-worker, you may have noticed that if you hover over their name, a picture of them will appear, along with their email, a phone number, and maybe if they’re out of office. Now you will see all of that information and more by clicking on the “More info” button (as seen below).

The “More info” button will let you see your co-worker’s title, how their position relates to the chain of command in the organization, and your most recent interactions with them, like emails and meetings. If your co-worker chooses to disclose more information, you may also be able to see their previous work history, education, and volunteer activities. 

This feature is especially helpful for new employees or those who work in fully remote jobs, because we all know it takes a while to get to know everyone and their titles. Seeing...

Good news! When someone sends you a JPEG image through Gmail, you will now be able to save that image to Google Photos. Previously, you had to download the images and then manually upload them to Google Photos. At this time, this will only work with JPEG images.

The feature is shown below, with our very own, "Jeannie", who didn't mind being our model.

You’ll find the new “Save to Photos” button  next to the “Download” and “Add to Drive” buttons when you hover over or click on the attachment. 

And since organization skills are something that many of us need to work on, saving straight to Google Photos makes it easier for me to find the images I need when I need them. Google Photos is especially useful if I want to edit photos and share albums with others like those I create when...

As a reminder, starting on June 1, 2021, if you are using a personal (consumer) Google account, High Quality photos and videos uploaded to Google Photos will count towards your free 15GB of Google storage. Any High Quality photos uploaded before that date will not be counted on your Google storage limit.

The exception to this rule are current Google Pixel phones (including the 4, 4XL, 4a, and 5 models), which come with unlimited High Quality photo and video storage. The next Pixel phones, like all other phones, will follow the June 1 rule though.

Also starting on June 1, 2021, are storage changes that will affect users of Google Workspace for Business, Google Workspace for Education, and Google Workspace for Nonprofits. Storage changes for these services can be found here: Changes to Google Workspace Storage Policy Timelines.

If you need more than 15GB of storage for your personal Google account, you can purchase more storage here. For those who don’t want to purchase more...

Hello everyone! I am excited to share a new Google Meet feature with you - the ability to present directly from Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides to Google Meet. When you click on the present icon , you will see a list of your meetings for that day. Select the meeting you want to present to and click “Present Tab to Meeting”. 

For a step by step guide on how to use the new feature, click here.

Image of feature with blue button that says present tab to meeting.

Many of us use Google Meet all day long and this feature will help streamline sharing documents and presentations in meetings. 

In a school, this will allow educators to cleanly share documents, presentations, and spreadsheets with students without the added distraction of colorful desktop backgrounds, bookmarks and tabs.

For those of us who have previously used a separate computer to share presentations cleanly without background distractions, the Present from Docs, Sheets, and Slides feature coupled...