Get the Most Out of Gmail

When Google's free, web-based e-mail service was released in April of 2004, it was heralded as a revolutionary new approach to the web inbox. Indeed, conversation threads, search, tagging, and keyboard shortcuts have changed the way many look at their e-mail. But because it offers a much different experience than a desktop client, Gmail can take some getting used to. Here's our guide to getting the most out of Gmail.

Consolidate Your Accounts

You probably have several e-mail address; work, personal, one for mailing lists and perhaps a throw-away address for various online services. Gmail makes it easy to funnel all your e-mail in a single inbox. Best of all, you can send e-mails from your Gmail account and they will look like they came from your other addresses.

To set up additional accounts:

1. Head to the Settings tab in the top right corner of the Gmail interface and click on the Accounts tab.

1. Click Add Another Account in the "Get mail from other accounts" section.

1. Enter the e-mail address you'd like to integrate into Gmail and click Next.

1. Fill in all of your e-mail account login info. You can also select a number of other options such as always using a secure connection (if your other mail host provides that feature), leaving a copy on the server and control how Gmail handles the incoming messages. Save your changes.

1. Gmail will send a message to the new account, and you'll have to click the provided link to verify that it is in fact your account.

If you'd like to set up Gmail so that messages sent from your Gmail account look like they came from your other accounts, return the Accounts tab and repeat the above process in the "Send mail as" section. If you'd like, you can set any of your accounts as Gmail's default account to use when sending mail. Gmail's Compose interface also always gives you the option to select any verified address before you send a new message.

Labels

Gmail doesn't use folders. This is perhaps the most disorienting aspect for new users accustomed to filing mail according to time honored traditions. But Gmail does offer the same functionality you're used to with folders. Instead of filing messages in folders, Gmail lumps all your message in a single archive mailbox (which you can view by clicking the "All Mail" link). But Gmail uses labels (other sites call them "tags") to give you the same functionality as folders.

1. To get started using labels, click the Settings tab and then click Labels.

1. Create a new label. Let's say you want a label named "Work" for all your incoming work e-mails. Create the label and any time you get an e-mail that's work related, apply the label and archive the message.

1. Now click the label Work in Gmail's sidebar and you'll see all your filed messages, just like you would with a folder named "Work."

What makes labels more powerful is that single messages can have multiple labels, something that isn't possible with folders. Also, you can change or add labels at any time and test your searches to see how the labels will be applied.

Filters

Moving and archiving labeled messages by hand is tedious, and that's where filters come in handy. Gmail's filters are pretty similar in feature to those you've used in desktop clients. Define the matching criteria and then define what actions you want applied to those message.

Here's a tip for power filtering: Gmail uses the AND operator by default when combining filter attributes. Thus is want to match messages that come from foo@bar.com or have the subject line "test," we're out of luck. However, there's a way around this limitation because the "Has the words" option in the Filter dialog can accept any search criteria.

Thus in a single line in "Has The Words" we can define the follow rule: (from:(foo@bar.com) OR subject:(test)). This trick can also be used with any of the other Gmail search operators.

Unlimited e-mail accounts

The '+' symbol can be added after your user name and before the '@' symbol in a gmail address. Effectively you can have an unlimited number of gmail accounts by suffixing a word after the '+'. Example: If your e-mail address is bob@gmail.com you could use the address bob+wired@gmail .com when signing up for the wired news letter and then simply setup a filter for any mail sent to bob+wired@gmail.com. This feature is very handy for figuring out where spammers got your address from.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Gmail has some nice keyboard shortcuts you'll want to memorize. These are the essential ones:

j/k to select the next and previous messages in the mail list view

n/p to move between next and previous messages in message view

y to archive a message

c to compose

r/f to reply forward

*#* to delete

There are a host of others available. See the Gmail help pages for a more detailed list.

If you find yourself loving Gmail's simple shortcuts, but prefer a desktop client, have a look at the Thunderbird add-on GmailUI which brings many of Gmail's shortcuts to Thunderbird.

Access Gmail From Your Desktop

Though rumors of an official Google desktop client for Gmail have surfaced recently, you can still add your Gmail inbox to your favorite third-party client easily.

1. In Gmail, click on Settings, the "Forwarding and POP"

1. Check one of the two Enable POP boxes. Choose to either download all of your stored mail or only new messages from this point forward.

1. Select how you want Gmail to handle copies of your messages in your webmail interface. Either leave them untouched, archive them or delete them.

1. Click "Save Changes"

1. Configure your desktop e-mail client by following Google's instructions for your software.

Gmail Scripts For Power Users

If you're using a browser that supports Greasemonkey scripts, there are a whole bunch of things you can do to enhance Gmail. Some notable options include Gmail macros, which greatly enhances the keyboard shortcuts in Gmail, and Force encrypted connections which ensures that you always connect to Gmail via a https connection.

To encrypt your messages in Gmail, see our earlier guide: Keep Your E-mail Private, Secret and Secure.

For more options and other ways to improve you Gmail experience with Greasemonkey, have a look at everything tagged Gmail in the scripts archive.

If you're a Firefox user, Lifehacker editor Gina Tripani has put together a very nice little extension called Better Gmail that combines a couple dozen scripts, hacks and other tools and makes it easy to install everything without hunting down the individual scripts. For more details on Better Gmail, see the Lifehacker tutorial and guide.

Use Gmail for Online Storage

Note that these online storage methods may violate Gmail's terms of service, so it's probably best to test them using a non-critical account.

Given that Gmail offers almost 3GB of storage, why not use it backup some files? For easier, FTP-like access check out these options. Windows users have Gmail Drive, while Mac users have gDisk. There's also a Firefox-based option called Gmail File Space.

How To Block Your Cell Phone Number

How To Block Your Cell Phone Number


There might be many reasons why you want to block your cell phone number from showing up on other people's caller IDs. Whatever the reason is, it's very simple to block your cell phone number. You have two options: you can permanently block your phone number or you can block your number on a call by call basis.

Blocking Your Cell Phone Number Permanently:

The most permanent solution is to request a "line block" from your cell phone carrier.

1. To do this you simply need to call the customer service for your specific provider and they can block your number. When you do this your number will never show up to anyone.
2. To call your customer service to block your cell phone number, just dial 611 from your cell phone and you will reach them.
3. If there is a situation where you want your number to show up, you will still have an option. When you have a permanent block on your cell phone number you will need to dial *82 before dialing the number you are calling. When you do this your phone number will show up just once for that specific call. Ex: *82 (555) 555-5555.

Blocking Your Cell Phone Number Temporarily:

Sometimes you may want to block you number for a specific call. You might not want someone to know that you are trying to reach them for the 15th time in a row, or you might be calling a business and might not want them to know your number.

1. If you want to block your cell phone number on a call by call basis you need to dial *67 before dialing the number. Ex *67 (555) 555-5555.
2. When you do this you will not have any feedback that it worked. If you want to test this, just call your home phone, or anther phone that has a caller ID from your cell to confirm that your phone number is blocked.

One important thing to remember is that your number will not be blocked from emergency services or any toll free numbers.
Quick Tips:
Dial *67 before the phone number you are dialing to block your phone number one time.
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royale_noir theme for windows

Royale Noir Theme description
Royale Noir is a secret XP theme never released officially by Microsoft

During Royale’s development (the XP Media Center theme), the graphic artists also produced a black version of the skin, sans the overused “glass” effect. The result was an aesthetic black skin that was named “Royale Noir” and that even works with Office 2003.

Since the skin was never released (or reached final adjustments) there are a few issues with it: some of the colors don’t meet the overall “feel” (they’re too purple-ish compared to the greys of the bitmaps) and the inactive titlebars are a little too dark.

Later edit - modded theme

"This mod grew from a finishing Royale Noir project to encompass Zune bug fixing as well.

If you are a fan of Microsoft's Royale, this is the only Royale theme you will ever need.

The theme now consists of 3 color schemes, Royale, Royale Noir and Royale Zune.

For Royale Noir, Microsoft came 50% of the way, and I went the other 50%, a lot of work and bugfixes was done to finish the theme.

For Zune, work was done to better the distasteful orange and many bugfixes implemented that Microsoft messed

up."

FAQ

Q: Help! There's so many files here, which one do I download?
A: The only essential file to get the theme is Royale Remixed Theme v1.46 Final windows installer. After this has been installed, you can choose to download and install any of the following patches under 'For Royale Noir colour scheme only'. Installing any one of the patch will overwrite any previously installed patch, so it's a mutually exclusive scenario.

Q: After installing the theme, my desktop only display the classic windows?
A: Because this is not an official desktop theme made by Microsoft, a modified uxtheme.dll system file is needed to use this theme. Simply follow the link provided (or here) to download the Uxtheme Multi-Patcher 5.0 or Universal Theme Patcher 2.1 (here), run it and follow the instructions to guide you through the process.

Q: I get an error message while installing Uxtheme Multi-patcher saying Windows NT setup files are detected in c:windowsi386?
A: There are 2 reasons for this, the first, you didn't read the instruction carefully telling you not to insert your windows CD when prompted. The second, your OEM system comes with system files backed up in windowsi386 folder. This folder acts as the windows CD when system files need to be copied over, it is non-essential for the operation of the system. Renaming it or moving it someplace else ie burning onto a CD etc, should enable you to patch your uxtheme.dll.

Q: I can't patch uxtheme using the patchers?
A: If none of the patchers work for you, then you have to replace uxtheme.dll manually. Refer to this link for instructions and downloads of various uxtheme.dll for your windows XP version.

Q: I can't install the theme on my x64 machine?
A: There are 2 installers provided, one for 32bit machines and another for x64. Download the one labelled '(x64 Installer)'.

Q: I can't install the theme on my 32bit machine?
A: Refer to the question above.

Q: I've patched my uxtheme.dll using the Multi-patcher on my x64 machine but it still displays the windows classic desktop?
A: If you are running Windows XP x64, you need to patch 2 uxtheme.dll. Refer to the instructions in this post.

Q: I've installed the theme but I get an error message telling me my themes service is not running?
A: You need to enable the themes service, note that Windows Server 2003 has the themes service turned off by default. Follow the same instructions for both Windows XP and Server 2003 in the link here.

Q: After applying the skin, the program MATLAB quits on error at startup?
A: MATLAB seems to have issues with drawing the MATLAB desktop with unsigned Windows themes. Here is a workaround:

Make MATLAB run in Windows 2000 compatibility mode. To do so:

1. In the Windows desktop, select Start.
2. Navigate to the MATLAB application.
3. Right-click MATLAB shortcut and select Properties.
4. Select the Compatibility tab, select the Run this program in
compatibility mode for: check box, and then select Windows 2000