Boxbe Blog

Continuing on off of our announcement earlier this week, we’re busy making Gmail our email nerve center. Gmail recently released the ability to download your POP email into Gmail. If you like Gmail like we do, this is a great way to make Gmail your email communications HQ.

Before you get started, you should have your outside account information handy to add into Gmail.

Here’s how you set it up:

Click on Settings in the upper right corner of Gmail.

Click on the Accounts tab

Within the Accounts tab, click Add another email address.

Enter your non-Gmail address:

Now, if you are using another major email provider, like Yahoo!, Gmail will auto-fill some of the options for you.

Otherwise, enter in the relevant data. You should be able to get this from your email provider’s website.

Applying a label as new messages come in is a good way to keep track of messages from different accounts.

To finish, click Add Account.

Gmail allows you to add up to 5 email accounts so, if you have several accounts, Gmail might be a good way to consolidate email into one central location.

One of the many strengths of Google’s Gmail service is the ability to access most functions without touching the mouse. Now, I’m a WIMP interface kind of guy, whereas company CEO Thede might be using the Unix mail application. Fortunately, Gmail has us both covered.

Navigating

/ = Search
k = Move to a newer conversation
j = Move to an older conversation
o or Enter - Opens message
x - selects message for another action (starring, printing, etc)
s - Stars a message
Tab - Navigates down relevant fields
Shift Tab - Navigates up relevant fields

Reading

u - Returns to the message list
m - Mutes messages - Archives conversations and auto-archives all messages in the same conversation.
y - Archives messages
! - Report spam
y then o - Archives the message then goes to the next one.

Writing

c = Compose new message
r = Reply to message
a = Reply to all
f = Forward a message
Tab then Enter - Sends composed message
Control + s - Saves a draft

Gmail Keyboard Shortcuts
One page print view [PDF]

[Editor's Note: While this method of filtering still works for integrating Boxbe and Gmail together, we've improved the process. Take a look at this post for further instructions.]
Updated: Friday, May 11, 2007

In previous posts, I’ve mentioned that Boxbe is here to enhance your email, not replace it.

Boxbe can optimize your Gmail account to receive the messages you truly want to receive.

Assuming you have already added your Gmail ‘contacts’ and verified your Gmail account, here’s how to use Boxbe to screen email arriving in your Gmail account.

(more…)

Here are a few productivity tips from the web to help you be more productive this week.

Speed up Mail.app (Mac OS X)
Hawk Wings describes a quick trick to slim down Mail.app’s SQLite database and getting a snappier email client as a result.

Send Gmail to your cell phone
Ben Murphy describes a great way to send email selectively to any cell phone (hopefully, your own). Not quite a Blackberry, but great for getting important messages on the go. [via Lifehacker]

Turn Gmail into your personal nerve center
Does anyone just use it for email anymore? Steve Rubel over at Micro Persuasion documents 5 ways to make Gmail the center of your productivity universe including:

1. How to turn Gmail into a massive personal database
2. How to get real-time news updates in Gmail (Gmail+ Google Talk + Twitter)
3. How to automatically store your bookmarks in Gmail (Gmail + del.icio.us + Yahoo Alerts)
4. How to manage Calendar and To-Dos in Gmail (Gmail + Backpack + GCal + GTalk + iMified)
5. How to blog from Gmail (Gmail + Wordpress/TypePad/Blogger + IMified)

Hope you had a great weekend. Now, get back to work! :-)

As you might imagine, we think about email a lot here at Boxbe. Email consumes a lot of everyone’s time, so there are always ways to get more efficient at getting through it. We’ll be sharing our favorite email tips on the blog from time to time. This first set is from the top notch productivity blog, Lifehacker.

• Backing up Gmail with Thunderbird
  
• How to set up a smart Out-of-Office auto-reply with Gmail
• 8 killer Thunderbird plug-ins
• Outlook Tip: Send an email without touching the mouse
• Mailredirect - Thunderbird plugin

Now, if you’re reading this, chances are that you wanted a Gmail account, you already have one. But just in case your grandparents, children or your cat doesn’t have an address at Gmail yet, Google finally dropped the invite-only system and opened Gmail to anyone interested.

With its 2.8 gigabytes of space, full keyboard interface, and POP access, we’re big fans of Google’s free Gmail service. Google opening up the service to the world is a monumental occasion for the Mountain View company.

Googlers were none to shy to let us know how they feel about the launch. “We have already made e-mail better for everyone in the world,” Google’s Coleman boasted.”

I can’t say I disagree.

Gmail

Read
[via Lifehacker]