Boxbe Blog

Feature: Getting Things Done with labels and filters in Gmail 2.0 - Geek.com
Joel Evans over at Geek.com details how to use the new features of Gmail to implement the Getting Things Done (GTD) system with Gmail.

New URL features can make your e-mail productive again - Ars Technica
New linking feature in Mac OS X Mail and in Gmail documented by Ars Technica and John Gruber.

Easily Transfer Emails from Hotmail to Gmail Via Outlook Connector - Digital Inspiration Technology Guide
How to move your Hotmail email to Gmail via Outlook.

Gmail Tip: Import Messages into Gmail via IMAP - Dracoware
"Here’s a quick overview of how to get all of your old emails into Gmail as painlessly as possible (and one way that preserves dates!)."

image by Flickr user zenera

It’s been a while since we’ve posted any news about other places here on the blog, but that doesn’t mean we haven’t been watching. Here’s the latest and greatest from the world of email.

Happy 10th Birthday, Yahoo! Mail
We’ve had a great time working with the team down in Sunnyvale on the new Yahoo! Mail application and wish them the best on this momentous occasion. Congrats!

Yahoo Mail to block fake eBay and PayPal e-mail - CNET News.com
Good news for eBay and Paypal users, Yahoo! will be blocking spoofed emails from senders claiming to be Paypal and eBay. We have to applaud Yahoo! for taking steps to curb these phishing emails.

Mac e-mail showdown: Which program delivers? - Computerworld
Looking to switch email apps on the Mac? Or maybe coming from the PC world and wanted to know what your Mac options are? Computerworld takes a look at Mail.app, Thunderbird and Microsoft Entourage desktop mail applications for OSX.

Techies take on spam zombies -San Francisco Chronicle
“Computer scientists in Menlo Park are releasing a free diagnostic program today to help network administrators find PCs infected with an insidious new type of virus that has already tainted millions of computers.” Strangely, SFGate doesn’t link directly to the software page, but if you want to check it out, go to the BotHunter Free Internet Distribution Page.

Here’s a little tidbit I discovered recently while using Apple’s Mail.app.

One of the pain points for me for using Boxbe is keeping my list of contacts up to date. As an Apple Mail user, there is an easy way to do this. After you update your contacts, you can easily export them to Boxbe.

“Previous Recipients”

While it’s not exactly in the most obvious place, select Window > Previous Recipients.

This is a list of all the people you have ever sent email to in Mail.app. Sort the far left column to get a list of all the people who are not already in your Address Book.

Select the people you would like to add to your Address Book and click “Add to Address Book.” That’s it.

To import these addresses into Boxbe, select all of your addresses and click File > Export vCard. Despite sounding like you’ll only be saving one vCard, this will export all the Address Book entries you’ve selected into one file. You can import this file into Boxbe on your Add Senders page.

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m spending a lot of quality time working in Yahoo! Mail these days. While I’ve always used Yahoo! Mail as a primary account, I’ve generally used POP to retrieve email via OS X’s Mail application.

Much like Gmail, almost every command in Yahoo! Mail is accessible via keyboard shortcut. While these commands are readily available on Yahoo! Mail’s help site, I’ve created a one page printable version for your desktop convenience.

Print it

I’ve embedded a printable document with Scrib’d document embed application. You can view and print the document just by clicking below.

Friend of emailers everywhere, Merlin Mann has been an organizational hero of mine. Inbox Zero” is a concept Merlin pioneered (with a little help from GTD) and it is “an action based” strategy keeps your inbox free of all emails and creates a methodology for keeping your email centric life sane.

Sound good? Maybe a little scary? You can read more about Merlin’s system over on his blog, 43 Folders.

Embedded below is a talk Merlin did recently at Google talking about Inbox Zero. The video is about an hour, but is chock full of great advice. And, the title of this post will become more clear when you watch the video.

We haven’t had too many email tips of late, but the blogosphere has plenty to hand out. I’ve collected some of the best.

How to Use Gmail over IMAP - Download Squad
It’s a bit tricky, but nevertheless, David Chartier over at Download Squad has instructions on how to set up Gmail to work over IMAP. Now, you will need another IMAP account somewhere else to make this work, but hey, if you love IMAP and Gmail, these are two great tastes that taste… well, you know.

How to write a 5 sentence email - Guy Kawasaki
Now, you know we love Guy Kawasaki and all his great advice so when he talks about the ten things you should learn in school, we take note. Number nine in particular caught my eye (and Merlin Mann, too), which was “How to write a five-sentence email.”

One final geek tip for today.

Move Outlook email to Mail.app - MacOSXHints.com
Any switchers out there? I know I’ve had to move email from Outlook to the Mac in the past and let me tell you, it’s not easy. If you’re handy with the Terminal, this tip is for you.

photo by Flickr user Nrbelex

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! :-)