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

NOTE: Boxbe is discontinuing support for removing Boxbe for Gmail in this way. Please follow the directions at the bottom of this post to remove Boxbe for Gmail.

Edited February 4, 2008

Recently, we’ve had a little bug that made it difficult to remove Boxbe protection from Gmail accounts. The bug has been fixed, but I thought this might be a good opportunity to tell everyone how to disable Boxbe for your email account (particularly Gmail). We know some people may want to discontinue service after trying it and we’ve made it easy to enable and disable accounts.

How it works

We’ve added a filter to Gmail to selectively forward email to Boxbe and send email from senders on your Guest List back to Gmail. You can turn this on and off on the site by going to the Boxbe Dashboard and click “Disable” next to the email address you want to disable (this works with the other addresses, too).

Next, you’ll be taken to a screen that you’ll have to enter in your Gmail password.

If for some reason, that doesn’t work, click through to the next page to get the details on how to turn Boxbe for Gmail off in Gmail.

To turn off Boxbe for Gmail manually, follow these steps.

First, go to your settings from within Gmail.

Second, once inside your Gmail Settings, click “Filters.”

Finally, find the Boxbe filter (this will be the one that says “Do this: Forward to username@boxbe.com, Skip Inbox, Delete it”

Once you’ve removed the filter, Boxbe won’t be protecting your Gmail account anymore.

You can always re-enable the account on your Boxbe Dashboard.

We’ve gotten a few questions about adding domains to your Guest List and thought having a how to blog post might answer other questions folks may have.

Domain names

A domain name is the bit after the “@” in your email address. For example, in the email address, randy@boxbe.com, boxbe.com is the domain name.

Adding a domain name can make it easy for groups of people (like co-workers) to email you without getting an email invitation back.

Other examples might include emails you get from a company who’s emails you might always want to receive. I buy a lot of goods from Amazon.com and also have an affiliate account, so I have the Amazon.com domain approved.

How to add domains to your Guest List

It’s easy to add a domain name to your Guest List. Adding a domain name is just like adding a regular email address. From your Approved Guest List, just type in a the domain name you would like to approve and click “Add.”

Alternatively, you can list domains when you import a larger list of contacts on the import contacts 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.

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.

Ok, I admit it. We love the Google around Boxbe HQ. Here’s our latest collection of Gmail tips from around the web. Sit back, relax and let the knowledge flow in.

Hack Attack: Back up your Google Apps data – Lifehacker
The power outage that took out a lot of our favorite sites on Tuesday (Craigslist, Netflix, Vox, LiveJournal and others), serves as a little reminder to all of us that putting all of our data in the cloud doesn’t preclude you from backing up those files. While Google wasn’t one of the sites that went down, there are a number of reasons to have backups of your most important work.

How do I create a mail merge in Gmail? – Ask MetaFilter
The Ask Metafilter gang pile on the answers to mailing a lot of people in Gmail.

Hack Attack: Become a Gmail master – Lifehacker
Lifehacker writer Adam Pash has put together a nice hefty post (with video) to take you from n00b to l33t Gmail user. He covers labels, filters, keyboard shortcuts and a lot more.

Top Ten Gmail Tweaks – Trendplex
Steven Price over on Trendplex goes crazy with Greasemonkey and Firefox. The post details out his favorite tweaks to Gmail including macros, colors, Gcal and more.

If you need help with email etiquette, we don’t recommend using Stephen Colbert’s techniques. His guest in the clip below, Will Schwalbe, author of “Send: The Essential Guide to Email for Office and Home,” on the other hand, could probably help you quite a bit.

Will Schwalbe has quite a bit more email etiquette advice on his blog, Think Before You Send including “Warming Cold Emails,” “Cautionary Tale About Threatening Emails” and his list of “Possibly Obnoxious Phrases.”

It’s no secret that we love the Lifehacker blog (and lifehacking in general) here at Boxbe. We love all the efficiency it brings our lives and the general philosophy that things can always be better. Gmail tips, getting rid of junk snail mail, unix hacking, plugins to improve our experience on popular web sites, what’s not to love?

Who is Gina Trapani?

Well, the blog doesn’t just write and edit itself, folks. And we think that Gina Trapani, Lifehacker’s founding Editor and efficiency wünderkind, is the bee’s knees. Being Editor of Lifehacker, one of the most popular blogs on the internet, Gina doesn’t just sit around waiting for her blogger minions to write up posts so she can nitpick vocabulary and spelling, Gina normally writes about 6 posts a day and two weekly features. Many of those posts are tips emailed in from readers.

Besides being a brave soul who actually has an email address on her personal blog, Lifehacker has a public email address on every single page to their tips hotline.

I can only imagine how much spam and unwanted email she must receive. Given all the help Gina has given us, we’d like the opportunity to return the favor.

How to use Boxbe

One way Gina could use Boxbe would be to make all of the people submitting their tips to Lifehacker prove that they are human with our simple captcha test. Better yet, to prevent marketers from over running her inbox with pitches, she could simply set her contact price to $.10. That way, she could quickly weed out everyone who wasn’t serious about getting her attention by collecting a dime from every submitter who was marketing to her. She’s not going to get rich off of this, but it does raise the bar to reach Gina.

Her posts show that Gina Trapani is a power user of Google’s Gmail. Arguably, she might know Gmail better than anyone. She’s even created a plugin to make it better. We’ve added our own improvements to Gmail by integrating Boxbe into the service. The process is free and easy and can dramatically improve the quality of email that you receive in Gmail.

Boxbe does this by reducing your inbox to only the email that you want to read and leaving the rest in our quarantine. In practice, we accomplish this by allowing emails from people who are pre-approved in your white list, that take a test to prove they are human or pay a fee.

But Gmail has a spam filter…

Despite Gmail’s wonderful spam filter, unwanted emails and spam do slip through. We’re firm believers that filter based solutions to stop spam simply won’t work in the long run. Ultimately, the war on spam is an arms race and the good guys are losing. Market based solutions like ours are really the only long term solution getting rid of unwanted email and spam.

While you might not be a famous blogger, I bet you do have a problem with spam. Just like Gina and the crew at Lifehacker, we’re here to help.

photo from Flickr user rcrowley

Shortcuts for Special Gmail Labels
Over at the Google Operating System blog, Ionut Alex Chitu details how to use Gmail’s labeling system’s undocumented shortcuts. “In Gmail every built-in view (e.g.: inbox, trash, read mail) is actually a label. So if you want to view all the unread messages from the inbox, you could search for: label:inbox label:unread.” [via Lifehacker]

Rich HTML email signatures straight from Gmail
Derek Punsalan shows how to get rich text into Gmail signatures. While it does require Firefox and the Better Gmail extension, we know you’re already using those anyway.

Add Outlook to your Google homepage
Our friends at Lifehacker show off how to get your Outlook mail to show up on your iGoogle personalized home page. This gadget does require you to use Windows XP and IE (or a slightly hacked version of Firefox). Very cool indeed.

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…)

Do you get too much (snail) mail? I do. If you would like to receive less mail, I’ve collected a few ways that can help you decrease the amount of postal mail you receive.

Unsolicited Mail

The Direct Marketing Association of America has set up a service that for $1, they will add your name and address to their “Mail Preference Service.” What does your $1 get you? The site claims that it “will substantially decrease the amount of national advertising mail you receive,” but “not all commercial mail will stop.” It does take a 30-90 days for this service to become effective, but it sounds like a good way to cut back on marketing messages being delivered to your home.

Catalogs

If you’re like me, you receive a number of catalogs in the mail every month. If you have conducted business with any of the catalogs you receive, the above DMA Mail Preference Service may not decrease the number of catalogs you receive.

To remove yourself from catalog mail lists, you’ll probably have to call the catalog company directly, as through my research, their doesn’t seem to be any quick, free way to do this online. To speed the process along, make sure that you have your customer number with you. Customer numbers are near the mailing address on the front or back of the catalog.

Services

I’ve found two services (41 Pounds and Green Dimes) that claim to do all the work for you. I’ve not used them, but using a service might be easier than what I’ve suggested.

Last, here are a couple links with more detailed information about how to shut off specific kinds of postal mail you might not want.

• How to Get Less Junk Mail – CPSR
• Do-it-yourself – Stop junk mail, email and phone calls

I’ve used a few of these techniques personally so I’ll report back as I start to see results. I’m curious to hear if about any other tips you might have. If you have other tips, please share them below.

photo by Flickr user Casey Serin

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! :-)

Mike Gunderloy, over at Web Worker Daily, has some great tips for organizing your email. From figuring out your organizational style, cool tools to use, to setting up rules, this article will help you take email organization to the next level.

Read

As Thede described earlier, at it’s root, Boxbe is designed to protect your most valuable asset: your attention. While you might not think of your time as being valuable, imagine how you might spend your time rather than deleting unwanted email. The mind abounds with activities that are more fun and rewarding.

Sounds great, how does it work?

Nuts and bolts

Once you’ve joined Boxbe, you decide who can reach you by first uploading a list of pre-approved senders.

We’ve made it easy by integrating an email address import tool for your contacts from many different email providers and popular email applications.

When new people email you, depending on your preferences, they are sent a courtesy notice with the option of taking a test to prove that they are human or paying a fee to talk to you.

Non-humans (automated emails) won’t be able to reach you without paying a fee or being approved by you. When a sender takes a test or pays, you can approve them by simply clicking on the link in their message. Alternatively, you can visit your quarantine folder and approve them.

That’s it.

Boxbe sends you a periodic update telling you about the messages in your quarantine, so you’ll know if there is any email that you are missing. In addition, you can review your quarantine to approve new senders at any time.