J'aime's Must Use Email Lab Features

Post date: Oct 18, 2011 8:53:03 PM

Labs are settings that you can change in your Google Apps for Education account to personalize your experience.

Email, Calendar, and Documents all have Settings that can be modified.

You will find the link to your Settings in the top right corner of your Google window:

*The beaker icon indicates that I have Labs turned on right now*

Once you have gone to the Settings area, locate the "Labs" tab:

Once in Labs you will see the disclaimer for using these settings:

All of the Labs are listed in alphabetical order. Once they have been enabled, they will move to the top of the list for easy management.

Here are the Labs that I recommend, but please feel free to check out all of the available options.

  • Do you prefer to have your composed email text to be larger or italics? Here is where you can enable that Lab.
  • Once saved, you will need to go back to your Settings, under the General tab to set your preferences for the text formatting.
  • Do you want to be able to insert images directly into an email, rather than attach it as a separate file?
  • Can't see that attachment icon because it is on the right side of your email list? Move it to the left where you will easily see if there is an attachment.
  • Like to use subfolders? Turn on Nested Labels to create the same effect. You will create the "master" label and then create nested labels by naming it "master label/nested label" to create a label that is nested under the master label.
  • If you have set up an automatic signature (under the Settings>General tab), you will notice that the default is to have your signature appear at the very bottom of the conversation. To move your automatic signature to the top, where you will compose your email, turn on Signature Tweaks.
  • If had an "oops" when sending an email to the wrong person? Turn on Undo Send to give yourself a few more seconds to be sure the email is going to the intended recipient.
  • Once saved, you will need to go back to your Settings, under the General tab to set your preferences the amount of time you want before the email is sent.

Once you have enabled your selected Labs, you MUST save your changes!