Google Calendar update for Android app

Google Apps

There is good news in store if you’re an Android user who relies on the scheduling power of Google Calendar to keep your life in order. A recent update has brought significant improvements to the user experience of the Android version of the Google Calendar app, meaning you can now further reap the organizational and productivity benefits of Google’s suite of cloud apps, while not compromising on the comfort of using your favorite device.

Google Drive integration

Making for an even more seamless experience using the whole suite of Google apps, Calendar is now more integrated than ever with cloud storage solution Google Drive. Whether it’s a meeting agenda or a hotel booking confirmation, you can now attach files from your Google Drive account directly to a Calendar event. No more emailing files around, only to have to resend them a week later to those who have mislaid them – Calendar even makes sure that all your event invitees can open the files you attach.

A week at a glance

When using Google Calendar on the web, we take it for granted that we can flick between a daily view of our schedule, a look at the work week, the full seven days or even a month at a time. But on Android devices, these have been features missing for too long – at least until now. The app previously supported a monthly view before it was axed; now the seven-day week view returns to allow you to get instant perspective on what’s on the horizon. Couple this with a new pinch-and-zoom capability that allows you to focus in on specific appointments – albeit that this feature frustratingly is only supported in the seven-day view – and it makes for a more efficient and rewarding calendar experience.

Link up with Google+

Take-up of Google’s attempt at a social network has admittedly been lower than some expected but, if you’re one of those who has jumped on the Google+ bandwagon, new integration between it and Calendar means you can quickly and easily import all your friends’ birthdays from your Google+ account. This saves you manually entering them into your diary and, with the option to receive timely reminders by SMS and email, you’ll never miss your colleagues’ special days again.

If you haven’t yet upgraded your Google Calendar for Android app, now’s the time – the latest version is available in the Google Play store. To learn more about deploying Calendar and other cloud-powered Google Apps to transform your company’s organization and productivity, give us a call.

Published with permission from TechAdvisory.org. Source.

How to pin tabs with Chrome

Google Apps

There is a good chance that when you work in your browser, you usually have a number of tabs constantly open in the same window. For example, you may have Gmail open, Google Drive, etc. If you close the window, you will no doubt need to open the tabs again and again, which can be frustrating. To make browser use easier, Chrome has created the Pin Tab feature.

What is Chrome’s Pin Tab feature

When using Chrome’s tabs, you will notice that tabs open from left to right. When you browse the Internet, you likely open the most used or important sites first, which means they will open to the left. The problem with this is we often have so many tabs open that it can be tricky to find or quickly navigate to the tabbed sites we use the most.

One way to solve this problem is by pinning these to the tab bar. When you do this, the tab will be pinned to the left-hand side and made smaller. This makes it easier to find your important tabs and keep these sites and tabs more organized.

How do I pin tabs?

If you would like to pin tabs:

  1. Open the site you would like to pin in a new tab.
  2. Right-click on the tab.
  3. Select Pin Tab.

This will shorten the tab to just the site’s icon and move it to the far left of the tab bar. Pinning other tabs will also move them to the left, beside the other pinned tabs. Any new tabs will be opened to the right of pinned tabs.

It is important to note here that because the pinned tabs are smaller any live tabs, such as Gmail’s unread message counter, or Facebook’s chat reminder, will no longer be updated. For most tabs this is not an issue, but for tabs like Gmail you will have to physically click on the tab to check if you have any new emails.

How do I unpin or move tabs?

You can unpin tabs by right-clicking on the pinned tab and selecting Unpin Tab. You can also move the order of pinned tabs by clicking and holding on the pinned tab you would like to move and moving it left or right. As you do so, you will notice other tabs change order.

If you would like to close the pinned tab, either unpin it first and then press the X at the right-hand side of the tab, or right-click on the tab and select Close Tab.

Looking to learn more about using Chrome? Contact us today and we can show you how to enhance your business functions.

Published with permission from TechAdvisory.org. Source.

Use Google Chrome as Your Default PDF Viewer

Many users download Adobe Acrobat Reader to open PDF Documents, but it can be slow to start up and load a file. However, you can use Chrome as your default PDF viewer. It’s really fast and unlike other free PDF viewers it’s a breeze to set up and use. Simply open Google Chrome and type chrome://plugins in the address field. Make sure “Chrome PDF Viewer” is enabled in the list of plugins. Next, right-click on any PDF file and choose “Open With” and navigate to the “Choose Program” link. Select Google Chrome in the list of applications provided, making sure to check the “Always use the selected program to open this kind of file” checkbox. Finally, click on Open. The next time you open a PDF document it will open in Google Chrome.

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