One new Google tool and a change to Google Drive

By Randy Hollowell, information technology services

Soon Miami will have access to a new tool within our Google Apps for Education account. Google has also made a change to the way Google Drive reacts to file uploads. Both of these items are discussed in more detail below.

Inbox by Gmail

According to Google, Inbox by Gmail is: “A better way to keep track of events, newsletters and links.” Soon, Miami users will also be able to take advantage of what this tool has to offer. With the new Inbox you will experience streamlined events, glanceable newsletters, and saved links.

For calendar events, Inbox will gather emails for a single event and will show you what has changed at a glance. Inbox also makes it easier to preview email newsletter content and allow you to click through to the articles that you are most interested in, and will then minimize the newsletter to save space.

The new “Save to Inbox” feature allows you to easily save links for viewing later. So whether it is a recipe you want to try or an online article you want to read later, they are all waiting for you in one place.

Inbox will be available within the Miami domain on Oct.1. For more information about how Inbox can help you, visit the Inbox by Gmail website.

 Change to Google Drive

Does this sound like something you do? Download a file from your Drive, make changes to it, and then re-upload the new version. The way Drive used to work was to create duplicate files (the original and the new one), then you might have trouble finding the latest version.

So, Google has created a solution. They call it “deduplicating” the files. In other words, when you upload files that have the same file name as an existing file, they’ll be deduplicated, and the old file will be in revision history. A detailed explanation of this change can be found in the google article: Improving the deduplication flow when uploading to Google Drive.

Note: This change is scheduled for Miami users sometime after Sept. 20.

Reminder: Miami Directory Chrome extension

The directory that is internal to Miami’s Google Mail system only shows the name and email address of an individual, thus making it difficult to differentiate between two users with the same name.  This extension allows you to search for a Miami employee or student by: 

• first name
• last name
• UniqueID
• organization

The directory extension shows additional information for each person, including department, classification, job title, email address, department phone number and UniqueID to help you confirm that you have the correct email address for a person.

To add the extension to your Chrome browser, go to the Chrome Web Store and choose the "For MiamiOH.edu" section. There you should see the Miami University Directory Search extension.

Once the extension is deployed, a red “block M” appears on the Chrome toolbar.  Users can search using the extension any time Chrome is open, but it is especially useful while in a new message compose window within Mail.  You can also click an address link in the extension to open a new compose window addressed to the selected user.