That Online Stuff

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How to convert Google Docs to Microsoft Word

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I’m a huge fan of Google’s online suite of office software which includes document processing, spreadsheets, and presentation software and use it for everything I create.

However, sometimes I work with people who don’t want to use Google’s office software products or can’t use them because of work restrictions.

In most cases, they are using Microsoft Office instead, so I need to change my Google Docs document to a Microsoft Word document.

Luckily it is quite easy to do this – both on the Google Docs website and via the Google mobile app

Using the Google Docs website to convert a document

  1. Go to docs.google.com and sign into your Google account (if not already signed in)
  2. Open the document you wish to convert
  3. Click on File
  4. Click on Download As and select Microsoft Word.

The Google Docs document will be automatically downloaded to your computer as a .docx file, which can then be opened in Microsoft Word.

Using the Google Docs mobile app to convert a document

  1. Open the Google Docs mobile app.
  2. Tap on the document you wish to convert
  3. Tap on the menu (3 vertical dots on the top right)
  4. Tap on Share & export
  5. Tap on Save as…
  6. Tap on Ok (Microsoft Word is selected as the default export option).

The document will be saved in Drive as a .docx file which can be emailed to someone else or downloaded for use in Microsoft Word.

Shortcut to creating Microsoft Word documents from mobile app

The mobile app also provides a couple of shortcuts to create Microsoft Word documents if you find you need to create them often.

First shortcut

Rather than opening the document, simply tap on the menu (3 vertical dots on the bottom right of the card)

Then, tap on Save as Word (.docx)

You’ll now have a Word compatible version of your document in Google Drive that can be emailed to someone else or downloaded for use in Microsoft Word.

Second shortcut

This shortcut allows you to actually create Word documents within Google Drive, rather than converting them from a Google Docs document.

  1. Open the Docs mobile app
  2. From the menu tap on Settings
  3. Tap on the slider next to Create Word files

Now, when you tap on the Create button in the Google Docs mobile app you’ll be given the option to create either a New Word file or a new Docs file.

What about if someone sends you a Microsoft Word document?

One of the reasons I like Google Docs so much is how smart it is – if someone sends me a Microsoft Word document which I want to view or even edit, then I simply open the document in Google Docs.

No need to fuss around with converting the document to Google Docs first!

What about my Google Drive storage? Do Microsoft Word documents affect that?

Good question! The short answer is a resounding YES.

Like all non-Google office software products, storing Microsoft Word documents in your Google Drive account will take up storage space.

Want to spend less time learning about technology and more time on your small business? Get in touch to see how I can help with tailored coaching and software installation.

(Photo by rawpixel.com on Unsplash)

6 Ways to Use Google Photos in your business

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Have you heard of the cloud-based photo storage service provided by Google – called not surprisingly Google Photos?

If you have, then you may be thinking it is only useful for storing personal photos? Or that only more photogenic businesses like restaurants, real estate agents or photographers could make use of its features?

In this article, I’ll show you 6 ways I, a business coach who works from home (and is decidedly non-photogenic), use Google Photos in a professional sense. Maybe you’ll get some ideas for your own business?

One: Save copies of all the images you use on your website / social media

I save copies in Google Photos of all the images I use on my website / Twitter and Instagram feeds, both the original images as well as the edited versions.

Because Google Photos offers unlimited storage I can store as many images as I like there which not only provides me with a backup (see point 4) but also easy access to those images no matter where I am.

Having easy access to those images, providing I’m connected to the Internet, means I can work on them even when I’m away from my laptop.

By the way in case you’re wondering, I use Canva to create my website / Twitter images and Snapseed to create the Instagram version.

Two: Create albums that can be shared via a link

I have a number of screenshots illustrating common setups/steps that I use on a fairly regular basis when speaking with clients.

As I’ve created them over a period of time, they’re not always easy to find quickly especially if I want to add them to an email. Plus, they can be quite large in size making them less suitable for attaching directly to an email.

So, I’ve created a number of albums in Google Photos which contain the appropriate screenshots, and when I email a client with a process, I’ll attach the relevant album link.

I recommend they then create a browser bookmark to the album so they can easily access it, without having to search through their emails continuously.

Three: Create gifs (moving images) through the animation feature

I use the animation feature quite often to create short tutorials like this one, which I can then share on my website as part of a blog post or even send to a client via a Google Photos link:

When creating an animation it’s important to remember that the photos will be shown in date order with the oldest photo first. For best results, the images should all be the same layout (e.g all portrait or all landscape) and of a similar size.

Once created the animation will have the animation symbol in the top right so it can be differentiated from normal photos. Animations can be shared directly from Google Photos or downloaded as a .gif for sharing elsewhere.

Four: Backups and searching!

Ever since the hard disk drive debacle of January 2018 I’ve been fanatical about backups and as a result Google Photos with its unlimited storage has become my new best friend.

I have set the options within Google Photos to automatically backup every image including screenshots that I take on my phone and images that are sent to me via WhatsApp or other applications.

By uploading all these images to Google Photos I am not only creating backups in case my phone dies; but also creating a searchable archive of all my images – in Google Photos you can search by facial recognition; location; even a component of the photo like ‘sunset’. Extremely powerful stuff!

Five: Upload videos to YouTube.

One of the things I want to start doing this year is small video tutorials showcasing the things I talk about in my articles and adding those videos to my YouTube channel.

With Google Photos, I can take the video on my phone, have it sync automatically to Google Photos and then add it to my YouTube channel from there.

That does preclude any editing though, so these could be pretty raw videos!

Six: Create movies from images

Not interested in full-blown videos but would like a bit more oomph than a silent animation?

In these instances, Google Photos offers the option of creating ‘movies’ which have a soundtrack as well as a slideshow of the selected images. Google provides almost 60 soundtracks ranging from Dramatic to Upbeat, or you can choose to add music from your own music library. If you choose this option, be aware of potential copyright implications!

This option is only available from the Google Photos mobile app.

Below is the same tutorial that I created in number 3, but this time as a movie. It’s pretty obvious that it needs a few more than 3 images, but I think you get the picture.

Once created the movie will have a movie symbol in the top right so it can be differentiated from normal photos. Movies can be shared directly from Google Photos or downloaded as a .mp4 for sharing or playing `elsewhere.

So, there you have it – 6 ways I use Google Photos in my solo, non-photogenic home based business. Why not give Google Photos a go in your own business?

If you’d like to get these articles sent to you weekly sign up for my newsletter here. Or contact me if you’d like to discuss using Google technology in your business.

What is Google Drive and why use it in your business?

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Google Drive is a cloud storage service offered by Google and you want to use it in your business because it provides a number of very useful tools.

First though – what is cloud storage?

Essentially when you store documents in the ‘cloud’ you’re storing them in a location external to your own laptop or desktop. It can be a server that you own and access remotely or a server that is owned and maintained by another company, like Google, Dropbox or Apple who then rent space to you.

Another way to think of cloud storage is like a remote version of your laptop – the files and folders you have on your laptop are now available no matter where you are in the world, without having to lug your laptop around with you the whole time.

As already mentioned there are many different companies offering cloud storage, but today I’m talking about Google and Google Drive.

Google Drive in a nutshell

Google offers a free cloud storage option which gives you 15GB of storage space.

After that you can pay a monthly fee to have a larger amount of storage space – starting at $2.49/month for 100GB; all the way up to $374.99/month for 30TB – but for most micro business owners /solopreneurs 15GB is enough to get started.

You will need a Google Account and Internet access to synchronise and upload the files.

To access Google Drive simply go to https://drive.google.com

What can you store in Google Drive?

Within Google Drive you can store images, videos, music files and multiple types of documents like PDFs, word documents, spreadsheets or presentations.

You can then access those files via an app on your Android phone, your iOS phone or the web interface as long as that device is connected to the Internet. And because Google Drive is accessed via the Internet you can log into any device with your Google Account and get immediate access to all your files.

Google Drive also syncs automatically, across all your devices, when connected to the Internet. So you can upload a file from your phone to Google Drive and access it from your laptop within seconds.

You can also use the Backup and Sync application offered by Google to drag files and folders when offline, into a folder that will be synchronised when you do go online.

Why use Google Drive in your business?

Essentially Google Drive is a great way to backup your documents – and after my incident earlier this year with external hard disk drives, I am all about the importance of keeping backups!

As I mentioned in that article, one of the three methods of backing up documents is to have them stored offsite and Google Drive offers that in a very easy, cost effective way.

Also, because Google Drive can be accessed via the Internet it is a great way to store documents that you wish to access no matter where you are, even if you don’t have your usual laptop/desktop with you. It’s also a great way to share files with people as you can give different people different levels of access.

Example 1 – away from the office:
Picture this – you’re taking a well-deserved break in Melbourne’s Yarra Valley when you get an urgent call from a client. They absolutely, positively must have that proposal sent to them today. Which is great news, but because your plans for today didn’t include working you don’t have your laptop with you. However you do have your phone with you so you open the Google Drive app on the phone, do a quick search for the document and email it to your client.

Example 2 – tax time:
Is it just me, or is it always a pain to get all your tax documentation to your accountant? There’s always something that I forget to send them, or that they need clarification on. Well, it was a pain until I started using Google Drive to store all my receipts and tax documentation in a folder that I then share with my accountant at tax time. They can access the documents, download them and print them off (even without a Google Account) and I’ve saved myself having to email or even mail/courier all those documents to them.

If there’s a need to change a document or provide more information I just add the files to the shared folder and the accountant has immediate access to the new information.

Example 3 – collaborating with someone:

Alternatively, maybe you have a client, partner or virtual assistant who needs to edit documentation for you or needs to comment on a presentation that you’re preparing. Simply upload the files to Google Drive and allow that person to have edit rights on the document(s) – as long as they have a Google Account they can then edit the documents with all changes and comments tracked for you to see later.

And that basically is Google Drive

A way of storing documents, images, music, and video away from your own physical computer in an always accessible server that you personally don’t have to maintain and that allows you to share documents quickly with different people at different times.

There’s also an office software suite included in Google Drive – word processing; spreadsheet; survey forms; and presentations – but we’ll talk more about those in later articles.

Got more questions about Google Drive or using Google’s office products in your business? Drop me a line and we’ll have a chat about how we can get you using technology to serve your business better.

Add your logo or social media icons to your Gmail signature block

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Original picture from Gratisography

Did you know that you can put up to 10,000 characters in your Gmail signature block? Whilst I certainly wouldn’t encourage creating a signature that long – have you ever thought of dressing up your Gmail signature block with an image?

Including your logo or social media icons in your Gmail signature block is a good way to help your business stand out when communicating with people via email. It also helps them find you in different places other than your website.

How to add your logo to Gmail

  1. Open Gmail
  2. Click on Gear icon > Settings
  3. Scroll down to the signature box
    • If you have more than one email address associated with the Gmail account then click on the drop-down arrow to select the correct email address
    • If you don’t already have a signature drafted, type in the requisite details – you know:

Kind Regards,
Priya Chandra etc.

  1. Click on the ‘Insert Image’ icon in the signature toolbar and either
    • select an image from your Google Drive;
    • upload an image from your computer; or
    • paste an image URL
  2. Scroll to the bottom and Save
  3. Click on Compose to see what the signature looks like. If you need to change anything simply scroll back up to the signature block and make the changes

How to add your social media icons

Make sure you use the latest version of each icon and adhere to whatever rules there may be around using them – the most important of which is, do not alter the icons in any way!

You can find the most recent versions of the logos by searching for “brand platform name logo” and then downloading the image.

Then:

  1. Open Gmail
  2. Click on Gear icon > Settings
  3. Scroll down to the signature box
    • If you have more than one email address associated with the Gmail account then click on the drop-down arrow to select the correct email address
    • If you don’t already have a signature drafted, type in the requisite details – you know:

Kind Regards,
Priya Chandra etc.

  1. Click on the ‘Insert Image’ icon in the signature toolbar
  2. Click on the Upload tab and upload the image that you previously downloaded. Repeat as many times as you need.
  3. Scroll to the bottom and Save.
  4. Click on Compose to see what the signature looks like. If you need to change anything simply scroll back up to the signature block and make the changes

Make your images work for their dinner

But why stick with just adding your logo / social media icons? They should add value – like being linked to your website or social media platforms – not just look pretty in an email signature block.

To do this,

  1. return to the signature block
  2. highlight your logo or social media icon and click on the ‘Link’ icon in the signature toolbar
  3. Click on ‘Change’ in the pop-up option

  1. In the Edit Link screen that appears, put in your website address / Social media URL (e.g http://twitter.com/thatonlinestuff) then click Ok.

  1. Scroll to the bottom of the screen and Save.

Things to remember

Not everyone’s email client downloads images – so don’t rely solely on having the image display. Name the logo image something appropriate like “That Online Stuff logo” so even if it doesn’t download, the email recipient still knows what the image was meant to be.

Don’t overdo it – you might have 10,000 characters to play with but the email message is the important thing – making someone download screens of images is not cool.

Apart from that – have fun adding a bit of spice to your Gmail signature block with logos and social media platform links!

 

The Importance of Keeping Backups

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Original photo by Neil Thomas on Unsplash

It was a hot summer day but I felt frozen – the blood drained from my face and I couldn’t move. I’d just been told that our external hard disk drive which had been playing up was absolutely kaput. The data recovery company was prepared to have a go at recovering the data on there but it would cost $550.00 per repair attempt and there was no guarantee that any information would be recovered at all.

Are all our photos gone?

My husband and I looked at each other in horror; that hard disk drive had held all our photos including ones of my late mother-in-law’s final days with us. What should we do?

Andy suggested looking at home – had we put the photos onto another laptop; had we sent them to other people via email or a USB drive; were they backed up via Google Photos or Apple iCloud? In his experience, most people had the original source elsewhere and it just took a bit of looking to find them.

And that’s exactly what we did – we turned the house upside down looking for any previous storage options including DVDs; old laptops and USB sticks and to our great relief we found all the photos that had been on the failed drive, on one of the spare laptops. For the first time in hours, I was able to breathe properly.

This must never happen again

But what if that spare laptop failed in the future? I did not want us to ever be caught out like this again. We’d been lucky this time but it wasn’t guaranteed that would happen again. Time to follow the best practices for backing up files often called the “3-2-1” rule:

1. Keep at least three copies of your data.

That’s the original, source document as well as two copies of the same data.

2. Use two (different) storage types to backup data.

But don’t keep the copies on the same types of storage – for example, 3 different laptops. Instead, use a different storage type like an external hard drive or even DVDs. In our case, we copied the photos onto many, many DVDs and then put the DVDs into our safe.

3. At least one backup should be offsite.

Andy’s low-tech solution was to send another set of DVDs to a family member but I decided to use a cloud storage solution instead – namely Google Photos.

Google Photos has unlimited storage if you’re willing to have your uploaded photos compressed to 16MP. Since most photos taken by a phone are much lower than this, that’s not really a problem for most users. Plus, unlike Apple’s cloud storage option it can be accessed by both iOS (my husband) and Android (me) users.

If you’ve not heard of Google Photos before, then this video is a good overview of its capabilities:

But what about things other than photos?

We hadn’t just had photos on that hard disk drive – we’d had documents and music. Most of the documents were gone unfortunately but we still had our original CDs (thanks to a husband who hates to throw things out) so there was our first copy.

To create a 2nd copy of the CDs, we copied them all across to the same spare laptop containing our photos – from now on this would be our main entertainment laptop.

Then we purchased 1TB of storage from Google Drive and copied all the music from the laptop to Google Drive to create our 3rd, offsite copy.

And in the future?

Well, all the photos we take on our phones (copy 1) are backed up automatically to our own personal Google Photos accounts (offsite copy). Each week we download that week’s set of photos and add them to the entertainment laptop (3rd copy).

The same with any documents that we create – one copy is kept personally on our own laptops; one copy is kept on the entertainment laptop and one copy is kept offsite in Google Drive.

And music? Well, much of that is streamed of course now, but the small amount of music that we do purchase is downloaded to our personal laptop; the entertainment laptop; and then copied to Google Docs.

How about you? It’s not just personal data that could be lost – do you have a backup plan in your business?

 

 

Using Google Keep to keep a gratitude journal

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Welcome to a new year – I swear I still don’t know where 2017 went but hey I’m game to give 2018 a go!

Today’s post isn’t really #techmadesimple in a business sense, but it is designed to help you and your business through the use of a gratitude journal.

But why a gratitude journal?

Well, essentially it is all too easy (especially as a solopreneur) to focus on the bad / negative stuff in our lives and to obsess over those things – why didn’t I do this; I should have done that; how come I can’t… etc, etc.

However life isn’t all bad, all the time, and a gratitude journal forces us (in a good way!) to pay attention to the good things that we might otherwise take for granted or even just forget about.

In fact numerous studies show that keeping a gratitude journal can help in multiple ways including better sleep; better health; improved optimism about the future and generally experiencing more happiness in one’s life.

Personally, I’ve been trying to keep a gratitude journal on and off for many years – in fact last night I found one which I started in 2015. The entries started in January and finished in March so this year I’m determined to do things differently and Google Keep seems to me to be the best way to do that.

How to keep a gratitude journal?

There really is no wrong way to keep a gratitude journal apart from: capture the thought!

The benefits come from getting your thoughts out of your head and into physical form. For most people, this means either typing something up at the end of the day or writing events and activities in a physical notebook – and there are some gorgeous apps  as well as notebooks out there to help with this.

However as I said earlier, this year I’m trying something different and using Google Keep as my gratitude journal rather than a notebook. Since Google Keep is with me all the time it is really easy to:

  • take a photo of something that made me feel grateful – like my cat resting on my arm as I was working (the photo at the top of this post)
  • dictate a note that reminds me about the delicious breakfast I had today courtesy of my husband
  • draw a quick doodle representing the sunrise I got to see this morning

Then I label the note with #gratitude and at the end of the day send all #gratitude notes to Google Doc as one document recording my grateful thoughts for the day.

Once I’ve uploaded the notes I go into Google Docs to rename the document to today’s date and then delete the notes from Google Keep but that’s just me. Feel free to keep them in Google Keep if you want easy access to them in the future.

But does one have to be Pollyanna to do this?

No! I am definitely not Pollyanna and some days trying to find positive things for which I can be ‘grateful’ is just too much. In fact, sometimes I am simply grateful for tiny wins (‘got out of bed today) or the negative outcomes I avoided (‘did not eat the entire family sized block of chocolate’)!

So please don’t feel you have to be sunny-side every day – that’s unrealistic and not the purpose of this exercise (as I understand it). Instead just spend a couple of minutes every day focussing on, and recording, the good / not so bad in your day and see what happens.

So what do you think? Will you be likely to create your gratitude journal via Google Keep in the future? I’d love to hear how you go with both the journal and Google Keep! And if you’re looking for more tips on using Google Keep, check out my book!

How to create an email template in Inbox by Gmail

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Photo by La Compagnie Robinson on Unsplash

Last week I wrote about how to create templates (or canned responses) in Gmail. This week it’s the turn of templates in Inbox by Gmail.

Firstly it’s important to note that like Canned Responses, templates are only available via the desktop website. I highly recommend submitting feedback to the Inbox project team if you’d like to see this feature added to the mobile app.

Unlike Canned Responses however, Templates are ‘baked into’ Inbox, so there’s no need to set this feature up or worry that it might be cancelled which is a bonus. Simply set up your templates and off you go, saving time and energy when responding to similar email queries.

One: Create the template

  • Click on the Red + button in the bottom right to create a new email.
  • Type in the body of the text that you wish to use in future. You can also put in a subject if you wish.
  • Click on the drop down arrow in the bottom of the email (to the right of the text editing icons).
  • Click on the Templates icon Template reply and then click on Make this draft a template.
  • You’ll be asked to enter a name for the new response and can make more edits now if you wish like bolding text or adding a bulleted list.
  • Click Create.
  • You can now discard the original message by clicking on the rubbish bin icon.
  • Repeat until you’ve finished creating all your templates.

Two: Use the template

Templates wouldn’t be much use if you couldn’t use them! To do this:

  • Open the email you wish to reply to – again this is only possible on the desktop, not the mobile app.
  • Click on Reply.
  • Click on the drop down arrow in the bottom of the email (to the right of the text editing icons).
  • Click on the Templates icon Template reply and then click on the template you wish to use.
  • Amend any information as necessary and then click on Send.

A bit more about templates

To delete a template:

  • Click the Menu bar in Inbox on the computer.
  • Scroll to the bottom of the screen and click on Settings and then Templates.
  • Hover your cursor over the template you want to delete and then click the rubbish bin to the right of the template’s name.

You can not only delete templates from the Settings screen but you can also create new ones:

  • Click the Menu bar in Inbox on the computer.
  • Scroll to the bottom of the screen and click on Settings and then Templates.
  • Click on Create a template and then fill in the title and body of the email.
  • Click on Create to finish the process.

To edit a template:

  • There’s currently no way to edit a template after saving it, but you can delete it and create a new one. You can also edit your message before sending it.

How Inbox template replies work with Gmail

If you have Canned Responses turned on in Gmail, your template replies are visible in both Inbox and Gmail. When you make a template in Inbox, it’ll show up in Gmail (and the other way around).

Want more information on using Inbox by Gmail in your sole trader or small business? Get in touch to discuss how I can help you spend less time working out how to use tech, and more time actually using it to make your business run better.

 

 

3 easy steps to creating canned responses in Gmail

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Are you sick of typing out the same reply every time someone emails you with a common question? As a Gmail user, there’s a very nifty little feature called ‘Canned responses’ which allows you to create templates, or pre-written emails for these exact situations.

One: Set up the Canned Responses feature

  • To set up the feature open gmail.com in a desktop browser window (you can only set this feature up on a desktop, not a mobile).
  • Then, click on the Gear icon in the top right and select ‘Settings’
  • Click on the ‘Labs’ tab and then scroll down and enable the ‘Canned Responses’ lab.
  • Scroll all the way down and click on ‘Save changes’.

Now you’re ready to start creating your templates!

Two: Create the template or canned response

  • Click on ‘Compose’ – again this has to be done via the desktop not the mobile app.
  • Type in the body of the text that you wish to use in future. You can also put in a subject if you wish.
  • Click on the drop down arrow in the bottom right of the email (next to the rubbish bin)
  • Select Canned Responses and then New canned response.
  • You’ll be asked to enter a name for the new response – if you’ve put in a subject this will be automatically used as the name but you can change this if you want.
  • Click on OK.
  • You can now discard this message by clicking on the rubbish bin icon.
  • Repeat until you’ve finished creating all your templates.

Three: Use the Canned Response

Canned responses wouldn’t be much use if you couldn’t use them! To do this:

  • Open the email you wish to reply to – again this is only possible on the desktop, not the mobile app.
  • Click on Reply.
  • Click on the drop down arrow in the bottom right of the email (next to the rubbish bin).
  • Select Canned Responses and then under the ‘Insert’ list click on the name of the response you wish to use.
  • Amend any information as necessary and then Send!

A bit more about Canned Responses

To delete a canned response:

  • Open a new email.
  • Click on the drop down arrow next to the rubbish bin
  • Under the ‘Delete’ heading click on the name of the response you want to remove.

To edit a canned response:

  • There’s currently no way to edit a canned response – you’ll need to delete the original canned response and then set up a new one with the changes in it.

Sadly, as already mentioned there’s no way to use Canned Responses via the mobile app. If this is something you’d like to see added, then I highly recommend submitting feedback to the Gmail project team.

Getting really tricky with Canned Responses

Want to forgo the hassle of manually selecting a canned response? If you want, you can set up a filter based on any combination of keywords, sender, recipients etc to grab a pre-set template and send it off for you.

I have done this in the past for sending tailored out of office responses – for example family and close friends get one message, whilst clients get another version. You could also use it for sending an automated response to contact queries, or perhaps to create an email with seasonal text (like a Christmas special) that you can then edit.

If you’ve got ideas of your own on how you use Canned Responses then please let me know in the comments below!

Warning!

Labs are in Google’s own words “a testing ground for experimental features that aren’t quite ready for prime time. They may change, break or disappear at any time.”

So, always keep a back up of your canned responses somewhere outside of Gmail, so you can access them should the Canned Responses lab feature be pulled. I personally use Google Keep for this kind of storage, but choose the system that works best for you.

Want more information on using Gmail in your sole trader or small business? Get in touch to discuss how I can help you spend less time working out how to use tech, and more time actually using it to make your business run better.