Googleツールのガイド：なしでは生きていけないヒントとコツ

Just because your Calendar is "in the cloud" doesn't mean that you can't get notifications on your desktop. In fact, that's exactly what you can do with Google Calendar, and all you have to do is enable it. Just go to Settings, Event settings, and selection the notifications type that you want.

Now you'll never forget another appointment because your computer will pop up a little note and play a gentle bell whenever you have a scheduled event about to start.

You will need to make sure to enable notifications whenever you set up a new event.

Trust me, this is one of the most effective ways to always be on time without having to depend on your faulty human memory.

The reminders appear right above the lower right part of your desktop (not blocking your workspace) and emit a gentle bell.

Google Calendar Mobile Client

You aren't always at your desk when you need to see your schedule. People check their schedule more when they're on the go than when they're home. So it's ultra-convenient to sync your Google Calendar with both iOS and Android.

When you can bring your calendar everywhere you go, and with the built-in notifications, you'll never forget another meeting again!

Gmail:A Communication Powerhouse

Who could cover Google's top tools without mentioning Google Gmail, one of the world's most popular email services? Gmail is used both privately and by businesses for communications. As of July 2017, Gmail boasts 1.2 billion users, and that user base continues to grow. Millions of businesses use Gmail as the platform for their email communications. We love Google so much here at MakeUseOf that we offer both a free beginner's guide, as well as a power user guide to the popular email service.

It doesn't get much more ubiquitous than that.

Googleタスク

One of the longest-running tools available with your Google account is Google Tasks. Tasks used to be an embedded feature in Gmail, but now you'll find it as part of your Gmail account. Tasks comes up as a pop-up window, or you can open it in its own window by clicking the slanted arrow in the upper right corner of the pop-up.

The beauty of Google Tasks is how much is packed into such a small space. Click that list icon, and up pops your sublists -- in other words, you can have a long list of lists to help you better organize every aspect of your life.

Best of all, they are all displayed in this little compact area inside your email account.

Canned Responses

One of the things that makes Gmail so productive for many people is the "Canned Response" feature. While you're composing any email, just click the dropdown arrow at the lower right part of the window, and choose Canned responses リストから。

There are three sections in the list:Insert , Save , and Delete 。 The insert section lets you paste the saved email template into your current composition window. Save and Delete are used to either save your currently composed email as a new template or to delete an existing template.

If you don't want to overwrite an existing template, you can create a new one by clicking the New canned response... リンク。

The convenience of this can't be understated, especially if you are a manager. Why retype entire emails when only about 5 to 10% of the content needs to change? Just save the template and fill in the areas that matter. This allows you to send people carefully written emails with all the information included, but still personalized for each individual person.

Google Calendar Integration

Of course, it wouldn't be Google if top services weren't integrated in some way. That's true for Gmail and Calendar, which can pass information back and forth. In the direction from Gmail to Calendar, you can click on the More button at the top of your email inbox to either add the current email as a new task, or in the form of a new event in your Calendar.

Adding an email as an event will put the email subject line as the event title, and the email itself into the event notes.

Adding an email as a task will use the subject line as the task, and then includes a link to the email underneath the task listing.

Of course, you can go in the other direction from Calendar to email by adding email notifications to specific events, as mentioned in the Google Calendar section. These integrations between Calendar and Gmail help you to be efficient with your time and tasks.

IFTTT Integrations

IFTTT is one of the most powerful tools for integrating hundreds of external applications and internet resources with your Gmail account.

The variety of Triggers that are available in IFTTT for your Gmail account are impressive, and include:

• Any time a new email arrives in your Inbox
• Any time a new email arrives that has an attachment
• When an email arrives from a specific email address
• When you star an email in your inbox
• When you send a new email
• When you give an email a specific label
• When an email arrives that matches a particular filter "search" you define

As you can see, the IFTTT triggers are very specific. What you can do with those emails is just as varied. You can do things like:

• Add the email subject and contents to a spreadsheet in your Google Drive account
• Resend the email to an RSS feed
• Post the email to a blog with the subject as the title and the contents as the post body
• Create an Evernote entry with the email contents
• Create a Facebook post based on the email contents
• Post a message to a channel in slack
• So much more...

It isn't only a trigger you can create using Gmail in IFTTT. You can also perform various actions with your Gmail using IFTTT. Depending on what trigger you choose, you can trigger various emails. For example, when you post to Facebook, you can use IFTTT to send an email to specific recipients containing the message and post details in the email.

You can trigger an email based on trending Time magazine stories so you can always stay on top of the latest news stories.

You can trigger an email when you post a Tweet containing a specific hashtag.

These are only a few examples of the many impressive things you can do by using IFTTT to integrate outside services with your Gmail account.

Gmail Mobile Apps

Of course, any good email service should offer a good mobile platform. Thankfully, Google offers great apps for both Android and iPhone.

The mobile app is about as simple and easy to use as any, but it also offers the ability to monitor and manage multiple email accounts, which is an absolute must for anyone who is active online, where multiple email accounts have become the norm. You can easily switch configured email accounts by tapping the top left corner of the screen and choosing the other email account.

The ability to answer emails on the go is an absolute necessity these days; going a day without responding to someone's email to you is just unacceptable.

Gmail Security

Since some of your most personal and private communications can go through the Gmail account, make sure that it's as secure as possible.

Verify critical Gmail Settings immediately to make sure you're as protected as possible. At the onset have at least one alternative email address configured, and at least one mobile phone number added. With these two things, you're guaranteed to never get locked out of your account, because Google can email or SMS your new password to you.

You set up your recovery phone number and email in the Settings section of your Google Account, under Sign-in and Security 。

You'll also notice in the Password &sign-in method section that there's a field for 2-Step Verification 。 If your status is "Off", you may want to consider enabling it for ultimate security.

How does 2-Step Verification work?

2-Step Verification goes beyond a simple password login. It requires that you type in a special code that is displayed on your phone. You can choose to have this happen every single time you log into your account, or only once whenever you sign into a new computer or mobile device.

2-step verification is more secure than just a password login, because even if hackers or anyone else happens to steal your account password, they won't be able to access your account unless they've also managed to steal your phone, which isn't very likely.

If email security is high on your priority list, read James' list of the latest email security threats every user should know about.

Making Use of Google Tools

Google Search, Drive, Keep, Calendar and Email make up the five Google tools with some of the highest user rates of all Google's offerings. So, it's easy to understand why Google would want to give you features that help people make the most of those tools. Even if you've used these tools and services for years, there are always new things to learn about them.

The tips and tricks offered in this guide are meant to help you make better use of these tools so that hopefully they'll save you some time and make you a bit more productive. After all, isn't that the whole point of using productivity tools?

Continue your exploration of Google tools by searching our site for the hundreds of guides and articles on the topic. You'll find articles and guides on working with Google Docs, organizing with Google Sheets, and so many more unique topics throughout the site.

Are there any other tips that you're aware of for any of the five main Google tools listed above? Share your own tips and tricks in the comments section below!