Deb Norton Tech

Gmail is a huge part of our professional and personal lives. Here are some new updates for Gmail that will make this service even better! #1 Write Now, Send Later with Schedule send in Gmail You can now (or will be able to soon) schedule your emails in Gmail to be sent at a later date and time.  This feature will be available on Android, iOS and Gmail on the web. #2 Smart Compose is getting smarter! The smart compose  feature, which is powered by machine learning, will offer suggestions as you type. Soon,  it will personalize suggestions for you, so if you prefer saying “Ahoy," or “Ello, mate” in your greetings, Smart Compose will suggest just that. It can also suggest a subject line based on the email you’ve written, so if you are notorious for not including a subject line, now you have no excuses.  #3 Customizable Swipe Actions for the Gmail IOS App. To help you get things done even more quickly, with the newest update you will be abl...

Google is Treating us with a Few Time-Saving Tricks  Here are a few updates from Google that can make your work more efficient and save you some time. #1 - New Shortcuts Google recently added shorter time-saving tricks to create docs, forms, sheets, sites and slides. Simply go to your URL (omni box) and type in one of these urls: Docs:  doc.new, docs.new, document.new Forms:  form.new, forms.new Sheets:  sheet.new, sheets.new, spreadsheet.new Sites:  site.new, sites.new, website.new Slides:  slides.new, deck.new, presentation.new #2 - Whose Viewing My Google Docs? The activity dashboard in Google Docs, Sheets and Slides is getting a new look (interface). If you haven't used the activity dashboard yet, it is a way to check to see who has viewed a file and when they viewed it. To view the activity dashboard, open a file and click on Tools and then on Activity Dashboard. The new look will make it easier to find data and to collabo...

Google Sheets has some new updates and great features Google sheets can be used for many options beyond just collecting and displaying data. I have used Google sheets for displaying information such as this example . And it is also a great tool for creating rubrics like this one.   Here are some features that I've used in the above examples. 1.  Rotated Text  To rotate text, simply select the cell or cells you wish to rotate and click on the text rotation icon in the top tool bar. You can even choose the degree that you wish to rotate. 2.  More border styles You can now choose from several new border styles including thicknesses and double borders. Simply choose the cell or cells you want to add borders to and click on the borders icon. 3.  Link to cells and cell ranges This feature makes it possible to move around a spreadsheet by linking to cells or a cell range. This would be helpful also to make a...

Here is the scoop on two new updates: #1 Chrome Browser Update Have you noticed a new look to the Chrome browser when you open a new tab?  Have you noticed a new Apps bookmark in your Chrome browser?  These are part of a new update.  When you open a new tab, things will now look a bit different. You can read about this new update on the PC World website .   Not sure why you haven't received the update yet?  Apparently the update was stopped shortly after it was released.  You can read more about this on the OMGChrome website . #2 Search on the new IOS7 Last week I wanted to search my iPad for an app.  So I swiped to the left and to my horror the search screen did not come up!  I briefly went into a panic mode, but quickly recovered knowing that this was most likely a part of the ios7 update.  So I did what anyone with a question would do.  I Googled it! Tech Crunch had the answer to my question.  Just sw...

URL: http://sagestone.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/changes_ahead.jpg One of the things I embrace with technology is the fact that it is ever changing.  Within the past few months three of the sites that I use frequently have had updates. #1 Evernote - This is one of my favorite apps / web sites for personal organization.  Read about the newest enhancements here . The biggest change is in sharing and permission options.  Read my past blogpost about Evernote here . #2 Kidblog - In my opinion, the best blogging platform for classrooms on the Internet.  Kidblog has made some major changes and I'm loving what I see.  Read about the 14 newest features by clicking here .  Some of my favorites are the Private Comments feature, the new Navigation Bar, and the Blogroll Widget. #3 Prezi - I had heard about Prezi's updates when I read this post just last week.  The 3D Background sounded neat.  Then I was reading Kevin Hodgson's fantastic blog,...