"Snooze" your emails (even if you are not using Gmail!)

In an earlier blog post, I talked about using the "snooze" feature in Gmail to set a date for your email to be re-sent to your inbox.  But what if you are not using Gmail?  

One option is to use FollowUpThen. 

What is it?

Although not a tool for use with learners, this is one of my favorite "productivity" tools--I use it almost every day. (it's the only way I can ever get close to "inbox zero.")

FollowUpThen is a tool to help you manage your email inbox.  It lets you resend an email to your inbox at a later date (for example when you need to be reminded of something, or when you are ready to take action on the email). To accomplish this, you use SOMETIME@FollowUpThen.com as an email address in your distribution.

Example

Let's say I sent an email to Susan and Enrique asking when they were available to meet. Ordinarily, I might be tempted to CC or BCC myself on the email and leave it in my inbox to remind me that Susan and Enrique should be getting back to me about this.  This is not a good reminder system because 

1. it clutters my inbox
2. with all the email in my inbox--and with this email potentially scrolling off the bottom of the screen and not being visible--it may not be a good reminder for me. 

Instead of BCC-ing myself on the email, I can BCC SOMETIME@FollowUpThen.com.  Let's say I wanted to be reminded on Friday that Susan and Enrique should have gotten back to me. I would include in the distribution of the email:

TO: Susan, Enrique

BCC: Friday@FollowUpThen.com.  

The email will go to Susan, it will go to Enrique, and on Friday it will show up in my inbox.

How to Use it

When you go to the FollowUpThen website you'll see you can sign up for an account. The free version allows for 50 follow-ups in a month.

FollowUpThen allows you to use natural language in place of the SOMETIME in the email address.  You can say, "Friday," "EveryWednesday," "200pm," "April15," "tomorrow," "2days," and a whole host of other descriptions. There is more information on how to set the SOMETIME on the followupthen.com webpage. 

With FollowUpThen you can also control who sees the follow-up.  If you put the SOMETIME@FollowUpThen.com email address in the:

BCC: only you will see the follow up

CC: all of the original recipients of the email will see the follow up

Because FollowUpThen is just an email address vs a separate email tool, you can use it with any email program.

A Big Caution

The way FollowUpThen works is that it stores your email, encrypted, on the FollowUpThen servers until it is time to re-send the email. After the email is sent, it is deleted from the FollowUpThen servers.  

However, the fact that the email is stored on third-party servers may be against your company's data management/privacy policies. 

Because of this, many of you will not be able to use FollowUpThen at work. Check with your company to see if it is OK to use FollowUpThen before you use it at work. Here is FollowUpThen's privacy policy. 

(although it should still be handy with your non-work email).

Resources:

• How to use Followupthen from the Followupthen website
  
  
• I talked about FollowUpThen on episode #39 of the Higher Learning Now podcast.

Want to make Gmail even more useful? Snooze it!

What is the Gmail snooze feature?

One of my favorite features of Gmail--and one I use almost every day-- is the "snooze" feature. The Gmail snooze feature lets you resend an email to your inbox at a later date (for example when you need to be reminded of something, or when you are ready to take action on the email). 

How to Use it

• Select the email you want to snooze.  You can open the email to select it, or you can select one or more emails by checking the box next to the email in the inbox.

• Click the snooze icon from the list of icons on the top of the window.

• Select a pre-set date and time or click on "Pick date & time" to select a custom date & time. The email will disappear from your inbox and reappear at the date and time selected!

• You can always find your snoozed emails by clicking on the snoozed folder on the left sidebar of your Gmail.

When to Use it: Example #1

Let's say I sent an email to Susan and Bob asking them for information I need for a meeting next Tuesday. Ordinarily, I might be tempted to CC or BCC myself on the email and leave it in my inbox until Friday when I want to send a follow-up email if I have not heard from Susan and Bob about this. This is not a good reminder system because (1) it clutters my inbox, and (2) it might scroll off the bottom of the screen or get "lost" in my inbox and that is not a good reminder system!  Instead of leaving it in my inbox, I can CC or BCC myself on the email and then snooze the email until Friday when it will pop back in my inbox and remind me I need to send an email if I have not heard from Susan or Bob.

When to Use it: Example #2

Let's say Luis sends me an email with an agenda for our meeting on April 15.  I want to review the agenda before the meeting and bring it with me to the meeting on April 15, but do not need it cluttering my inbox for the next several weeks.  I can snooze the email until April14 and then delete/file the email because I know that the email will be delivered again to my inbox on the 14th, giving me time to review the agenda before the meeting. (and keeping all the clutter out of my inbox!)

How can you use the Gmail snooze feature to improve your productivity?

Recording and narrating your computer screen (aka "screencasting")

Have you ever wanted to make a demonstration of an online task or presentation? One free--and easy-- way to do it is to use Screenpal!

Take a look at this video on how to use Screenpal (12:36)

Once you have recorded your video, you might want to add it to your Blogger blog (1:28)

Or maybe you want to add your video to YouTube for folks to access (I'll make another post on how to do this).

In case you are not at your computer with the downloaded Screenpal, or if you have a computer where you can not download software, you can also launch Screenpal from the web (0:25m)

You can learn more about Screenpal recorder and editor by going to the Screenpal resources page. And, of course, you can search the internet for instructions and videos created by others.

Give Screenpal a try and include your video in a blog post!

How might you use screen recordings to help others learn?

Scanning documents with your phone

 

I was working with a student this week who needed to sign a document and send it back to me.  She did not have a scanner and did not know what to do.  The answer? Scan it with your phone!

Using your phone to scan documents can be helpful when you need to sign and email documents, but I also use it in the library to scan pages from books that I have quotes I want to use in my research, reference lists I want to follow up on from articles I like, non-research/at-home uses, etc.

There are many scanning apps for your phone. If you are not familiar with scanning apps, here is a short (2:41) video to show you what it's like! This demo shows the scanning app I use most often, Genius Scan, but it is similar with any scanning app!

Wait! How did Robin screencast on her phone? Check out how to do it on Apple and Android phones.

(full disclosure: I used a video editing program to add the boxes and highlights to the video after I screencasted it.)

How might you use your phone for a scanner-on-the-go?

Word Clouds!

Word Clouds allow you use words and create a visual display. Words used more often are displayed larger in a word cloud, and words used less often are displayed smaller in a word cloud. Word clouds can be used to display your own list of words, or to display the information you gather from other sources, such as through a survey or other types of comments.

There are many websites to help you create word clouds. Some word cloud websites require you to install free plug-ins (like java, silverlight). Once you find a word cloud generator, they generally work the same: type or upload your text or word list, and generate your word cloud. You can regenerate your word cloud until you find one you like, and can often change the color, font, shape and more for your word cloud. Once you have your word cloud you can sometimes save or download it, but you can always capture it with a screen capture tool such as the Microsoft Snipping Tool (shortcut is: windows_key+shift+S)

Here are a few free word cloud generators for you to try out! (just ignore any options to put your word cloud on merchandise or sign up for a paid subscription.)

WordItOut.com Click the green "create your own" button to get started. 
WordClouds.com  I like this one because it lets you pick a shape to force your word cloud into, such as a heart, arrow, checkmark, lightning bolt, etc.
WordArt.com also gives you a lot of control over the shape of your word cloud (it is "art" not a cloud!)
Jason Davis' word cloud generator
WordSift.org uses a list of words, or you can paste in text, and it will take the common words from text, an article, or a speech and creates a word cloud.

And you can search to find even more word cloud generators!

How might you be able to use word clouds?

Are You Sending People to the Right Place?

 

We often copy links and send them to colleagues or post them online and on our social media.  But are you using the right URL? 

Take a look at this short video to learn how to use the correct URL to get people where you want them to go!

Color me interested! More tools for finding the right color.

Finding just the right color for text or images can be a challenge. Maybe you want to match a color you saw on the web, or maybe you are looking for the perfect color blue.  Here are a few tools to help you find just the right color.

But first a little background...



Color "Names"

One of the challenges in finding the right color is figuring out what to call it!  If you have ever been to a paint store, you know there is no such thing as white.  There is off-white, arctic snow, cloud white, ecru, crushed ice, and more!  The computer solves this problem by giving each color a numerical name. There are two main color naming conventions: RGB and hexadecimal.  Sometimes you will work with a program that wants the color in RGB, and sometimes a program will want the color in hexadecimal.

RGB is a color model that gives a numeric value to the amount of Red, Green, and Blue in the color. This is useful as a naming convention and gives you the option to make small adjustments to the color by increasing or decreasing the red, green, or blue number. (It is like adding a little more "tint" to the paint color!)

Hexadecimal (or "hex") gives a numeric value to the color, but instead of using a base 10 numbering system (decimal), it uses a base 16 numbering system (hexadecimal). A hex color name is six digits in length and begins with a #.  For example, #FF0000 is the hex name for a particular red.
(Decimal uses the characters 0-9, which is 10 characters.  Deci means 10, which is why our numbering system is called the decimal system.  Because hexadecimal uses sixteen characters, it uses 0-9 and A-F.)

OK, but how do I find the color I want to use?

If you want to locate a color "by eye" you can use a web-based tool

• This tool by w3schools.com is similar to the standard and custom color picker used by Word and PowerPoint.  You pick your color and then use the lighter/darker scale to find the exact color you want to use.  The selected color is displayed in the middle of the screen with the hex, RGB, and hsl colors. (hsl stands for hue, saturation, and lightness, and is the third naming convention for colors, but you likely will not see it very often.)
• You can mix your own RGB colors by altering the amount of each color in this tool by w3schools.com.  Adjust the amount of Red, Green, and Blue by typing a number or clicking on the Red, Green, and Blue color lines.  Your newly mixed color will be displayed in a color block above the Red, Green, and Blue color lines, and the RGB, Hex, and HSL color codes for your new color will be displayed to the right of the color block.
• There are also many tools on the web to convert hex to RGB, or RGB to hex, 

If you want to match a color on the web
In a previous blog post, I told you how you can use the eyedropper tool in PowerPoint (or Word) to sample a color from within PowerPoint. But what if you want to sample a color outside of PowerPoint and from a webpage?

There are several tools to sample a color on the web, and one that I use is called Colorzilla. Colorzilla is an extension you can add to your Chrome or Firefox toolbar. You can then use the eyedropper/color picker to find the exact color of anything in your browser, and use the color numbers to color your text, lines, or fills!

Here is a demonstration of how to install and use Colorzilla.

How might you use custom coloring?