Ecomhelpdesk

Access multiple email accounts with Gmail in 3 easy steps

It seems as though nearly everyone has at least two email addresses these days, and it’s not uncommon to have upwards of four that are used on a regular basis for separate purposes.

You may or may not have heard of Gmail’s multiple inboxes feature and how useful it is, so if you’d like to take advantage of this awesome way to manage your email, read on.

The multiple inbox feature can be enabled to access third party email accounts (hotmail, your ISP email, etc.) alongside your Gmail account and can even be used to display certain sections or labels within your Gmail account simultaneously, e.g. by creating a search filter for a labeled or starred email.

Though at first glance this may seem daunting, it’s not that bad to configure and will give you the advantage of never ever having to check 2+ separate email accounts again.

Step 1:
Login to your Gmail account and enable the “Multiple Inboxes” feature under the settings > labs tab.

Once you do that, an additional box next to your inbox pane will show containing search results for “is:starred” and “is:drafts”. If you have starred or draft emails, you’ll see them there. If you don’t want to have a pane dedicated to drafts or starred emails you can remove those panes by going to the multiple inboxes settings.

We will be adding our third-party email accounts next, so we can add those inboxes to separate panes in Gmail.

Step 2:
Head back into settings and take a look under the accounts tab for an option labeled “Get mail from other accounts: Add a mail account you own”.

Enter the email address, password and any other relevant information, then add the account. During this setup process you’ll be able to apply a label to the new incoming mail and if preferred, archive it as well (both recommended). You can also take advantage of the “custom from” feature which allows you to send emails from those addresses through Gmail.

Step 3:
After you’ve successfully added your external email accounts, jump over to the “multiple inboxes” tab in the settings.

If you haven’t touched these settings yet, by default you’ll see that pane 0 is occupied by “is:starred” and Pane 1 by “is:drafts” (I opted to remove those on my account). Simply enter the new email address or any other search criteria you might want displayed beside your Gmail inbox. Also note the additional settings, which provide the ability to increase or decrease the number of messages that will be displayed in the extra inbox panes as well as their position.

For adding additional email accounts simply repeat steps 2 and 3 to add more inboxes or labels as well as anything searchable that you want displayed in its own pane. And this is just one of the many advanced features found in the Gmail Labs tab which can take your webmail experience to the next level. Enjoy.

Reboot or Shutdown from Remote Desktop Connection

If you have ever feel frustrated because you have been unable to reboot a machine from a remote location (using Microsoft’s own RDC), here’s a solution. While I recall having the option to send a Ctrl+Alt+Del to the remote machine that doesn’t seem to be available in most recent versions of the software, or at least not in the obvious places.

So, what you are left with right now is disconnect and log off options. To be able to reboot or shutdown the remote system you can call up the Command Prompt (cmd.exe) or just type the following in XP’s Run or in Vista’s search line that also serves the purpose of launching programs:

“shutdown -f” to shutdown
“shutdown -r -f” to reboot
“shutdown -i -f” to get a GUI
“shutdown -l -f” to logoff

Top 10 computer mouse tips

Most computer users don't take full advantage of the computer Mouse. Below are computer mouse tips and secrets that help you get the full potential of your computer mouse and increase your overall productivity while on the computer.

Shift key and mouse click

Many text editors and programs allow you to highlight all or portions of text using the Shift key and the mouse. For example, place the cursor at the beginning of a paragraph in a text editor, hold down the Shift key and click at the end of the paragraph to highlight the full paragraph.

Take full advantage of the scroll wheel

Today, everyone is familiar with a mouse wheels ability to scroll up and down on a page. However, this wheel can also do so much more, below are just a few examples.

I. The mouse wheel is not just a wheel, it can also be used as a button. Pressing down on the wheel will act like a third mouse button. This can be used to open a web page in a tab by clicking the wheel on any link and can also be used to close a tab by clicking the wheel on any open tab.

II. Holding down the shift key while scrolling up or down in a Internet browser will quickly go back and forward between web pages.

III. Zoom in and Out on a web page, word document, excel spreadsheet, etc. by holding down the Ctrl key and scrolling up to zoom in and down to zoom out.

IV. Move forward and backwards while browsing the Internet by holding down the Shift key and scrolling up and down. Scrolling down goes back and scrolling up goes forward.

V. Some mouse wheels can be pushed left or right to also move back and forward on a web page.

Select with double and triple click

Any word can be selected by double-clicking the word. If you want to highlight the whole paragraph, click the mouse button three times on any text in the paragraph.

Use the right-click

Take full advantage of the right-click any time you highlight text or wish to view the properties of an object. For example, if you highlight a file or text, you can right-click that highlighted item copy it and then right-click anywhere else to paste it.

Ctrl key and mouse click or highlight

While holding down the Ctrl key you can left-click to select multiple objects or highlight multiple sections of text. For example, in Microsoft Windows you could hold down the Ctrl key and click to select multiple files at once. If you wanted to highlight different parts of a paragraph or web page, you could also hold down the Ctrl key and select each section you wanted to copy.

Use the mouse side buttons

Many new computer mice have buttons on the side of the mouse. These buttons can be programmed to do anything, however, by default the left-thumb button can be used to go back on a web page. This makes browsing the Internet more enjoyable since you do not need to move the mouse cursor to the browser back arrow button in order to go back a page.

Use the Windows Snap To feature

Take full advantage of the Windows mouse Snap To feature, which will automatically move your mouse to buttons that appear in a dialog box. For example, if you delete a file or close a window you may get a prompt asking you if you are sure you want to perform the task. With the Snap To feature enabled, the mouse cursor automatically moves to the Ok button, so all you will have to do is click the mouse button if you agree. This saves you the time of having to move the mouse cursor over to the Ok button and then click Ok. To enable this feature open the Mouse properties under the Windows Control Panel and check the Snap To check box under the Pointer Options tab.

Manage the open window with the mouse

Double-click the top title bar of any window to maximize a window or if it is already maximized resize it to a window. You can also double-click the icon for the window in the top-left corner of the window to close that window.

How to store files & keep backup copies

Backup යනු අපගේ අත්‍යවශ්‍ය Data සුරක්ෂිතව වෙනත් ස්ථානයක ගබඩා කිරීමයි.

අප සාමාන්‍යයෙන් පරිගණකයක වැඩ කිරීමේදි අපගේ තෙරතුරු විවිධ ස්ථානවල Save කර තබා ගනී. උදාහරන ලෙස My Document, Desktop හා Other Partition වල තබා ගනී. තවද අප භාවිතා කරන විවිධාකාරයේ Programs වල Data වෙනත් තැන් වලද තිබිය හැක. (Programs Files) තවද අප Outlook වැනි Email වැඩසටහන් භාවිතා කරන්නේ නම් ඒවායෙහිද Data වෙනත් තැන්වල අදාළ පරිදි ස්ථානගතවී ඇත.

අප පරිගණකයක් භාවිතා කිරීමේදි අපගේ Data ඇති තැන් පිළිබඳව නිවැරදි අවබෝධයක් හා දැනීමක් තිබිම ඉතා වැදගත්ය. එය වැදගත් වන්නේ ඔබගේ පරිගණකය මාරු කිරීමේදි හෝ Format කිරීමේදි අවශ්‍ය Data Backup කිරීමට සිදු වීමයි.

අප Data Backup කිරීමකදී එය ඉතා සුපරික්‍ෂකාරීව සිදු කිරිම ඉතා වැදගත්වේ. එසේ වන්නේ,

I. ඔබගේ අත්‍යවශ්‍ය Data සියල්ල ආරක්‍ෂා කර ගැනීමට.
II. ඔබගේ Email නැතිනොවී තබා ගැනීමට.
III Internet Browser Bookmarks සහ Links නැවත ලබා ගැනීමට.
IV. සමහර Software වල Save කර ඇති Settings ලබා ගැනීමට ආදී කරුණු නිසාය.

ඔබ නිවැරදිව Data Store කරණු ලැබුවහොත් Backup ගැනීමේ කාර්යය වඩා පහසු වනු ඇත.

I. C Drive එක හැර වෙනත් Drive එකක් Data Store කිරීමට භාවිතා කිරීම.

II. My Document Folders එකද එම Drive එකේම ස්ථානගත කිරීම.

III. Desktop Folder එකද එම Drive එකේම Create කර එහි Short Cut එකත් Desktop එකට දැමීම හා ඔබගේ සියලූ Desktop Files සහ Folder එහි Store කිරීමද ඉතාමත් යෝග්‍ය කි‍්‍රයාවකි.

IV. ඔබගේ Active Partition එක සමඟ Operating System එක හා Software නිරන්තර කි‍්‍රයාකාරීත්වයක් පවතී. එම නිසා C Drive එකෙහි 15GB වත් ඉඩ ඉතිරිව තිබීම ඉතා යෝග්‍ය වනු ඇත.

මෙසේ කිරීමෙන් ආකාර දෙකකින් අපට ප‍්‍රයෝජනයක් සැලසේ. C Drive එක නොහොත් Active Partition එක Data Store කිරිමේ කාර්යයෙන් ඉවත් කිරීමෙන් පරිගණකයේ කි‍්‍රයාකාරීත්වය වේගවත් වීම හා ස්ථාවර වීම. Data Backup කිරීමෙහිදී එකම ස්ථානයක Data Store කර තැබීම හේතුවෙන් එම කි‍්‍රයාව වඩා පහසු හා නිවැරදි වීම.

ඔබගේ අත්‍යවශ්‍ය (Critical) Data කිසි විටකත් Hard Drive එකෙහි පමණක් ගබඩා කර තැබීම ඉතාමත් අපරික්‍ෂාකාරි කි‍්‍රයාවක් වේ. එසේ වන්නේ Hard Disk එක ඕනෑම වෙලාවක Crash වීමට හෝ Fail වීමකට ලක්විය හැකි උපාංගයක් වන නිසාය. එසේ වුවහොත් ඔබේ අවශ්‍ය Data නැවත ලබා ගැනීමට නොහැකි වනු ඇත.

එම නිසා ඔබගේ Data පහත සඳහන් මාධ්‍යයන් එකක හෝ දෙකක තැන්පත් කර තැබීම මහත් අස්වැසිල්ලක් වනු ඇත.

1 CD හෝ DVD එකක Save කිරීම
2 USB Hard Drive එකක Save කිරීම
3 Backup Divice එකක Save කිරීම
4 Online Storage වල Save කිරීමග
5 Tape Drive එකක Save කිරීම
6 USB Pen Drive එකක Save කිරීම

ඔබගේ Data ආරක්‍ෂා කර ගැනීම නිසිලෙස නොකළ හොත් නැවත යථා තත්වයට පත් කළ නොහැකි මූල්‍යමය හෝ වෙනත් අලාභයකට මුහුණ දිමට සිදුවිය හැක. එම නිසා අප ඒ සඳහා වැඩි අවධානයක් යොමු කළ යුතුය. අපට ඒ සඳහා දැනුමක් නොමැතිනම් පළපුරුදු අයෙකු ලවා එය කරවා ගැනීම වැදගත්ය.

තවද අප ලබා ගන්නා Data Backup නැවත පරීක්ෂාකර බලා ඒවා භාවිතා කළ හැකිද යන්න පිළිබඳව තහවුරු කර ගත යුතුය. වඩා වැදගත් Data සෑම විටම Backup ස්ථාන 2 වත් තබා ගැනීම ඉතාවැදගත්වේ.