Wednesday, June 11th, 2008
This is the second part of my Gmail Labs adventure, see Part 1 here.
Custom Keyboard Shortcut
This feature allows you to change the default keyboard shortcut, to a letter/combo of your choice. You have to enable “Keyboard shortcut” from the Settings.
Then you’re able to change the keyboard combinations from the ‘Keyboard shortcut’ menu under Settings.
Mouse Gestures
So far, I’ve managed to get 3 different mouse gestures, I think that’s it - unless I am missing something. Hold right-click, and move left to go to a previous message; move right to go to the next message; move up to go back to Inbox.
Muzzle
Hides your friends’ status messages.
Email Addict
Take a break from your email, and set your status as invisible. You can “Take a break” from the menu.
The screen will be blocked, as seen below. Press Esc will allow you to use Gmail again.
Old Snakey
Nothing beats a game of Snake! Enable keyboard shortcut, and press ‘&’.
Posted in General, Google | No Comments »
Monday, June 9th, 2008
I mentioned in the previous post, that Google released Gmail Labs, a set of experimental features from Google’s developers. I am a big fan of Google’s product, I use Gmail, Google Reader, Picasa Web Albums, etc. I decided to look at the new experimental features Gmail added to their belt.
Quick Links
Quick Links adds a new menu to the left hand navigation area of Gmail. It allows you to add the current page, whether it is one of your mailbox, or one of your customised searches, to the Quick Links menu. It allows easy access for pages or searches that you access everyday. I find this feature very useful, if you can make good use of the powerful Gmail searches.
Superstars
This feature allows you to add new star icons to your Starred list. Once the feature is enabled, you can access the option to add/remove star icons to your “In Use” list, from the General settings page.
You can then set different stars accordingly by clicking on the star icon to mark a message as starred. To cycle through the different icons, keep clicking on the star.
Pictures in Chat
Pictures in Chat allows you to see your contact’s display icon when you are chatting with them, on Gmail.
Fixed Width Font
This is especially useful when source codes are being sent around in your emails. This new feature adds a ‘Show in fixed width font’ menu to the ‘Reply’ drop down, when you are reading an email.
Hide Unread Count
This feature hides the unread mail count on your left hand navigation menu.
Signature Tweaks
Instead of having your signature at the end of the email, this feature moves your signature before the quoted text. This feature does not co-exist with Random Signatures.
Random Signatures
This feature does not work together with Signature Tweaks. Random Signatures allows you to use random signatures in your emails. Random signatures can be fetched from a feed.
Custom Date Formats
This new feature allows you to change the format of date/time display, from General settings.
Here’s Part 1, I will look at the rest of the new experimental features soon, have fun with Gmail 
You can leave your feedbacks at Gmail Labs Google Groups.
Posted in General, Google | 1 Comment »
Sunday, June 8th, 2008
In case you did not see the red-colored highlighted text on top of your Gmail screen, Gmail has released Gmail Labs. According to Google, Gmail Labs is:
A testing ground for experimental new features.
They offer quite a few new features to be tested:
- Quick Links - where you can add Quick Links box on your left navigation area.
- Superstars - extra star icons.
- Pictures in chat - add display pictures in chat.
- Fixed width font - option to view message in fixed width font.
- Custom keyboard shortcuts - customise your keyboard shortcuts, by yourself.
- Mouse gestures - adds mouse gestures to Gmail.
- Signature tweaks - places signature before replied text.
- Random signature - rotates random signatures.
- Custom date formats - change date/time formats.
- Muzzle - removes status messages of your friends in chat.
- Old snakey - SNAKE!
- Email addict - blocks screen for 15 minutes, makes you invisible in chat.
- Hide unread count - hides unread email count.
In order to enable any of those experimental features, you have to go into Settings, and click on the Labs tab.
Have fun exploring, I’ll try out some of those features soon.
Posted in General, Google | 1 Comment »
