Monday, February 6, 2012

A Simpler Guide to Gmail

Today's blog comes to us from Wales, courtesy of Ceri Clark. She is the author of several great books, including Children of the Elementi and the updated A Simpler Guide to Gmail. 

First of all I would like to thank you allowing me to guest blog today.


The first edition of A Simpler Guide to Gmail was the second book I wrote. At the time there wasn't anything like it on Kindle, although now there are a couple more. Gmail made a whole slew of changes in late 2011 so I felt honour bound to write an updated version, hence the second edition. 

You wouldn't believe the problems I had when the second edition was uploaded. I had to do a new one as the old copy had the wrong author name on (my maiden name) even though I had contacted Amazon a few times and it was top of all the search lists. Then I was selling the old version rather than the new one. But it is all settled now.

Pretty much everything changed since January 2011. I was expecting just to update parts but the whole look and feel changed so I had to update all the screen captures in the book.We said goodbye to Buzz, but hello to Google+ and there were some great new themes added as well as functions moving.

I have to say I absolutely love Gmail. I don't see any spam anymore, there is lots of space and it is integrated with other Google services and best of all my phone!

The feature I recommend above all is tagging. I love having my emails organised but in the old days I had to choose which folder an email had to go in. I like to think of myself as logical but when you have one email which can go into two or more folders, it can be awkward to find it later. With Gmail, it is so simple. If there is more than one subject I just tag the one email with all of the subjects that are relevant. There is still only the one email but I can find it in several places. If only I could tag my house keys the same way!

A Simpler Guide to Gmail is aimed at beginner to intermediate users but my husband, who is a techie, read it while it was being edited and even he learnt a couple of things. It's a step-by-step guide but I try to make it as chatty as I can. I just hate jargon!

At the moment A Simpler Guide to Gmail is only available on Amazon as it is part of the Kindle Select Program. That way, people can lend it to their friends if they want to share it.

So far it is going down well and hopefully Gmail won't change as much this year!
A Simpler Guide to Gmail can be found at: http://amzn.com/B006WRZGRM 

5 comments:

Connie J Jasperson said...

I love Ceri Clark's book on Android Apps! I am finding this book to be extremely useful as well!

Gary Hoover said...

Great useful info. Thanks so much!!

Johanna Garth said...

Thanks Ceri! I love gmail too and agree with you, less spam, user friendly.

pattysarro said...

Thank you Ceri! what great info...like the simplistic approach. It's a Help Desk at your Desktop!

jenny milchman said...

Wow, you are clearly a pro! Thanks so much for the thumbnail!