PLEASE NOTE: These are test pages published only to gather feedback about the design.

Send feedback to gpilot@umn.edu. See the Google Initiative site for current information.

Office of Information Technology (OIT)


Home > Google Apps > Using Other Apps

Using Other Apps

Google Docs Change Notification

Currently Google offers a feature that will notified users when collaborators make changes to or edit shared documents only for spreadsheets. To received e-mail notification of changes to spreadsheets that you either have created or that have been shared with you, in your spreadsheet, click Tools>Notification Rules or Share>Set Notification Rules.

Google Calendar and UMCal

The Google Calendar will be available, but at this time, will not replace UMCal, the University's current enterprise calendaring system. As such, UMCal still should be used to schedule conference rooms, resources, and meetings with other University faculty and staff.

Unfortunately, Google Calendar and UMCal synchronization is not supported.

If you choose to use the Google Calendar, we recommend that you use it as your personal calendar until OIT can support synchronization or develop a plan to make Google's calendar the University enterprise calendar. 

Gmail Chat and Google Talk differences

Gmail's chat features and the downloadable Google Talk application are very similar in functionality. Both Gmail and the Google Talk client let you connect to the Google Talk network, which is made up of millions of people who use the Google Talk IM product, or a service that supports open server-to-server federation. Currently, Google Talk works only with Windows XP or Vista.
 

Google Talk offers some additional customization options, including making Gmail the default mail handler and providing notifications of incoming mail to Gmail. On its own, Gmail chat allows you to talk to people from directly within Gmail. If you're signed in to the Google Talk application in the background, Gmail will also allow you to make free voice calls from your friends' profile cards. Features that Gmail chat has but Google Talk does not offer are video chat, invisible mode, and group chat.

Gmail Notifier

Gmail Notifier is a separate application for Mac that gives you easy access to your new Gmail messages with notifications and previews, as well as reminding you of upcoming Google Calendar events. Gmail Notifier is the equivalent of the Notify application in GroupWise.

At this time, Gmail Notifier works only with Mac OS X 10.4 and above. The Window version currently does not work with Google Apps for Education. Instead, Windows users can install and use Google Talk.

To install Gmail Notifier for Mac:

  1. Download Gmail Notifier for Mac
  2. Save the installation file to your computer
  3. After the download is complete, double-click on the application to install.
  4. Follow the on-screen instructions.

Be sure to use your Google password (not your U of M Internet password) to log in to Gmail Notifier. More information about your Google password can be found here.