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Many departments on campus use YouTube to host their video content. Here’s a quick tutorial about how to upload a video to YouTube:

LITS Public Services has also prepared a print version of the tutorial.

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We’ve talked before about using labels in Google Keep. Google Contacts is another service where labels can help you keep things organized.

Tip

If a contact has multiple email addresses, only their default email address is added to the label group. You can use the Contacts app  on an Android device to change the default email address for a contact.

Tip

You can email all your contacts under a particular label from within Gmail.

1. Open Gmail.
2. At the top left, click Compose.
3. In the “To” field, start typing the name of the Contacts label, then select the label name from the list that appears.
4. You’ll see a list of contacts in the “To” field.

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You may already be familiar with using comments in Google Docs and Google Sheets. Did you know you can use similar features to comment on Microsoft Word files, Microsoft Excel spreadsheets, and PDFs that you’ve uploaded to Google Drive?

Comments can be a great way to collaborate–letting your team know your thoughts and asking questions about a document that all of you have access to.

To comment on a PDF file, double-click on the file in your Google Drive.

In the upper right corner, click on the “Add a comment” button:

You can then select a portion of the PDF to comment on, type your comment, and use the Comment button to save it:

To be able to add comments, you must either be the owner of the file, or have editing or commenting privileges on the file.

You can also comment on images and video files!

Learn more about file storage and collaboration in Google Drive, Docs, and Sheets.

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Sometimes it can be helpful to view only a subset of a Google Sheet. This is especially helpful when your spreadsheet grows unusually large or complex. Filters are one way to separate items according to your specific criteria, and especially useful if you don’t want to change what other people sharing the spreadsheet can see.

Zapier Blog provides step-by-step instructions on how to filter in Google Sheets. Technology trainer Leila Gharani presents some examples on YouTube as well:

Learn more about how to sort and filter your data in Google Sheets.

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In Google Meet, you can replace your background with one supplied by Google, or even upload your own.

This feature is now available in both Google Chrome and the Android app.

You can also upload your own images to use as a background.

Using Chrome on desktop, you can even use a video. Google offers three videos to choose from, with more on the way. Google also plans to make video backgrounds available for mobile in the future.

Learn more about using Google Meet.

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David Nield of Popular Science offers a great explanation of Why and How to Clear Your Web History in Any Browser. In short, routinely clearing your browser history (also often referred to as “clearing your cache”) can help protect your privacy, speed up your browser performance overall, and help you avoid mysterious glitches with web pages displaying incorrectly or behaving in odd ways.

LITS offers brief instructions on clearing your browser history on Microsoft Edge or Safari, or in Google Chrome or Firefox.

UPDATED: Please be aware that, depending on your choices in this process, you may be logged out of your accounts, and will have to log back in when you revisit them next. In some cases, you may lose custom settings for some sites as well.

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Sign up to receive personalized alerts in your Gmail inbox for various topics of interest to you.

1. Make sure you are logged into your Allegheny College Gmail account.
2. Go to Google Alerts.
3. Fill in the search terms for the topic you wish to monitor, and other details in the Create Alert box.
   
4. Click on Show options.
5. Choose your preferred frequency, language, and other options.
   
6. Click on Create Alert.

Based on your choices, you will receive emails alerting you to new Google search results using the terms you entered in the search box.

You can run a number of alerts concurrently, and revisit your Google Alerts account to modify/add/remove alerts.

Learn more about Google Alerts.

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When you’re working with others in Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides, you can assign tasks and action items to specific collaborators.

1. In a web browser, open a shared Google file.
2. Select the text, images, cells, or slides you want to comment on.
3. To add a comment, click the plus sign to Add comment.
   
4. Somewhere in your comment, add the email address of the person you want to assign it to, and add a plus sign (+) in front of it.
5. Click the box next to Assign to [name].
   
6. Click Assign. The person you assigned the action item to will receive  an email.
7. Once the action item has been resolved, then return to the document. In the top right corner of the comment, click Done.
   

You cal also see what tasks have been assigned to you:

1. Go to Drive and click the arrow next to Search to show the advanced search options.
2. At the bottom of the advanced search box, there is an dropdown menu for Follow up.
3. Select Action Items Only from the Follow up menu, and click Search.
   
4. You will see a list of all the documents where you’ve been assigned action items in one place.

Learn more about using comments and action items in Google Workspace.

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Today’s tip comes from YouTube channel Tropical Tech. Here are ten easy ways to speed up your Android phone or tablet.