Gmail is getting full - what to do?

I just filled up my 3rd (that's right 3rd!) Gmail account.

Gmail has plenty of storage - for most people. And they keep adding it every day. As of April 19, 2009 they offer 7.86 GB of storage. Picasa (which I have almost filled up as well) has 1 GB.

I don't know why, but that is not enough Gmail storage for me. I send and receive loads of photos and pdf files so maybe that is why I tend to fill up accounts.

One solution is to pay for more storage. Check here for more information.

If you don't want to do that, here are a couple of free solutions:

In the past I have just created a new Gmail account and had mail forwarded. But that option had some challenges - the biggest being exporting my contact list. I can get all the addresses in the new account, but so far (as of April 19,2009) Gmail doesn't have a way to export contact groups. I use groups all the time and it is a royal hassle to recreate them.

Or - you can clean up your current account

So today I decided to do some Gmail 'spring cleaning' by getting rid of some messages. Since I have over 7,ooo inbox messages and who knows how many sent messages, I wasn't about to go through them one by one. What I really wanted was to delete messages with large attachments. I didn't want to do that for messages sent to me, because there are some precious photos in that group that are wonderfully searchable and difficult to recreat if lost. Keeping them in gmail is a great way to have a backup. But the messages I sent to others are not as important to save since I have them (somewhere) on my hard drive or in back ups.

Here is what to do to just find sent messages with attachments:

type this into the 'search mail' window at the top of your gmail screen:

has:attachment from:me label:sent

if you want to find all messages (sent and received) with attachments type:

has:attachment

Scan through these messages (if you want) to make sure you don't mind deleting them.

Just above your list of emails there is an option to 'select' 'all'.

Do that

Now a little message will appear that asks if you want to select all messages from that search. Click that and now everything is selected.

Now, get brave, and click 'delete'. You will get a chance to change your mind when Gmail asks if you are sure.

When I did that, my account went from 94% full to 61% full!

Emailing higher resolution pictures in Picasa

Don't you wish you could see the faces of these darling children from Guyana?

Do you want to avoid emailing photos that turn out like this?

I know - I exaggerated the problem by making this photo very very low resolution - but you can limit the impact and usability of photos by sending them in small sizes.

Photo size is most often measured by pixels - that is dots per inch. This is also known as resolution. Optimal resolution depends on the end use of the photo. Here is what I like:

For presentations, I like the largest dimension to be at least 1000 pixels.

For printing, full resolution is best.

If you are using Picasa to host and email your photos, here is how to adjust resolution (from the Picasa help website):


Sending multiple photos at once:

1. In Picasa, click Tools > Options (Windows) or Picasa > Preferences (Mac).
2. Select the Email tab.
3. Use the slider to set your desired pixel size when emailing multiple photos. Use the radio buttons to set the desired pixel size for emailing single photos.
4. Click OK.

Sending one photo at a time - the only way to get full resolution:

You can email a photo in its full resolution using Picasa, however you can only send one full resolution photo at a time. Please follow these steps to set your email options to send photos in their original size:

1. Click Tools > Options (Windows) or Picasa > Preferences (Mac).
2. Select the Email tab.
3. Under 'When sending single pictures, resize to:' (Windows) or 'Size for single pictures' (Mac), select the 'Original Size' option.
4. Click OK.

Once this option is selected, any single photo you send using Picasa will be in full resolution. It's not possible to send multiple photos at once in their original sizes.

Blogging - custom sized pictures

This is for Sister Bullock who writes a wonderful blog

I am going to assume you already know how to embed an image from Picasa

OK - just in case you don't know that - here is a quick 'how to' lesson

• Upload your images to picasa (if you don't know about picasa, let me know and I'll add more information)
• Click on the image you want (it will fill most of the screen)
• Look for the words "link to this photo" at the right and click on them
• This will open a menu of options - you want to copy the information (HTML code) below the words "embed image" (control 'C')
• Paste that code into your blog as you are creating it. It will look like nonsense but when you publish, it will turn into your Picasa image.

Image Sizes

When you embed an image from picasa you have a choice of sizes and whether or not to include the album link (I never do). Unfortunately, the only sizes they allow are thumbnail (144 px), small (288 px) medium (400 px), and large (800 px).

Why the jump from 400 to 800???

I have no idea

Medium 400 px is fine for a normal blog layout. But if you want to emphasize photos rather the text, it's nice to use a stretched layout in Blogger so that nice big photos can be displayed. However, the large photos are just a bit too big at 800 px. The perfect size would be 600 px - but how do we get that?

It's not too difficult

All you have to do is type this:

width=600

and make sure it is in the correct place

When you past the HTML code into your blog from Picasa it looks something like this.



Look carefully and you will see a section in quotes - that is the address of the image. It finishes here with _MG_2235.jpg"

After the ending of the final quote, you can add extra information about image size

That is where you type those magic letters - width=600 - so your code will now look like this:



Be sure to type it with no spaces - after the final quote and before the forward slash. I always keep a space on either side of the text but I'm not sure that is necessary.

That's all!

When you publish the blog or click back and forth between 'Edit Html' and 'Compose' you will see your perfectly sized image in place of the code.

If you want to move the image, just cut and paste the code.

Sharing PowerPoint presentations online

I was asked recently how to share put a PowerPoint presentation on the web.

I have not been terribly successful doing that, so I will explore a few ways and post about them here, with more information coming in the future.

First and easiest, in my opinion, is to save the presentation as a movie ('file', 'save as movie'). I need to learn more about how to tweak the timing and other settings. There is an option to include music (go to 'movie options' in the 'save as movie menu). Then the powerpoint movie can be uploaded to google video or direct to blogger. This creates a self playing slideshow out of the slides.

Another option is Google docs. That fine service now supports PowerPoint files - but only in the .ppt format, not the new .pptx. So the files need to be saved as .ppt.

I don't yet know about all the options. The one I tested is manually advanced slide by slide.

Here is an embeddeded test slideshow I just uploaded through google docs.



Google Docs is a great service for hosting and sharing text, spreadsheet, and presentation documents.

Comparing slideshow hosting

I have used four services to host slideshows and thought I would do a comparison here between Picasa, Flickr, Smugmug, and Smilebox

Picasa



Pros

• easy to use
• lots of free storage

Cons

• can't view full screen - clicking on the slideshow leads to the picasa site
• even in picasa, images are smallish

Flickr



Pros:

• easy to upload
• easy to organize photos within the site
• nice full screen option

Cons:

• free version didn't allow me to upload all my photos
• I couldn't figure out how to upload lower res (but it might be available)

Smugmug

Click here to link to full screen version



Pros:

• nice filmstrip interface

Cons:

• extremely hard to figure out how to embed slideshow
• couldn't figure out how to allow full screen version
• odd blank space in blog post
• clicking on photo takes you to smugmug opening screen - very strange
  

Smilebox

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Pros:

• music
• full screen option
• lots of style options (most of them are irritating)

Cons

• Hate it!!! - they constantly ask for pro sign up (=spend money) and the program hijacked my computer and added all kinds of stuff and I'm still not sure I got rid of it.
• huge con - no way to show all of photos with vertical orientation
• very difficult to work within their programs
• irritating constant asking to buy pro version
• ads in free version
• full screen takes you to new website

Bottom line
My favorite - Flickr, but I need to pay for a pro account.

Comparing photo hosting services

I have been playing around with picasa, flickr, and smugmug trying to decide which is best. Last time I looked it seemed like flickr photos were duller in color so I thought I would do a test here. I will embed the same photo from each service so we can compare.

Picasa


Flickr


Smugmug


Interesting - picasa photos have more color intensity, don't you think? Flickr and Smugmug seem about the same.

Working with photos in Word - easyish

It ought to be very simple to drop a photo in a Word document and move it around wherever you want. Right? But it is not. In fact it can be a terribly frustrating task. Here is one little trick that makes the process somewhat simpler.

Insert
When you add a photo to Word through the 'insert' menu or by dragging and dropping, it defaults to an 'inline layout'. That means that the picture is stuck in place on the document just like the text you type. It moves as you press return and/or type text above it but you can't drag it around on the page. You can resize it (remember to only use the corners or hold down 'shift' so you won't change the proportions).

Unstick
Here is what you do to fix the 'stuck photo' problem. You need to open up the 'format pictures' menu. You can do this either by double clicking on the picture or highlighting the picture and going to the 'format' (top of the screen) and 'picture' commands. That opens up a menu that varies according to the version of Word you are using. You need to find the 'layout' window (the little blue doggie) and then select 'tight'. This command magically frees up your photo and allows you to drag it all around.

Watch out!
However, Word still has its quirks and sometimes you think you have everything set and then pictures start sliding around all by themselves. I don't know how to deal with this and that is why I use a Mac!

Get a Mac
Here is the best suggestion I can give - buy a Mac, install iWork, and use Pages. It is a FABULOUS program for page layout. I love its simplicity and style. It is almost worth buying a Mac just to use Pages if you want to work with text and photos and don't want the expense or steep learning curve of Photoshop and InDesign.

If you are using a mac and want some help, I have started a new blog with a mac friend called Granny Macs. It is in process but will be fun as we add more. Take a look!