techwiki.lowellschools.com

How do I activate my Lowelleducation.com Google Apps account? Activate by logging into Google or a Chromebook using username@Lowelleducation.com. Use your network password.

How do I log in to my @Lowelleducation.com Google Apps account to sync bookmarks? How to log-in to Chrome and sync bookmarks

What is my Google Apps Password? Your password is the same as your network login.

How do I forward my Google mail to another email account I own? Forwarding mail instructions. Be sure to TURN ON forwarding before you save. Test the forward by sending an email to your @Lowelleducation.com account.

What if I already have a personal Google/Gmail account? * Your Google Apps account (@lowelleducation.com) is separate from your google.com/Gmail account. They will not be combined. You will need to log in separately with each account's credentials to check email unless you choose to forward email to a single account. You can share calendars across the accounts too if you choose. For example, you can share your personal Gmail calendar with your lowelleducation.com account; thus you can see both when viewing your lowelleducation.com account. Tips for using more than one account on your computer.

How do I setup my iPhone to sync with Google apps: To setup your iPod iPad or iPhone to sync with (Lowelleducation.com) Gmail / calendar / contacts click here

Forwarding capabilities are also available within your account settings.

How long do past events stay on my Google calendar? * Your past events remain on your calendar forever, unless you delete them. If you want to view past events, make sure you wait a few seconds for Google Calendar to retrieve them for the date you select.

In calendar, is there any way to make important events stand out on the calendar with a different or bold font, color or shading? At this time the only way to do this is to create a calendar for important events and make it a color that stands out from your other calendar(s).

Does Google Calendar have event reminders? Yes, by default, Google Calendar displays a pop-up reminder 10 minutes before an event. You change the reminder time by editing the settings for your calendar. You can find details in the Google's Google Apps Getting Started Guide. To receive event reminders, make sure your Calendar window is open.

Can I change the number of days that appear on my calendar? * Yes, you can specify a custom number of days. Click Settings in the upper-right corner of your Calendar window. On the General tab, select a number of days in the Custom view drop-down list.

How can I publish my calendar for others to view? There are several options to publish your calendar. The easiest is way is to share the Calendar ID with others so that they can add it to their calendar list. Remember though, the calendar must be public or shared within the LowellEducation domain to be viewed by others .

If someone shares his or her calendar with me, can I hide the calendar? Yes, you can hide the calendar by clicking it in your list of calendars on the left of your calendar view.

What happens to my shared calendar if I am no longer employed by Lowell Schools? Will others who need to access it still be able to see it? As long as there is at least one user in active standing who “owns” the calendar, the calendar will be available to that user. So for a department/group shared calendar, make sure more than one person can manage sharing for it.

Do I have any control over the level of access that others have to my calendar when I share it? If you share your calendar with everyone at Lowelleducation.com, you can specify whether they can see only free/busy information or all event details. You can also share your calendar with specific people at the lowelleducation.com, and can give them one of the following levels of access: * See free/busy information only * See all event details * Make changes to your calendar * Make changes and share your calendar with others.

If I want to access another employee's calendar, such as my manager, does that person need to give me permission? Yes, if you want to access another employee's calendar, that person must give you permission, by editing the settings for the calendar.

If someone shares his or her calendar with me, can I receive notifications when attendees accept invitations to that person's events? Yes, you can set up notifications for a shared calendar. Here's how: * Access Google Calendar. * In the upper-right corner of the page, click Settings. * Click the Calendars tab. * On the Calendars tab, click the Notifications link for the calendar. * Choose the settings you want. * Click Save.

Can I invite meeting attendees who are outside of Lowell Schools? Yes, you can send meeting invitations to any email address.

Will I get a notification if an attendee accepts my meeting invitation? Yes, you will get a notification if reminders are turned on. You can turn reminders on, and choose whether to receive a pop-up notification or an email notification: * Access Google Calendar. * In the upper-right corner of the page, click Settings. * Click the Calendars tab. * Under My Calendars, click the Notifications link for your calendar. * Choose the settings you want. * Click Save.

Can I see a list of attendees who have accepted my invitation? Yes, open the event details to see who has accepted your invitation.

Can I set up a recurring meeting? Yes, Google Calendar fully supports recurring meetings. To set one up, in your meeting invitation, select an option in the Repeats drop-down list.

As the meeting host, can I change the schedule by dragging the meeting to a new time on my calendar? Yes, if you drag the meeting to another time. Google Calendar will ask you if you want to notify your guests.

Is there a way to invite an optional attendee to a meeting? Google Calendar currently does not include the option to specify optional attendees. As a workaround, you can indicate which attendees are optional in the Description field.

Can I edit just one instance of a meeting in a recurring meeting? Yes. Open the instance that you want to edit, make your changes, and click Save. Google Calendar then asks you whether you want to apply your changes to just the selected meeting, all meetings, or all meetings moving forward.

Can I make a meeting private? Yes, Google Calendar has privacy settings. In the event details, select Private so only others with Make changes to events privileges (or higher) for your calendar can see the event and its details.

Can I create “live” links in my event description? * Yes, but only if you don't let attendees edit the invitation (don't select the Guests can modify event check box). Note that, as the host, you always can edit the invitation; the links won't appear as “live” on your own calendar. However, you'll see the live links in the event confirmation message you receive. * To create a link to a website in the event description, simply type the URL, such as http://www.google.com. You can also create linked text by using HTML tags. For example, to create the link Product Info, you would use HTML code in the format <a href=“www.some-url.com”>Product Info</a>. If the HTML code is valid, Google Calendar hides the HTML when you save the event (but shows the text “Product Info”). It then creates the link in the invitation that attendees receive.

If I'm invited to a meeting, can I propose a new time for it? Not directly, but there's an easy workaround. First, open the invitation and, under Are You Coming?, select Maybe. Then do one of the following: * To propose a new time to the host only, enter your proposal in the Add a Note field. * To propose a new time to all the attendees, click the Email guests link in the upper-right corner to send your new proposal in an email message to one or more attendees.

Can I forward an invitation to another employee? Yes, if the meeting host selected the option to allow guests to invite others. If so, in your meeting invitation, click Add guests, type the address to which you want to forward the invitation, and then click Save. Google Calendar will ask you if you want to send an invitation to the new guest. The new guest will then always receive updates to the meeting from the host. Note that the meeting host is notified by email that you invited another attendee.

If someone outside of Lowell Schools sends me an invitation from another type of calendar, can I accept the invitation on my Google calendar? Yes, in most cases, you can. If possible, Google Calendar inserts an Add to Calendar link in the invitation. Simply click the link, and the invitation is added to your Google calendar. Otherwise, if the invitation is in the standard .ics format (such as Microsoft Outlook and Lotus Notes invitations), you can download the .ics file and upload it to Google Calendar.

Are there limitations on file sizes within the Google Apps services? Please view Getting to know Google Docs: Size limits for the latest information on size and format thresholds.

How do I limit access to documents shared with others? * When sharing documents with others, use the options on the Advanced Permissions tab. Please refer to the “Limiting Access to your Docs” section of the Google Help topic Sharing: Adding viewers and editors for more information.

What are Google Groups? * Google Groups are now part of the Google Apps Education Edition. This service provides an easy way to collaborate with other members of a team, class, department or division within the college. You can also share your documents and calendars with the group instead of typing each email address. Please make sure to adhere with Google Groups Content Policy.

Is Google Groups for Google Apps different from the free version of Google Groups? * Yes. The service is similar to the free version but designed to work within the educational domain. For example, we limit the members of your group to those who have a Lowell Schools e-mail account (@lowelleducation.com) while the free version has no defined limits. Also, we have our own Groups Directory that only shows the groups within the domain. Another difference is that you are not allowed to upload files or pages to our version of Google Groups. However, you can do upload them into Google Documents or Google Sites and share them with your group members. * How are Google Groups different from contact groups? * Google groups are different from the groups you can create in your Google contacts – that is, your contact groups. The primary difference is that a Google group has its own email address, so it can be shared in our Groups directory. Your contact groups, on the other hand, are only for personal use. Google groups also provide discussion archives, optional moderation, and more. * Who can create groups? * Anyone in the lowelleducation.com domain can create a group. * How do I access one of my Google Groups? * When you sign in to your lowelleducation.com Google Mail Account, you are automatically signed into Groups (similar to Calendar, and Documents). To access Groups, just click on the more down arrow located at the top left of your Google Mail page and select the Groups link. The Groups page lists the groups you are a member of, and your profile and usage stats. To access a one of your groups, just click on the group name under My Groups. When you are in a group, Discussion topics are listed on the left pane while the right pane has links to About this group and Edit my membership. The Discussion pane lists all the topics with a brief summary, who created the post, the date it was posted, and the number of corresponding messages within that thread. If you just want to see a listing, you can click on Topic list. You could also do a search within the group by typing keywords into the Search Box and clicking on Search this group located at the top right of your group page. The group's e-mail address is listed on the bottom of the Discussion pane. * How do I post to a group? * Sign in to Google Groups Click on your group's name on My Groups panel located at the right side of the Google Groups homepage. Click the + new post link located under Discussions bar on the right side of the page. Note: If the + new post link is not available, the manager has selected to not allow posting on the web. You will need to post via Email. If your membership email is outside of the lowelleducation.com domain, you will always need to email your posts. * Is there a limit on how much I can post? * Yes, there is a limit that has been posted by Google with regards to how much postings to any single group within a short period of time, number of messages a single user or computer can post. Google doesn't have an exact number that triggers the posting limits due to spam fighting purposes. If you reach the limit, you will be notified by an e-mail from Google. * How do I email to a group? * To submit a post via e-mail, just send an email to your group's email address. The subject line of the e-mail will be the title of the post, and the body of the e-mail will be the content of the post. You can get the email of the group by replying to a post, from a link in a footer if the manager has included it, or from the About this group option in the group’s homepage. * Why is my post not showing up? * Most postings will appear in seconds or up to a few minutes. However, if the group is moderated, you have to wait for the moderator to approve the posting or email before it will show in the group's discussion pane. * How do I reply to a post? * Sign in to Google Groups. Click on your group's name on My groups panel located at the right side of the Google Groups homepage. In the Discussions list, click on the post that you want to reply to. Click on Reply link on the bottom of the posting to which you want to reply. If you want to take the discussion off-line with the person who posted, click Reply to Author. Note: If you are receiving emails from the group, you can also reply to a post from your mail account. Remember to not change the subject so that your post remains with the original thread. * Can I add and delete members? * If you manage your group, you have the ability to add and/or remove members. Some groups allow members to have the right to invite new members. However, members cannot remove members. Nor can a member add members directly – an invitation must be sent. If you have permission, an Invite members option is displayed in the left pane under Edit my membership. * Why doesn’t my group appear in the Groups Directory? * It may be that the manager did not decide to make it available in the directory. If the manager decides to change whether the displays in the directory, you may have to wait for six (6) hours before it appears there. * I know a group exists. Why can't I find it? * The group might be restricted. Restricted groups do not show up on search results unless you are a member of the group and you are logged in. If you cannot still find the group, you might need to contact the Manager of the group. * Can I send files to the group? * Yes but you can only do it through posting via e-mail. Posting on the group’s page does not allow you to attach any files. * Can I share documents with the group? * Yes. You can share documents with all the members of the group by simply typing the group's e-mail address on the Sharing option in Google Docs. * Can anyone at Lowelleducation.com read the messages posted on my groups? * Group owners and managers can prevent outside access to messages and archives. You can find out what permissions are granted to whom by going to the About this group link on the right pane of the group.

What type of encryption is used? Is it SSL? * Yes. Encrypted (TLS/SSL) connections will be enforced for all web browser sessions. All Google Apps services have the ability to be configured to require access using encryption. Encryption is also required for access to mail data by third party clients. The mobile email client also uses encrypted access to ensure the privacy of communications. Encryption is not offered on the Start Page service at this time. * How secure is Google? * Google takes security very seriously and makes extraordinary efforts to ensure the security of its servers and data centers. In fact, they employ dedicated staff to this effect. The underlying data storage technology employed by Google itself makes data theft extremely difficult. Every individual email (or file) is divided and the pieces distributed across hundreds of servers using their own proprietary file system. View Google's Security & Privacy statement for Google Apps.

Is data scanned? * Some data is scanned in order for Google to provide high-quality services such as spam filtering and indexing (for personal searching and retrieval purposes only). The scanning and indexing procedures are automated (and involve no human interaction) and not shared with third parties. “Google does not share or reveal private user content such as email or personal information with third parties except as required by law, on request by a user or system administrator, or to protect our systems.” * Where is the data stored? Is it stored centrally to save space? * Your data will be stored in Google's network of data centers, the locations of which are kept discrete for security purposes. * What is the stability of Google and what redundancy and disaster recovery do they have? * The application and network architecture run by Google is designed for maximum reliability and uptime. In fact, Google’s SLA guarantees a 99.9% uptime. All Google systems are inherently redundant by design, and each subsystem is not dependent on any particular physical or logical server for ongoing operation. Data is replicated multiple times across Google's clustered active servers, so, in the case of a machine failure, data will still be accessible through another system. * What is Google’s maintenance schedule? * The SLA allows for no more than twelve hours of downtime per calendar year. All periods of downtime will be announced at least 5 days in advance.