Tips When Using Gmail IMAP

While we’re on the topic of IMAP, Gmail’s new feature, I thought I would share a few tips.

TIP #1

Don’t use the e-mail client’s automatic spam settings. Why? Gmail already filters out the majority of spam anyway. Sometimes a few e-mails do get through. When they do, you don’t want to open up a browser and then mark it as spam. You want to do this directly from the client, right?

Because Gmail already does a great job in detecting spam, I don’t let Thunderbird automatically check for spam, because if I’m going to use more than one client, I don’t want to deal with having to train them all and figure out which one is sending good e-mail to the Spam folder.

If you use Thunderbird and don’t want it to check for spam, but you want to manually send spam to Gmail’s Spam folder using the Junk button, follow these steps:

1. Click on Tools in the menu.
2. Click on Account Settings….
3. Click on Junk Settings in your Gmail account.
4. Uncheck Enable adaptive junk mail controls for this account.
5. Uncheck Trust junk mail headers set by:.
6. Check Move new junk messages to:.
7. Select Other: and choose the Spam folder for your Gmail account.

Moving an e-mail to your Gmail account’s Spam folder also marks the message as spam.

TIP #2

Use Gmail’s filters, not the client’s. This is very important when using multiple clients, because if you set a filter in one client, you have to set the same filter in other clients that you will be using. If you use the same client on different computers, this could easily be done by importing your settings. But, if you’re going to check Gmail in the browser, too, then it’s best to use Gmail’s filters.

At first, this might seem like a huge task, because you have to set filters for any e-mails you receive if you want them to move to specific folders. Once it’s done, you don’t have to do it again. I recommend using the archive setting with filters. If you don’t, when you delete a message, it may delete it from that folder (removing the current label), but it will still appear in your Inbox.

To set filters and use the archive setting, follow these steps:

1. In Gmail, click on the e-mail you want to set a filter for.
2. Click on Create a filter next to the Search button at the top.
3. Enter in an e-mail address, name, subject, etc. Not necessarily all of those, but at least one so Gmail knows what it’s looking for. I usually use a wild card in the e-mail address: *@domain.com so it catches all e-mails at that domain.
4. Click Next Step.
5. Check Skip the Inbox (Archive it).
6. Check Apply the label:. Select the label from the drop down. (If you select the label first, it will automatically check Apply the label: option which saves one step). Don’t worry if you haven’t created the label yet, at the bottom of the list, you will see New label….
7. If Gmail found more than one e-mail matching your filter, you can apply this filter to all of those e-mails when creating it. Check Also apply filter to X conversations below.
8. Click Create Filter.

You have successfully created a new filter and it will be applied to any future e-mails that match the filter.

TIP #3

Don’t apply more than one label. Labels can be useful as tags, but if you want to delete an e-mail permanently, you need to remember to remove all labels from it, or it will still exist. I think Gmail should have folders and use labels as tags. Just like on a blog, you have categories and then you have tags.

TIP #4

This tip is more about saving time if you have several e-mail accounts. Gmail allows you to receive POP e-mail from other accounts. With the new IMAP feature, you can now receive e-mail from all of your accounts in one place and any changes such as deleting an e-mail will be seen no matter where you check your e-mail.

TIP #5

Outlook didn’t seem to have this problem, but Thunderbird doesn’t update the folders to show that there are new messages. It only updates the Inbox. Subscribing to all of the folders doesn’t update the folders. There is another option that must be set in order to update folders.

1. Right click on a folder and select Properties….
2. Check Check this folder for new messages.
3. Click OK.

Once you’ve done that to all of the folders, they will start showing whether there is new mail or not.

OTHER TIPS

• Opening a message will mark the e-mail as read.
• Flagging a message will apply a star to the e-mail. Most e-mail clients show flags, but in Thunderbird, it’s stars.
• Moving an e-mail to a folder applies a label to the e-mail and removes the current label.
• Moving an e-mail to Gmail’s All Mail folder will archive it. If there isn’t a label applied to the e-mail, remember that you can find that e-mail in the All Mail folder again.
• Moving an e-mail to Gmail’s Trash folder removes the current label and moves the e-mail to Trash.
• If you delete an e-mail in Gmail’s Inbox, it removes it from the Inbox. If you delete an e-mail from a folder it will remove the label. But, if the e-mail isn’t archived it will still exist in your Inbox.
• Deleting an e-mail from Gmail’s Trash or Spam folders is permanent and they will be completely deleted.
• Creating a new folder will create a new label in Gmail.

I recommend using Thunderbird. I am a huge fan of Outlook. But, I started to realize that Outlook is not that fast or easy to set up with IMAP compared to Thunderbird. Thunderbird and Gmail go great together.

If you have any useful tips to share, please leave a comment.

How To Set Up Gmail IMAP with Outlook Express and Thunderbird

I already talked about the new IMAP feature in Gmail that hopefully you have access to. If not, be patient, it will come. David Risley from PCMechanic has a great how-to video for setting up Gmail IMAP on both Outlook Express and Thunderbird.

The first step is to make sure you have the IMAP feature in your Gmail account and that it is enabled. If you are going to use Thunderbird, make sure to download and install it. Outlook Express should already be installed if you have Windows. I recommend using Thunderbird. In fact, even though I love Outlook (not Outlook Express), Thunderbird is much faster.

His video is very easy to understand. Follow the steps for either Outlook Express or Thunderbird and Gmail IMAP should work in either client.

Be sure that you are setting up an IMAP account and not POP. For the mail servers, they would be:

• Incoming: imap.gmail.com (port 993 with secure connection)
• Outgoing: smtp.gmail.com (port 465 with secure connection)

Something to keep in mind that David Risley did not mention in the video. Some clients will automatically set the Gmail POP server for you after you enter in your Gmail account. You do not want this. When adding a new account in any client, if you see an option to select Gmail, you want to avoid that unless you want to set up Gmail POP.

Also, if you use Gmail to receive e-mails from other POP accounts, make sure you add the outgoing servers to your client otherwise you may find yourself replying with the wrong account. Thunderbird will automatically select the correct account when replying.

Towards the end of the video, he talks about a few features that Thunderbird has. One useful feature to prevent confusion when going from Gmail to Thunderbird is that Thunderbird actually shows stars for starred e-mails. Outlook and Outlook Express display them as flags.

For me, Thunderbird may be my number one choice. I had tried it before, but didn’t like not having a calendar built in and not being able to export my mail. Now that I can use IMAP, I don’t need to worry about exporting if I ever decide to change e-mail clients. I was a huge fan of Outlook, but compared to Thunderbird, Outlook is really slow with this new IMAP feature.

4 Favorite Media Players Reviewed

I have tried so many media players over the years and they each have something good. I wish they could be mashed together to create the one media player that everyone wants and loves without the huge memory consumption.

Winamp was my first media player years ago. Then I had Windows XP for an operating system and I was using Windows Media Player. I used to strictly use Windows Media Player, because it’s already there. Why install more when it could do everything I needed? Now that I have an iPod, I have to use iTunes as well, which just duplicates my music collection. Sure, I could purchase a plug-in for Windows Media Player, but I would rather not.

The media players that I’m writing about are: Winamp, iTunes, Windows Media Player, and Songbird.

Winamp

Winamp has been around for so many years and is probably one of the top media players chosen by most. I never thought Winamp could improve. It was always lacking some features, which would require installing a plug-in. It has always been my favorite since the beginning, because it plays just about everything and supports skinning with a large community actively contributing.

I like that it now has a notification popup above the system tray. I am someone who minimizes everything to the tray if possible. I like a clean desktop. If I’m not currently using it, I don’t want it showing (less distractions). When the song title is longer or shorter than the previously displayed one, the popup shrinks or grows smoothly.

This version of Winamp is their 10th Anniversary Edition, 5.5. The last time I used Winamp, I think it was version 3.0! Winamp has improved a lot over the years.

Winamp is probably a great alternative to iTunes because it now supports connecting an iPod and downloading podcasts, too.

Another must-have feature that most media players have been including is album covers. It makes you feel like you’re looking at your CD collection, instead of just a file collection on the computer, which allows for easier browsing. Winamp now includes album art and support for it on portable devices! Winamp seems to do a better job at finding album covers than iTunes (I don’t buy all of my music through the iTunes store). Winamp is possibly just as good as Windows Media Player, but Windows Media Player allows you to search for them if it can’t find them.

A Winamp toolbar was also added for the browser, but I opted to not install it, because I hate toolbars. But, for those of you who like filling up the top of your browser with unnecessary useful toolbars, you can now control Winamp from your browser.

When using the Winamp Browser and viewing a site (e.g. fluxblog) with music on it, the music will play in Winamp as if it was local. This could save you time from using your regular browser and downloading the music and then telling it to play in Winamp.

Plays an insane amount of audio and video types: see them all!

Winamp has always tried to support most file types. File types supported by Winamp: AAC, AIF, AIFF, AU, AVI, CDA, MID, MIDI, MOD, MP1, MP2, MP3, M3U, MP4, MPEG, MPG, OGG, WAV, WMA, WMV and lots more I have never heard of!

Winamp probably has more features than other media players and uses very little resources. Check out the many (new and improved) features that Winamp has. Winamp has become my favorite again.

iTunes

iTunes is usually installed on Windows if you own an iPod. If I didn’t own an iPod, I wouldn’t use iTunes. One cool thing in iTunes that I like is the album cover view. Even nicer when used in fullscreen view.

Besides supporting iPod connectivity, you can also select what you want synced to the iPod. I do like that iTunes remembers and shows you what songs you have selected to sync with the iPod while still listing the songs that aren’t on the iPod. For podcasts, you can set it to sync only the most recent ones or even ones that haven’t been played yet.

iTunes is very easy to navigate. It isn’t overloaded with tons of features like some media players are, which can take time setting up for the first time.

A few things about iTunes I don’t like are:

• Converting most of my songs and taking forever to do it. Even though this is done just once, I don’t like having duplicates!
• iTunes also is not that great for finding album covers. I have some that just display the musical note instead of the actual cover. Windows Media Player and Winamp both do a much better job.
• When deleting a song, it displays a progress window and the progress bar takes a long time to complete.
• I can’t just click how many stars I want when rating songs. iTunes makes me right click on a song and move the cursor over ‘Rating’ and then click how many stars I want to rate it.

It’s not that I don’t like iTunes, it’s that there are too many features I don’t like. If iTunes didn’t feel the need to convert a lot of my songs, I would be happy.

Windows Media Player

Windows Media Player comes with Windows, so this may be the most used media player available. I’ve never had a problem with Windows Media Player as long as it played my MP3s.

Microsoft made many improvements to Windows Media Player which was very much needed. It now looks a lot better than it did. Although the previous versions allowed you to install skins, they were ugly.

I have to admit, Windows Media Player is fast when loading and importing songs. Possibly faster than other media players.

Another reason why I like Windows Media Player over some is that I can display a mini version of it on the taskbar giving me access at all times. It displays the current song playing and also the visualization if you choose. Even watch a movie in a tiny screen.

With a large collection of CDs, it can take a very long time to rip them. Windows Media Player does this very quickly. This may vary depending on your computer.

The new version lets you share media to the XBox 360 or another digital media receiver. Before, you would have to install another program to share. Also browse and sync your library to a portable device. No iPod support! Thumbs down, Microsoft!

If you need to play many different file types, Windows Media Player may not be the right one. It’s limited to just several. I’m surprised it even plays MP3s!

Songbird

As you can see in the screenshot, Songbird can have a similar album view like iTunes. It’s pretty, but slow. The album view in iTunes is faster and a little better looking.

Songbird^â„¢ is a desktop Web player, a digital jukebox and Web browser mash-up. Like Winamp, it supports extensions and skins feathers. Like Firefox^®, it is built from Mozilla^®, cross-platform and open source.

Besides looking good, it has some really nice features:

• Supports many file types.
• Themes
• Three repeat modes.
• Mini mode
• Create your own custom mixes.
• Browse the web for music to play.
• Extensions
• Sync your iPod!
• and more.

Since I use iTunes to download new podcasts and sync them to my iPod, the library changes. When I loaded Songbird, it popped up a window saying it detected changes in my iTunes library and asked if I want to import those changes into Songbird. Of course! This is a great feature if I must have iTunes and another media player installed together.

I’m not very fond of the Cheesy Video Window when watching a video. Yes, it’s really called that. I’d like to see it open in the main Songbird window. It’s okay when playing videos. I had noticed it skipping a little, may have been my system actively doing something.

Songbird is fairly quick when importing, but don’t expect to do anything in Songbird until the importing process is complete. It wouldn’t let me. I’m sure that will change as newer versions are released.

Another great feature is that it will check for any updates just like Firefox and download and install the updates for you. No manual work involved!

Watch the screencast to see what Songbird is like. If Songbird keeps improving, it may replace the other media players for me. But, that Cheesy Video Window must go!

Other Media Players

Other media players that didn’t make my list:

• BSPlayer would have made the list if it wasn’t for the free version having advertisements. The cost of the pro version isn’t too bad though, but I’m not interested in buying a media player when I can get a good one for free.
• Amarok would have also made it if it was cross-platform. Unfortunately, it’s only for Linux. It is my favorite media player when using Linux! Can also sync the iPod with Amarok.

Check out some screenshots of media players over at Lifehacker’s Media Player Show and Tell. Many of the screenshots are of Foobar, which is a media player I have never tried.

I want a media player that is fast like Windows Media Player, has a mini player window like Winamp and Songbird, has an album view like iTunes, syncs to my iPod, displays what will be synced to the iPod like iTunes does, minimizes to the system tray, lets me rate songs like Winamp does, and has a notification popup displaying what song is playing. Or, I guess depending on the mood I’m in, I can keep all four installed and use either one. I really don’t want to.

Which media player(s) do you use and why do you prefer it/them over the others?

New Content & Look

Previously, I had said that I will not write on the weekends, but this is an important update that I wanted to have done before the weekend was over.

One obvious change is the look of Soft Tech Reviews. I had used Revolution by Brian Gardner before he released the Revolution News Theme, along with a few different styles. I really like the Magazine style for it. Before I saw the style, I was already considering on adding something new to the site, but wasn’t sure how to go about displaying it. This theme is perfect for what I want.

The new content is videos. Not videos created by myself, but videos that are related to the topics I write here. Every so often I do add a video to a post, but I would like to include more in its own section. Currently, there is only one video post, so I am not going to display a list until there is more.

If there is anything out of place or any errors appearing, please let me know.

How To Create a Basic Website Layout

This video shows you how to create a basic website layout using Photoshop. If you’re familiar with Photoshop, it shouldn’t be hard to follow the video. If you’re new to Photoshop, it might be a little more difficult, because the video is so small that you can’t see some of what is shown. It doesn’t go into showing you how to slice and then code it. It only shows you how to create the design.