Google Applications Training and Tutorials
This page provides access to Google Apps training and tutorials as well as Quick Reference Guides to ensure students are able to make the most of their Google Apps account. Google provides a variety of tools to help you learn how to use each part of the Google Apps suite at the University of Adelaide.
Account ID and Email Address
It is important that students understand the difference between account ID and the email address. The account ID (user ID) is the axxxxxxx user identification that is used for access to UofA systems, including email, file storage and applications. This ID is translated into an email address which is displayed as firstname.lastname@student.adelaide.edu.au.
Google Apps will look at the account ID to identify you, and this will show on the title bar of the browser when you are logged into your account. The account ID will also show when you receive an invitation from a fellow student to chat. You can change the display name yourself so the contact in your chat list appears as firstname.lastname, check out the Chat Quick Reference Guide to learn how!
Supported Browsers
The following browsers are preferred, Google Apps may work with older browsers but not all features will be available:
- Netscape 7.1 and later
- Internet Explorer 7.1 (not all features are available with IE 6.0)
- Firefox 2.0 and later (not all features are available with Firefox 1.2)
- Safari 1.3 and later
- Google Chrome
There appear to be recurring problems with IE7 for holders of commercial Gmail accounts as well as Google Applications users (accross the globe) as reported in the Google Knowledge Base. The issues are related to logging in, blank screens, eternal loops and constant refreshes of browser windows. The workstations in the student labs in the University campus have fixes applied to overcome a significant number of IE7 related issues. Personal laptops and workstations used by students on campus or at home will not have the same configuration applied.
There are settings you can change when these problems occur described in this Quick Reference Guide. You may also consider switching to Firefox (2 and up) from IE7 as we hear from students that this fixes problems.
General Google Apps Overview
Google Apps consists of a quite of collaboration tools and includes Gmail, Calendar, Talk, Docs, Site and a Start page. The UofA are implementing only a sub set of Google Apps:
- Gmail
- Chat (Google Talk)
- Calendar
Other applications in the Google Apps suite of products may be implemented in the near future.
Google Apps overview presentation 6 Minutes Training Video
 Gmail Training
 Google Talk Training (Chat)
 Google Calendar Training
Other Google Apps features
Google Apps Quick Reference Guides
Important to note: Google Apps has been developed to suit as many University environments as possible accross the globe and will function differently than webmail. Students need to familiarise themselves with the Google Apps tools and how they will work in the UofA environment. There are features that will require you to change certain settings in your account; the following Quick Reference Guides willl guide you through.
UofA Google Apps Signup process
This QRG describes the signup process with step by step instructions - Sign Up QRG
UofA Google Apps Email Migration process
This QRG describes the email migration process with step by step instructions - Email Migration QRG
UofA Google Apps Account Settings
This QRG provides instructions how to change account settings in your Google Apps account - Settings QRG
Google Apps Gadgets
Google Apps has inbuilt gadgets (aka widgets, small applications) such as the Google Talk feature, but there are also custom gadgets you can enable to increase the functionality of your account - Gadget QRG
UofA Staff Address List Installation Guide
Google Apps provides all @student.adelaide.edu.au addresses in the contacts list. Staff and faculty addresses need to be added to the student email (Gmail) interface so they are available to students within Google Applications. This QRG provides instructions how to install the UofA staff adress search function - UofA staff address search
You may wish to read the Google Apps Gadgets reference guide as well.
POP/IMAP configuration Guide
This QRG provides instructions how to configure an Outlook/Thunderbird client with Google Applications - POP/IMAP QRG
Incoming and outgoing servers are in the reference guide, and the settings have been updated to ensure SSL is ticked in your client.
Please note that the use of a client to access your Gmail account on a laptop or workstation at home, assumes that you accept that you configure this at your own risk. From time to time, students inadvertently delete emails by changing these configurations and unfortunately, there are no restores possible should this occur.
Google Chat
This QRG provides instructions how to use the Google Talk Chat client in the UofA environment and how to manage how user IDs appear in your chat buddy list - Chat QRG
Where to go for additional assistance?
Answer
Google has a significant amount of How To documents and FAQs in the Google Apps Help Centre. You may also request additional assistance from the ITS Helpdesk on 8303 3000.
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