Thing #45 Account Settings

The inspiration for Thing #45 came to me the other day when I was setting up a brand new Gmail account for an organization I belong to. As I was doing this I took the time to run through all of the Settings options and was surprised by a few of the things that I found. Whenever I set up a new account I usually take the time to run through the settings but I don’t think I truly understand the impact of some of the settings until I’ve used a product on a regular bases. The available settings may also change over time as companies improve their products. Needless to say I found a few settings that I had to change in my own Gmail account.

For Thing#45 we are going to spend some time exploring settings. There are two parts to the Thing #45 assignment. For the first part I want everyone to spend some time looking at all of the Settings that are available for your blog in Blogger. (As I’m sure you can guess, you will also be asked to blog about the experience.) To help you get started I’m going to highlight some settings that I think you might find useful.

Part I

Blogger

Start by going to the Blogger Dashboard. Under the heading for your blog you should find a link to Settings. When you are on the Settings tab there will be a number of subtopic links towards the top of your screen (Basics, Publishing, Formatting...).

Basic: While looking at the Basic screen I realized I was using the old post editor. This option can be found towards the bottom of the page under the heading of Global Settings. I am now using the Updated Editor.

Formatting: Is your Time Zone correct?

Comments - Comment Notification Email: This is the last option on the page. Everyone should put their email address in this box. This way you will be notified when someone comments on one of your posts. If you haven’t been keeping up on your comments you might want to view the comments left on your blog. Just to the left of the Settings tab you will see the Comments tab. This page will display all of the comments that have been left on your blog.

Next let’s move on to the Design tab where you can obviously change the design of your blog. If you’re ready to create a new look for you blog check out the Template Designer. On this page you can also add or remove gadgets. There is one set of options on this page that I think are easy to overlook. In the Add and Arrange Page Elements area there is a square labeled Blog Posts. Click on the Edit link in that square. You will now see a couple of Main Page Options and Post Page Options. Two options I don’t remember seeing before are the Reactions and the Show Share Buttons.

When you’re poking around looking at the settings and options I think it’s a good time to spend a few minutes making sure you profile information is still correct. When you are on the Dashboard you will find links to Edit Profile and Edit Photo.

Part 2

For the next part of your assignment you will need to select another online tool that you use and go over the account information and settings. Here are some examples of things you may want to look at in a number of different online tools.

Gmail (The Settings link is located in the upper right had corner of the page.)

General – Signature: It’s important to set up a signature file for any email account you use for official library business. Your signature file should contain at least the basic information such as your name, the library name, and library phone number so the person receiving the email will know who you are and where you’re from.

General - Browser connection: If your account is not already set to “Always use https” you may want to consider changing it. Follow the Learn More link that Google provides to learn more about why you may want to use this.

Accounts and Import - Grant access to your account (Allow others to read and send mail on your behalf): This option could be useful if you have a Gmail account that more than one person needs to access, such as a basic library email account. Follow the Learn More link that Google provides to learn more.

Labs: I’m not going to take the time to talk about Google Labs today. It’s a large enough topic that it could be its own Thing. If you like playing around with “Some crazy experimental stuff.” then you might want to check it out.

Themes: If you haven’t changed the look of your account in awhile Google added five new themes in November.

An easy way to stay up-to-date on what’s going on with Gmail is to follow the Gmail Blog.



Google Reader (There are settings in multiple places that you can tweak.)

Settings - The Settings link is located in the upper right had corner of the page.

Subscriptions: Use the options on this page to organize your feeds using folders.

If you go “Back to Google Reader” There is some addition customization options available on the main reader screen. On the left hand side of the screen next to the heading Subscriptions you should see a small down arrow. Clicking this arrow displays a list of options. A couple of settings worth checking out are the sort options and Show All or Show Updated. If Show Updated is selected you will only see subscriptions that have new items, the rest of your subscriptions will not display until they contain new items.

An easy way to stay up-to-date on what’s going on with Google Reader is to follow the Google Reader Blog.

Facebook (The Account Settings and Privacy Settings are located under Account in the top right corner.)

There’s one new setting I wanted to mention in Facebook. In recent post on the Facebook Blog titled A Continued Commitment to Security they talk about secured connections and how they are going to be rolling out an HTTPS option. The post tells you how to enable this option, however I just checked my account and I do not have the option yet so I’ll have to check again in a few days.

If you are a Facebook user you know there are a ton of other settings available but I’m not going to cover any of them in detail. That said however please take a few minutes to review all of your Facebook Account Settings and Privacy Settings because you never know what you might find.

In Addition...

Before I started writing this Thing #45 I asked Christa, Michael, and Susan if they had any suggestions on settings I should be sure to point out. Here are a couple of suggestions Michael had.

Twitter: Under Settings – Account - Tweet Location. Enabling this option adds a location to your tweets

Flickr: Connect your Flickr account to Facebook and upload pictures to Flickr by email.
Thanks Michael!

Since last month’s Thing was on Foursquare I wanted to take a moment and point any folks who are working in the academic world to a new post on the Foursquare blog. The post is titled: Foursquare University badges now available at all schools, worldwide!

Assignment

1. Spend some time exploring the settings available for your blog in Blogger. If you haven’t already done so please enter your email address into the Comment Notification Email option. Blog about your experience as you explored the settings. If you need some ideas about what to write check out the list of questions below.
2. For the next part of your assignment you will need to select another online service that you use and go over the account information and settings. You do not have to use one of the sites that mentioned, just pick a service that you use. After you are done please blog about your experience.

Suggested questions you can answer in your blog post.

• When was the last time you reviewed the settings of your accounts?
• In addition to Blogger what other site did you look at? 
• Did you look at more than just one additional site, if so which ones? What motivated you to look at more? 
• Did you find any settings that changed/fixed a problem or issue you’ve had?
• What settings were you most excited to find?
• Did you find a setting or multiple settings that you think all of us need to know about? (Please share I’d like to know!)
• Was it worth your time going back and reviewing the account settings?