Setting Up Groups in Gmail (User Notes No. 1)

If you’re still getting used to Gmail, don’t feel bad. So am I. It’s a great tool, but many of the functions it offers are less intuitive than one could hope. For example, setting up “Groups.”

Part of the difficulty is that “groups” can mean different things within the realm of Google. In this case, let’s talk about grouping your contacts so you can quickly send an email to a specific set of people.

Gmail automatically collects all the email addresses you send to and receive from, but it's up to you to add them to your “My Contacts” list. With a particular email open, look around for a "More" drop down menu and the option to "Add to My Contacts." One place you can find that is by rolling over the email address displayed at the top of the open email. That brings up the Chat window, which has that More button at the bottom. It's a bit of a bother, but worth taking the time to do.

You also can add new contacts by typing in the information, and you can enter additional information for any contact, but that’s not necessary to set up groups of email addresses. The thing that is necessary, however, is that you set up the group or groups you want to use.

Like most Google things, it’s easy, but it helps to know how to proceed. Let’s assume you want to set up a group and call it “Other.”

Begin by selecting Contacts from the three main options (Mail – Contacts – Tasks). If you’re still using the old look (shown on left), that’s in the upper left corner of the window, directly under the Gmail logo.

In the new look (right) you’ll need to go to the pull down menu associated with Gmail.

Next create a new group called Other by clicking on New Group from the list on the left side of the screen.

Once the group is created, simply go down your list of contacts and check all those that you want to be labeled as part of Other. Then click on the Groups button, which only appears if you have one or more contacts checked. In the old look it says Groups; in the new look it’s just a set of three heads. Select Other from the drop down menu, and click Apply.

The nice thing is that you don't have to pick just one group for a person to belong to. Each contact can be labeled as being in a bunch of different groups.

Once a group is set up, it’s easy to send an email to the whole group. Just select Mail (or Gmail in the new look), then Compose mail (or Compose in the new look). Start typing the group name in the “To” field, select the suggested group, and it will automatically insert everyone's email addresses.

One note of caution – make sure all the contacts you put into the group actually have email addresses as part of their information or they won’t get the email.

As it says on the big red Staples button, that was easy.

The Joy of Discovery

The last few days of December we spent visiting our son in Hoboken, N.J., which by the way is a gem of a town. Among other things, it's home to Carlo's Bake Shop, on Washington Street just across the street and half a block down from our son's apartment. It dates back to the early 20th century and today is known as the home of the Cake Boss, as seen on HGTV, but I digress.

Our first day there, we walked all around this "square mile" city, so designated because it's square and about a mile on each side. Situated immediately across the Hudson River from Manhattan, Hoboken stands out in my mind as being the home to Stevens Institute of Technology. I never realized what a center of engineering education this was, but I did recognize the name from my days in engineering school when we used a batch compiler named SITGO, which was developed at the school. Apparently the SITGO compiler played a critical role in making sure our FORTAN programs were debugged enough to make it worth actually doing the computer run. Ah yes, those were the days. But I digress.


We came in at the upper end of the campus and wandered among the academic halls. It's definitely a city school, and although its roots go way back - there's a Gatehouse that dates to the mid-1800s - the campus is definitely laid out to accommodate the city grid. As we walked down the hill between Stevens and McLean halls, I suddenly saw an old friend - an AISC Steel Sculpture! What a delightful surprise to unexpectedly come across this distinctive compilation of steel components, just waiting for us to come along.

After explaining to my family why I was so pleased to stumble across the sculpture, I studied for a few moments how best to capture an image of it. Fortunately, in this digital age, it's easy and inexpensive to capture a half dozen images or more and sort them out later, so I did.

It turns out, in reflection, that this may be a very distinctive AISC Steel Sculpture. Constructed in 1995, it is one of more than 140 built over the last quarter century, but may be the only one that is within view of the new World Trade Center tower being constructed in Lower Manhattan. In this photo you can see between the telephone pole on the left and the lowest steel beam sticking out from the sculpture the cranes atop 1 WTC.

The Stevens Institute steel sculpture is just north of Court Street on the west side of Fifth Street (aka River Terrace). If you happen to be in the New York area and would like to see this teaching tool firsthand, just take the PATH to Hoboken and walk a couple blocks north. Then simply consult the handy maps that are posted in the area nearby.

For some background on the AISC Steel Sculpture, which was originally conceived by Duane Ellifritt, you can visit www.aisc.org/steelsculpture. (You can also download a free set of plans there.) To get a better appreciation for what an artist Ellifritt is, see the profile at www.modernsteel.com/Uploads/Issues/October_2011/102011_people.pdf. For a photo gallery of many of the steel sculpture that have been built on college and university campuses across the U.S. and around the world, go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/aisceducation/sets/72157622300372721/.