Google Spreadsheet: Copy Sheets Between Files

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Google Spreadsheet continues to rapidly mature.  You can now copy a Sheet from one spreadsheet to another.  This feature increases your ability to manage data, distribute sheets for gathering information, and organize your information

Learn more …

Google Security: Enterprise Tools for Mobile Security

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Google recently added new security features for managing mobile users.  Administrators can now:

Remotely wipe all data from lost or stolen mobile devices.
Lock idle devices after a period of inactivity.
Require a device password on each phone.
Set minimum lengths for more secure passwords.
Require passwords to include letters, numbers and punctuation

These features are available for iPhone and most Nokia and Windows Mobile devices.

Want help implementing, contact us.

Google Apps Helpful Hint: Delegation in MS Outlook

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If you delegate your email and calendar in Google Apps (Premier or Education editions), the person to whom you delegate, can handle messages and calendar events on your behalf from the Outlook client if you are using the Google Apps Sync for MS Outlook tool.

When you grant access to your account in Gmail, and share your primary Calendar, those messages and events are synced to the Outlook client. The person to whom you delegate can then receive and answer email on your behalf, as well as create and respond to calendar invitations on your behalf.

Click here to learn how to delegate access

Google Apps Helpful Hint: Subscribe to Resource Calendars

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Want to add resource calendar (conference rooms, etc.)  information to your calendar,  follow these easy steps:

  • In Calendar Settings, go to the ‘Calendars’ tab
  • ‘Browse interesting calendars’
  • Yhen ‘More’
  • You will see an option for the resources at your domain
    • Clicking on this allows you to either preview the calendar or subscribe

Did you miss these Google Docs updates?

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Over the past several weeks and months, Google has released many updates to Google Docs.  While the big updates — such as uploading of any file type — get a lot of attention, here are a few that you may have missed:

  • Thumbnail View in the Docs List
    • By selecting the this view for your document list, you can now see a thumbnail image of your document when viewing the list or searching.  When combined with search by relevance, the thumbnail view makes it really easy to find the file you’re looking for.
  • Spelling correction when searching for a doc
    • When searching for a document, the search bar now recognizes common misspellings and prompts you for corrections.
  • Upload any file limit increased from 250MB to 1GB
    • When uploading a file that you are not converting to Google Docs formats, the size limit is now 1GB.

You can learn more about these features here.

New Google Apps Security Against an Idle Threat

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While security breaches related to Google products make great headlines, the all have one thing in common.  The user’s identity was comprimised.  In some cases, users had passwords that were easy to guess given publicly available information.  In other instances, users downloaded malware from infected web sites that let hackers read the usernames as passwords.

This week, Google provided Google Apps Premier and Education Edition admins a new tool against this threat.

Administrators can now reset sign-in cookies from the Control Panel.  So, even if users have the “Stay signed in” box checked, the next time to open Google Apps, they will be forced to login.  In doing this, Admins can reset the sign-in status of all users and prevent accidental access.

IT’s Mission Should Be IS

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Cloud computing, and other technologies, do enable users to do more with less IT involvement. These architectural shifts should also shift resources from commodity infrastructure to high-value work.

If Cloud Computing is changing an IT group’s mission, than the mission has been wrong.  Even the name IT puts the emphasis on “Technology”.

IT should (and will) continue to evolve into IS — Information Services — which focuses on meeting the informational and operational needs of the users (i.e. the business) rather than on the technology used to deliver the services.

When it Comes to Phishing, is Honesty the Best Policy?

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Those of us in the anti-spam business have been scratching our heads recently as the number of messages getting through some of the best spam filters has jumped in recent weeks.  Many of these messages are phishing attempts with something in common.

The phishing messages do not attempt to hide their motive.

Huh?

That’s right.  The majority of the message is classic phishing.  Realistic sounding text (often without the grammatical issues) about account validation requirements and legitimate links to a real institution’s web sites.  The “action” link, however, is not hidden.  Recipients see that the link is to some weird URL that in no way looks like the organization supposedly sending the message.

Since spam filters are on the lookout for obfuscated URLs, having the URLs in the open seems to let the phishing messages fly just under the radar.

And clearly, those behind the phishing attack believe the enough recipients will click on the bad URL even though it doesn’t even look safe.  And, the sad fact is, they are probably right.

Recipient Beware.

Google Increments Security Settings

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Back in January, Google announced that for Gmail, default access would shift to https (using SSL).   This change, impacting all versions of Google Apps, is a welcome move to ensure secure communication data in-transit as well as at-rest.

Our recommendation remains that all Google Apps Premier and Education Edition users force SSL use for ALL Google Apps services.  While this may complication connecting older scanning devices, the additional security is worth the need for the occasional work-around.

Google Docs’ “Upload Any File” Has Limitations

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In January, Google announced that users can upload files of any time and save them in Google Docs.  With 1GB of space per user, the feature provides limited ability to begin using Google Docs as a file server.

The API implementation — the interface used by programmers — has limitations beyond those in the end user web interface.

  • Only Google Apps Premier Edition allows uploading files of any type, without conversion, to Google Docs.  Somewhat surprisingly, this feature is not available for the Education Edition users.
  • File sizes are limited to 250 MB

What this means is that programs built for the commercial sector will not work for educational institutions and non-profits using Google Apps Education Edition.

W e suspect there are many factors in this decision.  One such issue may be that the Education Edition is free and Google has not yet announced if/how Education Edition users will be able to purchase more space.   Time will tell if this limitation is temporary or part of a larger plan.