Customize Your Chrome Google Apps Launcher

Figure 1
Apps Launcher Menu

<--- When you use the little grid in the Chrome browser to switch between Gmail,  Drive or other Google Apps, is the Apps Launcher menu meaningful to you?  Are the resulting choices apps you don't need?  Do you have to go searching for the ones you do need?

Well, here is a quick way to customize your Apps Launcher with Google Apps and other links that you use frequently.

1. Click this link to locate and install the App Launcher Customizer Tool.
2. Re-open or reload your Chrome browser.
3. Click on the App Launcher grid again, scroll down to the bottom and click on "Configure". 
4. Now you can drag apps to and from the right pane to add or remove them from your App Launcher menu. 

Mail Merging for Google Drive with autoCrat

I love Google Drive, but there are a few things that have still been quicker and easier for me to in Microsoft Office or iWork.  One of those things is a mail merge, which I can do in just a minute or two in Excel/Word.

A mail merge is used to pull data from a spreadsheet into a document, such as mailing labels, form letters, permission slips, or any template document that needs a unique piece of information on each one.

I used a Google Script called "autoCrat".  Here is more information about the script.

How it works:

1. Create a Google Spreadsheet with a column heading for each piece of information needed for the letter or other document.
2. Create a Google Document and use anchors wherever external information will be pulled from a spreadsheet.  
• Example:  Dear <<firstname>> <<lastname>>
• Note that anything contained in the <<>> tells the doc to go find information somewhere else and...
• Text within the <<>> must exactly match the column heading in the spreadsheet.
3. In the spreadsheet, click Tools-->Script Gallery and search for autoCrat.  Click the Install button. Now you will see an additional option added to your Spreadsheet
   
4. Click the autoCrat pull-down menu and select Run Initial Configuration. 
5. Follow prompts that walk through the script setup or use THIS step-by-step document as a guide.

This is very slick!  Give it a try or contact me if you want me to walk you through it.