Additional Resources

Google Groups uses a similar format to Gmail. 

The main difference is Google Groups consist of shared email accounts rather than your own individual email address. 

You can assign email messages to yourself or your colleague to action. You can mark an email as complete, duplicate or no action required. You can also add different labels to categorise your emails. 

To access your Google Groups, simply open up your Google Chrome and click on the application Groups for Business. 

This will open up a new tab. Your My groups will instantly display on the first screen. On the left of your Google Groups screen, you will see a list of options: My groups, Recent groups, All groups, and Favourite groups. 

Your My groups contain the groups you have access to and can complete actions within these groups. 

Your Recent groups display the groups you’ve recently used within the application for easy access. 

Your All groups will contain all the groups you are associated with but may not have access to the content. For example, you may have access to The Project Chrome group but may not have access to the Columbia Admin group. 

This is because each staff member in specific roles will only have access to groups they require access to, to complete daily tasks. 

Your Favourite groups will contain groups that you’ve starred to categorise your favourite groups. 

You will mainly access your My groups option to action relevant emails within different groups. Click on one of your My groups that is displayed on your screen. 

A list of email Conversations will display on your screen. The title of your My group will appear up the top, a search bar will be above the title. 

You can search for past conversations in this space. This is where you can favourite a group. 

There will be a small star to the left of the title where you can click the star and this will add the group in your Favourite groups.

On the left of your screen, the same list of options will appear but below this, there are more options available. Conversations, Labels, Members, About, My membership settings will be listed below the same options previously mentioned. 

Conversations contain all the conversations within the Google group. 

Labels contain any labels you might create to categorise different conversations. 

Members contain all the members within the specific Google group. 

About contains a description of the Google group and why it exists. 

My membership settings contains options for your subscription and your email used for the membership if applicable. There is no need for you to do anything in this option. 

In your list of Conversations, you can click on a specific email to open its content. Little icons will appear above the conversation. 

These icons give you the options to Assign to me, Assign to someone, Mark as complete, Mark as duplicate, No action required, Report abuse or Labels. 

You can select one of these options where required to categorise when conversations are being actioned and when these tasks are completed. 

Navigate back to your main Conversations page by clicking the back arrow in the top left below the search bar. 

When a conversation hasn’t been opened by you, it will appear highlighted in white. After you’ve opened the conversation, it will grey out.

When you select one of the icons within the conversation, for example Assign to me, your email profile picture and the word Me will appear to the right of the specific conversation in the Google group list view. 

If you assign a conversation to someone else, their profile picture and name will appear in the same location. 

If you select Mark as completed within a conversation, in your Conversations list view, the same icon you selected will appear to the right of the specific conversation. This is the same for the other icon options available.

To send a New conversation, select New conversation in the top left of your screen, above the list of options available. A conversation pop-up will appear to the right of your screen. 

To email to a specific person from the Google group page, click Cc to the right of the From bar, then add the specific email address in, next to the Cc. 

Then add a Subject and write your conversation like a normal email below the Subject bar. Click Post message below the email in the pop-up to send your email. 

To add a new password in Dashlane, simply click on the Dashlane icon in the top right of your Google Chrome browser.

Click the + sign in the extension and fill in your account details for the application you are adding to your Password Manager. 

There will be a generate password option while filling in your account details. If you need to generate a new password for the account, generate a password and then save your account details to use in the future. 

If you wish to edit the information saved for one of the accounts in your Password Manager, open the extension in Chrome. Search for the application you want to edit. 

When navigating using the bottom left circle, you can access Files. This folder syncs with Drive and Docs and also gives you access to your personal My Drive.

Although you cannot save files on your desktop, you can use the blue folder as a shortcut to your Google Drive. You can download documents to your My Drive and then move these documents to the correct folder in your Shared Drives.

From the Files window, you can rename files and drag them into the correct Shared Drive folder. 

You can also drag files from the Files window into a Drive and Docs browser tab. 

You can only Delete and Move files in your My Drive. You will not be able to Delete and Move documents in your Shared Drives. 

This is so the documents that are in the Shared Drives are secured and not accidentally or purposely deleted. The management staff in charge of the specific Shared Drives will be able to delete and move documents when necessary. 

To Move a document in your My Drive from Drive and Docs in a Chrome browser, simply open Drive and Docs and right click the document you wish to move into a Shared Drive. Select Move to and find the correct Shared Drive folder you wish to move the document to. 

The main reason you don't need to delete files is because you can Replace existing files when you upload a new version to the Shared Drive.

Working this way takes some time to get used it. 

Don't worry if you make a mistake. 

Just rename the file so management knows what's needed. 

Add [DELETE] or [MOVE TO -] to the front of the existing file name. 

When downloading attachments from relevant applications such as Gmail, there are certain procedures for how to save these documents.

These procedures relate to our Cybersecurity Policy and are in place to keep our data safe. 

A colleague emails you with a document that needs to be filled out and saved in the correct location for use and to have a record of the information. 

The attachment will be visible below the email text. When hovering over the file, you can select the down arrow to download the file to your My Drive automatically, or select the Google Drive icon with the plus sign to add to your My Drive automatically also. 

View the document saved to your My Drive by opening Google Drive. Right click the document and select Move To. Select the right location in your Shared Drive to move the document and then click Move. 

Make sure you select the right location the first time otherwise you will have to rename the document to [MOVE TO -] with instructions and wait for management approval to move the document to the correct location. 

Open your Shared Drives and locate the document you just saved in the correct location. Rename the document to an appropriate name by right clicking the document and selecting Rename. Rename the document in the pop-up and click Ok. 

Open the document by double clicking the file, it will then open in another tab. 

Fill out and edit the document as required by collaborating with colleagues and sharing comments and thoughts on the Google Doc. The document will automatically be saved a few seconds after typing when there is internet connection. The document is now securely saved and shared on your Google Drive. 

This process should be followed for every download on every application where the document is relevant to the organisation and can be saved appropriately on a Shared Drive. 

When downloading a document from an application, it may be in a different format to Google Docs, such as a word document or a PDF. 

Word documents, where possible, should be converted to Google docs for continuity and security of information in the Shared Drives. 

PDFs can be accessed as a Google doc in Google Drive when editing is required on the document. Otherwise, the PDF can be saved as normal in the filing system for a record of the document where required.

To convert a PDF to a Google doc for editing, simply open the PDF in Google Drive and click on Open with Google Docs above the document. This will open another tab where the PDF will be converted to a Google Doc. 

You will be able to edit and make changes as normal. You can also save the document as a PDF after editing if this is required, but Google docs are the preferred formatting when saving documents in Google Drive. 

To convert a document from a word document to a Google doc, simply open the document you wish to convert in your Google Drive. 

Select File in the top left of the document in the toolbar. Click Save as Google Docs; the document will download automatically to your My Drive as a Google doc. 

Move the document to the correct location in your Shared Drives for use. Delete the word document after converting to the Google doc. 

Often documents will contain links to other documents or web pages for further information or referencing. Google docs have the ability to add a hyperlink in a Google doc that links to another page. You can rename the link instead of viewing a long URL for the name. 

These hyperlinks are usually underlined and the text is blue in colour like this. To open the hyperlink, simply hover over the text and a URL will appear below the hyperlink. Click on the hyperlink and another page will open in a new tab. 

To name a hyperlink, simply copy and paste the URL onto the document you require a reference for or want to link to further information and press space on your keyboard to activate the URL. Right click the hyperlink and click Edit Link from the selection.

Alternatively, you can click on the hyperlink and a pencil icon will appear below the hyperlink. This also means Edit Link and can be selected for the same function. 

A pop-up window will appear above the link with the URL highlighted in the Text section. Delete the URL in the Text section but keep the URL in the bar below where a search icon appears.  

Update the name of the Text and click Apply. The URL will now display the name of the hyperlink you selected. You can now edit the font, size of font, colour or highlight of the hyperlink to suit the rest of the document. 

Single Sign-on: When you login to your device with your username, password and yubikey, you will have instant access to the apps that appear in your Dashboard. 

This means you won’t need to login again to these specific apps with an individual account because it will all be connected to your Master Password. 

One day, everyone will be able to access all their apps just by logging into their device and will not need to individually sign-on to specific apps. 

This is because your identity has already been verified by logging in with your username, password and yubikey.  

Multi-factor Authentication: However, you will still need to login to the majority of the apps you use at work that aren’t in your Dashboard even after logging into your device. 

You will login to these apps by using your Password Manager and often a code sent to your phone or email for multi-factor authentication. 

This is because these apps haven’t updated their software to become a Single Sign-on product.