Early Adopter Gmail Migration

This week 84 new Gmail users had their mail migrated from their 'chipfalls.k12.wi.us' account to their 'chipfalls.org' account. This migration takes place when Chad Burlingame runs scripts to basically tell your email to stop going to your k12.wi.us account and start showing up only in your chipfalls.org account. Chad can also migrate over personal contacts as well as Outlook calendar events. The 84 early adopters were volunteers and face a few little differences or challenges with the migration. They are a tremendous help to the Technology Department as far as the necessary staff development and technical issues of migrating to Gmail. If you are a volunteer, THANK YOU!

A few things to remember in the transition toward using Gmail:

1. When you email someone at this point, you should email their k12.wi.us account; at least until all staff members have migrated to Gmail (potentially by January 2014). Also, you will still get emails people send to your chipfalls.k12.wi.us account, so there is no need to ask other district employees to send email to you at chipfalls.org.

2. We are fast becoming a multi-web browser world. This means that the typical web browsers, Internet Explorer, Safari, Chrome, Firefox, etc, are dividing and marketing toward products they support. Google products work best in Chrome, while javascript applications, such as the Infinite Campus gradebook, don't work well in Chrome at all. One easy troubleshooting step with Gmail is to ensure that you are using Chrome.

3. If you like the split-screen look in Outlook (list of messages on the left, open message displayed on the right), you can achieve that by enabling a Lab in the Settings menu. The Settings menu can be found in the upper right portion of your Gmail window - the icon looks like a cogwheel. Select "Settings." Once you are in the Settings window, across the top there are tabs - select "Labs." The Preview Pane lab is the one that will give you the look you're after. Click Enable and scroll down to save settings. Go back to your inbox and near the Settings cogwheel, a new icon has appeared. Select vertical split.

We will continue to update this information with tips and tricks. If you have other questions, please feel free to continue to contact Sarah Radcliffe, Cara Schueller or Chad Burlingame.