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in How-To - 24 Jan, 2014
by vickie.rock - no comments
Using Google Apps from Your Desktop
For some time now, I’ve used Google Chrome as my browser of choice.  Not only have I found it faster, but it has some wonderful apps that you can access from an icon on the bookmarks bar.  If you don’t already have the bookmarks bar turned on, you can do that from the Settings page.  If you’re using the current version of Chrome, you’ll see button with three bars in the upper right hand corner. Click it and select “Settings” and in the “Appearance” section, select “Always show the bookmarks bar.”  While you’re there, set anything else that needs setting and set up Chrome to automatically log into your Gmail address. (If you don’t have one — get one — you’ll understand why later.) ChromeSettings
With that now checked, you should see the “Apps” button on the left side of the bookmarks bar.  When you click it, it will open the apps tab.  There you’ll find the Google Store icon.  Click that to be taken to the store where you can find all kinds of applications, both of the free and for a price variety.  Peruse the various categories and download a few.  When you do, an icon to access them will appear on your Apps tab. ChromeApps

When you’re in the “Store” you’ll notice that there are some “desktop” and  “offline” apps as well as a large number of browser-based apps.  Since I have a Gmail account, that means I automatically have access to Google Drive, Google Docs, Google Calendar, and the like.  But that doesn’t mean I always have to open up a browser, put in my Login ID and password to access my data.  I can put it on my desktop and just be a double-click away from my calendar or my documents.  Here’s how you do it:

 

Screenshot-2014-01-24-11.21.23.pngOpen up your Apps tab by clicking on the Apps button in the bookmarks bar.  Then right-click on the App you’d like to be able to open directly from your desktop.  In my case, I’ve right-clicked on Google Calendar.  The default is “open as regular tab” — but I’m going to change that to “open as window” instead.  The minute I left-click on “Open as window,” the context menu will close.  When I reopen it, it will have a checkmark in front of “open as window” instead.

Now, with the context menu on the screen, click on “Create shortcuts…”.  A “Create application shortcuts dialog box will appear on the screen and allow you to either create a shortcut on your desktop and/or pin an icon on imageyour Taskbar for easy access.  Now you can open your calendar (or set of calendars) directly from your desktop based your calendar settings.

Any APP that I set up with a desktop shortcut will open up in a Chromeless window when its desktop shortcut is double-clicked.  AND—because I set up Chrome to automatically log into my gmail address when I open my browser, it knows I want to see my google calendar (and any other sets of calendars I’ve set it up to view).  Same way with any other Google Service (Google Docs, Google Drawings, Google Forms, Picasa, Google Drive, etc.)—it knows it’s me and knows where to connect.

One last benefit of using Chrome.  I have a Desktop and a Laptop. Because I’ve set up Google Chrome on both of them to automatically log into my Gmail address, Chrome, my bookmarks, and my Apps are identical on both PCs.  If I change/add/delete something on one PC, it’s automatically changed/added/deleted on the other PC the next time I log onto it.