Using Contact Labels and Groups
You probably have hundreds, maybe even thousands of names and email addresses that you need to keep track of. Well, in today's video, I'm sharing with you seven tips and tricks so you can get the most out of Google Contacts.
Hello, everyone. Scott Friesen here at Simpletivity, helping you to get more done and enjoy less stress. And let's dive into tip number one, which is relatively simple, but so important.
It has to do with Labels and using them. If you're not using your Labels here on the left-hand side, you are missing out and wasting a lot of time.
Now, perhaps the best way to think about Labels is to refer to them as groups. It's an opportunity for us to group different contacts together.
In order to create a label, all you need to do is just select this plus button. Let's just call this one New Label.
I'm gonna call it New Label 2, since I already have a New Label here. And now what I can do is I can open up any of my contacts.
I can hit this Edit button here and I can start to add a label. Now, you don't have to limit yourself to just one label per contact.
Maybe they're a part of two different groups. So I can leave them as those two labels there, and I can hit Save.
When I exit from this contact here, you can see that I have these labels attached here. But it's so much more valuable than just organizing and being able to quickly filter these different labels and these different groups within Google Contacts.
When we go into our Gmail account and we wish to compose something, if I start typing in the name of one of my labels it will appear as an option. So now I can select this ABC Work Project Label, and now I have all three of my contacts right here, ready to send this email.
Make Labels Stand Out with Emojis
Now, sticking with labels, let's look at how we can more easily identify our labels, whether it's here within Google Contacts or elsewhere. One of the disadvantages of labels is that they do not give us the option to add a color.
Here, you can see if I want to edit the name of this label, I can name it anything I want, but there is no actual color. So when I'm viewing all of my contacts here, you can see I have sort of this gray color here.
It can be really hard to differentiate. Well, here's a great workaround to help you identify those labels.
I'm gonna go back to my ABC Work Project here and I'm gonna hit the edit button. This time, I'm gonna put the cursor at the front, and all I'm going to do is I'm gonna bring up my Emoji menu.
And here, I can select any graphic that I want, or I can keep it simple. Maybe I just wanna select this red dot so this label stands out.
I can hit Save, and now you can see where a person had that label attached, it's very clear that they are attached to this label. I can also see it over here on the left-hand side.
This is especially helpful if you have a long list of labels. But let's go back to our Gmail account for a second here, and I'm gonna hit Compose.
Remember how it's going to automatically bring up my labels? Well, if I type the letter a, I'm gonna get a lot of names here.
If I type in b, I might get a few more names, but you know what? Because that label has this emoji attached, it's so much easier for me to differentiate between these individuals here and my actual label, my actual group down below.
So now I can select that. I've got the same three.
This is the exact same group, but it's just that much easier for me to identify.
Sharing Google Contacts with Others
Tip number three on our list has to do with sharing your contacts with others. Now natively, Google does a very poor job in allowing us to do this.
That's where the Shared Contacts for Gmail extension comes in. Shared Contacts allows you to share specific contact labels with your team or even external users.
And just like how you share things in Google Drive, you can select who can view, who can edit, and who can add new contacts. Then, they can access your shared labels and contacts on their mobile device, desktop, and hundreds of other apps that synchronize with their Google Contacts.
And with the Shared Contacts for Gmail add-on, your team can create contacts from email centers, include notes, and add the contacts to the shared label directly from their inbox. If you'd like to learn more about Shared Contacts for Gmail and try it for yourself, see the link in the description below.
Custom Column Display
Now, tip number four has to do with customizing the way that we view all of our contacts right here within Google Contacts. Now, first off, we can come up to this gear icon and select More settings, and we can choose if we want to sort our list by first name, or by last name.
But what can be so much more helpful is actually changing the order and what is displayed here within the main screen. So here under the three dots, we can select the Change column order.
That's gonna bring up this dialog box here. Now by default, Name is always going to be the very first column.
I think that only makes sense. But the next four columns we can customize and rearrange.
So for example, maybe I don't want Labels to be my second column. All I need to do is go to the right, click and drag, and now I can bring it to the spot where I want it, maybe the fourth section there.
But, we also have a dropdown menu below each of our options. So for example, under Address, if I select this, maybe I want the job title and company instead.
Maybe their physical address is not so important to me in terms of what their job title actually is. All I need to do is say Done, and now you can see that my columns have been rearranged.
I have my Job title & company column listed here, and now my Labels are in the fourth column. So depending on your needs, you can rearrange things any way that you like.
Adding Profile Pictures
Now, speaking of display, the fifth tip I have for you has to do with adding an image to important contacts. Sometimes it can be hard to differentiate between this long list, especially when we just have a variety of colors and the first initial represented here.
But maybe you have some very important clients, or maybe just people that are very close to you and you would like to add their picture here. Now, if Google can't find their picture based on a Google account, you can still add it, and I wanna show you a very easy way to do so.
So let's say I open up the contact here of my friend, Francesco, and I wanna add his picture. I'm gonna go here and it's gonna ask me to upload a photo, but this is certainly not him and I don't have a photo of him on my machine, but I probably have access to one or more of his social media profiles.
So if I go over to his Twitter account, all I need to do is click on his picture, I'm going to right-click and select Copy image address. Not Copy image, we need to select Copy image address.
Now I'm gonna go back to Google Contacts and select Upload a photo. Now, it's true, I haven't actually downloaded his photo yet, but that's not a problem.
All I need to do is paste it in the file name and select Open. And now what will happen is that it will automatically upload that picture.
I can say Done here, and now I have it added to his contact name, so I can see his smiling face and easily find him within my Google Contacts list.
Merge Duplicate Contacts
Next, let's take a look at how we can merge two or more contacts, especially if we have duplicate information within our contacts list. Now, the good news is that Google Contacts will try to find accounts that are duplicates based on either the name or their email address.
If you come over here and select Merge & fix, it will have a list if it has found some suggestions for you. However, what if you come across a name or a couple of names that you know are the same individual, but Google Contacts has not identified them here?
In this example, I have a Steve and a Stephen, but these are the exact same individuals, I just have their work email and I have their personal email as well. So, how can we merge these two together?
All we need to do is come over here over top of their profile name and select the checkbox. So now that I have both selected, I can come up to the top, and I'm gonna select this Merge icon here.
It's gonna work and merge those two together. Now, although it just kept one name and we're only seeing one email address, no worries, we're gonna have access to all of that information.
Here you can see it's actually saved both of the addresses, both of the company names down below, and both of the email addresses. I can always come in here and edit this and say, actually, he prefers to go by Steve, or I know Steve on a first name basis, so I can do so there as well.
I can even come in here and say that, you know what? This is a personal, or his home email address, and this here would be a work address here.
So I can include that here and hit Save. Now, the nice bonus here is that you no longer have multiple versions of this individual, but if we go back to our Gmail account, and let's pretend that we're composing a new email, and I start bringing up Steve, it will still bring up both of those email addresses for me to work with.
Here you can see the exact same name, but I can access either their personal address or their work address. Last but not least, perhaps I've saved the very best for this last tip.
Shortcut Keys to Access Contacts Fast
We spend so much of our time dealing with email and accessing our contacts here in Gmail that sometimes it can be a hassle to come up here and remember to open up Contacts, or to get into Contacts on an easy basis. Well, I wanna show you a shortcut which makes this so much simpler.
First of all, you're gonna need to go to your settings and select See all settings. And on the first tab, the General tab, you wanna scroll down and make sure that your shortcuts are enabled.
Here, near the bottom, we have Keyboard shortcuts, and you wanna make sure that Keyboard shortcuts are on. Why?
Because now any time that you're here within your Gmail account, all you need to do is select the keys G and C and your Google Contacts will automatically be opened up in a new tab. No longer do you need to be fumbling for that icon, or remember how to get into Google Contacts, just GC whenever you are within Gmail and you'll automatically be brought to your Contacts page.
Well, I hope you enjoyed today's video and got a lot of value out of it. If so, be sure to give this video a thumbs up and subscribe right here to this Simpletivity channel.
Thank you so much for watching, and remember, being productive does not need to be difficult, in fact, it's very simple.
