You can export your Outlook contacts to a CSV file that can then be imported into other applications or online services such as Web mail clients, Excel spreadsheets, or CRM database applications.

Transferring your Outlook contacts is basically a two-step process:

• Export contacts to a .CSV (“comma-separated values”) file.
• Import the contacts into the new program

Keep in mind that when Outlook exports contacts to a CSV file, it omits attachments, distribution lists, contact photos, and other data. If you are exporting contacts for use in another copy of Outlook, we recommend that you export contacts to a .PST file format.

Here’s how to export and import your contacts for Outlook 2007, 2010, and 2013.

Export your contacts: Outlook 2007

• From the File menu, click Import and Export.

• The Import and Export Wizard will open, select Export to a file, and click the Next button.
  
• Click Comma Separated Values (Windows), and then click Next.
  
• From the folder list, select the Contacts folder, and then click Next.
• Select your desktop or some other easily accessible location to save your .CSV file.
  
• Type in “Contacts” for the export file name, and then click OK.
• Click the Finish button.
  

Export your contacts: Outlook 2010

• From the File tab, select Options.
• Click Advanced, scroll down to Export and click the Export button.

• Under Export, click Export.

• In the Import and Export Wizard, click Export to a file, and then click Next.
• Click Comma Separated Values (Windows), and then click Next.
  
• Under Select folder to export from, select the contact folder that you want to export, and then click Next.
• From the folder list, select the Contacts folder, and then click Next.
• Select your desktop or some other easily accessible location to save your .CSV file.
• Type in “Contacts” for the export file name, and then click OK.
• Click the Finish button.

Export your contacts: Outlook 2013

• Click File, select Open & Export

• Then click the Import/Export button
• In the Import and Export Wizard, click Export to a file, and click Next.
  
• Click Comma Separated Values (Windows), and then click Next
• Under Select folder to export from, select the contact folder that you want to export, click Next.
  
• From the folder list, select the Contacts folder, and then click Next.
• Select your desktop or some other easily accessible location to save your .CSV file.
• Type in “Contacts” for the export file name, and then click OK.
• Click the Finish button.

Import you contacts: Outlook 2007

• From the File menu, click Import and Export.

• The Import and Export Wizard will open, select Import from another program or file and click the Next button.
  
• Select Comma Separated Values (Windows) and click Next.
  
• Browse to the location where you saved the exported .CSV file.There are three check boxes beneath the Browse button, what you select here will be based on your needs. If your contacts list is currently empty it does not matter which check box you select.Click the Next button to continue.

  

• Select the Contacts folder as the destination and click Next.
• Click the Finish button to complete the import.

Import your contacts: Outlook 2010

• Click the File Tab, select Open from the left menu.

• Click on Import
• The Import and Export Wizard will open, select Import from another file or program and click the Next button.
  
• Select Comma Separated Values (Windows) and click Next.
• Browse to the location where you saved the exported .CSV file.

There are three check boxes beneath the browse button, what you select here will be based on your needs. If your contacts list is currently empty it does not matter which check box you select.

Click the Next button to continue.

• Select the Contacts folder as the destination and click the Next button.
• Click the Finish button to complete the import.

Import your contacts: Outlook 2013

• Click File, select Open   Export

• Then click the Import/Export button
• In the Import and Export Wizard, select Import from another file or program and click the Next button.
  
• Select Comma Separated Values (Windows) and click Next.
• Browse to the location where you saved the exported .CSV file.There are three check boxes beneath the Browse button, what you select here will be based on your needs. If your contacts list is currently empty it does not matter which check box you select.Click the Next button to continue.

  

• Select the Contacts folder as the destination and click the Next button.
• Click the Finish button to complete the import.

Microsoft Exchange is still the de facto standard for email when it comes to business. Over the years, however, Apple has been making inroads into the Enterprise market and bringing a flock of new Windows users to Apple. These new Apple converts still use Exchange and need to synchronize calendars using Apple’s iCal.

Fortunately, it is easy to synchronize your Exchange calendar with Apple iCal. Let’s run through the steps.

• Open Apple Calendar from your Apple dock. Select Calendar | Preferences (Figure A).

Figure A: Adding an Exchange Account to Apple Calendar.

Select + and the Add Account wizard appears. Enter in your Outlook email address and password. Click Create (Figure B).

Figure B: Enter your Outlook email address and Password.

If more information is necessary, you will be prompted to enter user account credentials as well. If you do not have this information, contact your help support (Figure C).

Figure C: Enter your Exchange authentication username and password.

After entering the appropriate information, click Create. Exchange now appears on the sidebar of your calendar entries. You now have your Exchange and iCloud calendars synchronizing to one place. You can choose to synchronize your Exchange calendar at the following intervals: 1, 5, 15, 30, 1 hour and manually.

If you are currently managing multiple iCal calendars as well as a separate Outlook calendar, why manage them in different places? Simply, connect your Exchange account to Apple Calendar and manage all your calendars inside Apple Calendar.

Google has a feature called Priority Inbox. It prioritizes and notifies you about important emails that come into your inbox. With the release of OS X Mountain Lion, Apple has implemented a feature called VIP mail; it allows you to retrieve messages from contacts of your choice without the need to implement filters or rules. Once VIP lists are established, any email received that is flagged VIP, shows up on your iPhone/iPad in the Notification Center. On your Desktop/Laptop, it appears in your inbox flagged with a star. Let’s run through how to configure VIP lists in OS X Mountain Lion.

• Open Apple Mail from the Apple Dock.
• After you launch Apple Mail, browse through your list of emails until you come across one that you want to flag as a VIP.
  
• Right-click on that email and select Add to VIPs.
• Once you have added it to the VIP list, it appears under your VIP section in Apple Mail. Any email received to your inbox, is flagged with a star and can be accessed from the VIP section as well.

Using VIP’s is easier than dragging emails into appropriate folders or creating multiple rules to handle many different conditions. With VIP lists, all of your important emails and contacts are in one single location.

Connecting Outlook 2013 to your social media accounts is straightforward. Just follow these steps.

• Open the File menu. When you see the the Info tab, click the “Account Settings” icon. You’ll see a drop-down menu.

• Click “Social Network Accounts.”

• The Social Network Accounts dialog box will open. If you want to connect to your Facebook account, for example, check the box next to Facebook and enter your user name and password.

You’ll now be able to view your contacts’ Facebook activities right in Outlook 2013.

Keep in mind that you can also connect your social media accounts to Outlook 2013 by clicking the “People” icon on the navigation bar. When you see the contact manager, click “Connect to a social network” and follow the prompts.

3 cool things

There are three other things you’ll like about Outlook 2013′s Social Connector upgrades.

1. No more plug-ins

Unlike in previous editions, you don’t have to download any plug-ins in order to connect to your Facebook and LinkedIn accounts.

However, you do need to install add-ins for other social networking sites, such as Viadeo and Xing. Alternatively, you can go to the social networking site your prefer and check to see if they have add-ins available for Outlook 2013.

2. Automatic updates

Your contacts’ information will instantly be updated when they make updates.

3. Toggle the Social Connector

You can hide the People pane that displays your contacts’ social media activity. Click “View,” choose the People Pane drop-down menu, and click “Off.”

If you want to see social media activity but you aren’t, the Outlook Social Connector might be be minimized. Click the arrow at the top right corner of the Social Connector panel.

Why you should connect your Social Media accounts

So much has been written about the new features of Outlook 2013. So far, Microsoft has been getting rave reviews about how Outlook 2013 allows you to view your inbox just the way you want it, customize how your messages appear, deduce your contact list easily, download and read your e-mails from other e-mail services such as Gmail and Yahoo Mail.

In short, Microsoft has retained some of the great features of previous Outlook editions and then added some nifty new tools that would make you want to give Outlook 2013 at least a test run.

One of these features is the ability to connect to social networks.

Why should you do this? For one, it allows you to see information about your contacts in one place, without having to open a browser window or switch between your Outlook 2013 and another program.

You should also do this to know more about your contacts. Connecting to either Facebook or LinkedIn allows you to see what that particular contact has shared on LinkedIn, or you could view their status updates and other activities on Facebook.

It helps you craft a more personal e-mail for that very hard-to-snag prospect client. Say you have been having problems closing a deal with Mr. A and it just so happens that Mr. A has recently talked about his love for robots on Facebook. If you are lucky enough to also love robots, you could use that information to your advantage and talk to Mr. A about robots. This conversation could start you off on the right path to closing that ever-elusive deal.

The information that your contacts share on Facebook, LinkedIn and other social media platforms are very valuable to you. So you should start connecting your Outlook 2013 to your social media accounts to be able to see these social activities all in one place: Outlook 2013′s People.

It can work both ways too. For example, you can use Outlook 2013′s social connector feature to discover which of your friends are already on Facebook or LinkedIn in a much simpler way. Adding a LinkedIn profile to Outlook Social Connector creates a new contact folder exclusively for your contacts who are already on LinkedIn.

Each contact card in this folder includes the person’s contact information and his or her LinkedIn profile URL is listed in the Web site box. You can check out their profile easily and see if you can add more friends.

Problematic.

Clunky.

Heavy.

If that’s how you think of Microsoft Outlook, no one is going to blame you. But the new Office Outlook 2013 — with its new set of features — could get you to change your mind.

One of these features is called People (formerly known as Contacts).

What People Does

People centralizes all your contacts in one place, making them easy to manage. And each contact has a single card that lists all of their contact information and your own notes about the person, such as details of your last contact and the things you need to follow-up with him or her.

People is Outlook’s contacts, extreme-makeover edition. Here’s how to get the most out it:

• Link contacts to merge duplicate entries.
• Save favorites.
• Keep contacts current.
• Automatically add names to distribution lists.
• Pick a photo.
• See what your contacts are up to.
• Do more from the People pane.

1. Link contacts to merge duplicate entries.

If you are using Outlook 2013 you can have it detect duplicate contact entries and link them together to form an aggregated overview of all the information for that contact.

For example, if you have a People card for John Smith in Outlook, you can link it to John Smith in Facebook and LinkedIn via the Social Connector. This way, you can view the information you need in a single view.

Using this linking feature, you are also able to see suggested links. For example, Outlook 2013 is going to suggest that maybe “Jon Smith” or “John Smit” is a duplicate contact for “John Smith”.

The linking feature also has a search function. So if you are pretty sure that you have a duplicate entry for John Smith and that you have filed it under another names such as “J.S.” or “CEO for ABC Corp.” then you can just easily search for these and link it to John Smith.

In the event that you do know two different John Smiths, and they were mistakenly linked together, you can easily unlink them.

Although Outlook now creates an aggregated view of duplicate contacts, it does not actually remove the duplicates. It only virtually merges them in to a single view. Scrubly does a great job of permanently removing duplicates and merging matching contacts. More here: http://www.scrubly.com/info/features.

2. Save favorites.

Once you hover over People on your main navigation bar, you’ll have the option to add that person to your Favorites — useful for people you e-mail regularly, or for contacts on a project.

3. Keep contacts current.

Hit the Edit button (see below) and it will display the editing interface and allow you to make changes to the contact information.

Keeping your contacts’ information current – the Scrubly way

Just like Outlook 2013, Scrubly can keep all your contacts’ information updated. The app can automatically pull in your friends’ latest data from Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter including their photos, birthdays, current company and location. To know more about this Scrubly feature, please click this link: http://www.scrubly.com/info/features/updateFromYourSocialNetwork

4. Automatically add names to distribution lists.

You can create a contact group so you don’t have to manually enter these e-mail addresses every time you want to send an e-mail. Here’s how:

• Click on the People icon on the navigation bar.
• Choose where you want to create the contact group under My Contacts.
• Click on the Home icon.
• Click on the New Contact Group tab and choose a name for your contact group.

From here, you can click on “Add Members” and add the e-mail address straight from your Outlook contact list.

If you need to add somebody who is not listed in your contacts, you must first add him or her as a contact.

5. Pick a photo.

To add a photo to a contact, click the People icon on the Navigation Bar.

Click on “People View” under the View ribbon.

Choose the contact you want to add a photo to and click “View Source.”

Click on Outlook (Contacts) to bring up that contact’s Outlook information.

Click on the photo icon on the contact card.

Look for the “Add Contact Picture” box where you can specify and upload a photo for that contact. Use only .bmp, .tif, .png, .jpg and .gif photo file formats.

If there is already a photo included but you want to change it, you can right-click on the photo itself and choose Change Picture from the dialog box that appears.

6. See what your contacts are up to.

You can choose to see information and status updates from social media sites like Facebook and LinkedIn via the People pane.

7. Do more from the People pane.

Give your contacts a call, schedule a meeting, or send an instant message right from that person’s People card.

So, you’re using Outlook 2013 but don’t want to give up Gmail. Maybe it’s because:

• you love Gmail’s features
• the thought of doing an overhaul exhausts you, or
• wait — there are other options?

Yep. You have other options.

Setting up Outlook 2013 with POP3 (Post Office Protocol) lets you access to your Gmail account inside Outlook while locally backing up all of the mails you get from Gmail. If you lose access to your Gmail account, you will still have a copy of your mails inside Outlook.

Here’s how to configure your Gmail in Outlook 2013 using POP3 protocol.  (details on each step below, plus a note on why to use the POP3 email protocol):

1. Enable POP3 on Gmail.

Sign into your Gmail account and click on the gear icon.

From the drop down menu, choose “Settings.”

Select the “Forwarding and POP/IMAP” tab.

In the POP Download section, you can either:

• enable POP for all mails — even those that have been downloaded before, or
• enable it for all mails that you will receive from that day forward

You can also specify what Gmail should do with the messages that are downloaded with POP. You can:

• Keep copies of messages on your Gmail inbox.
• Mark mails as read.
• Automatically move e-mails to the archive.
• Delete the messages on G-mail.

2. Add your Gmail account to Outlook 2013.

Open Outlook 2013 and then click “File.”

Under Account Information, click “Add Account.”

Select “Manual setup or additional server types.” Click “Next” when you’re done.

3. Set up your Gmail account.

Once you get to the next window, select “POP or IMAP” and then click “Next.”

Fill out the form that appears on the next screen.

Use the screen shot below as a guide for filling out the fields for Account Type, Incoming mail server and Outgoing mail server.

Under Logon Information, enter your Gmail user name and password.

4. Test your settings.

Be sure to check the box under “Test Account Settings … ” labeled “Automatically test account settings when Next is clicked.”

But … don’t click “Next” just yet (see below).

5. A little more setup.

Click “More Settings” (see the screen shot below). The Internet E-mail Settings dialog box will pop up.

Click the “Outgoing Server” tab. Next, select the option for “My outgoing server (SMTP) requires authentication.”

Choose “Use same settings as my incoming mail server.”

6. Set up the port numbers.

While you’re still in the “Internet E-mail Settings” dialogue box, select the “Advanced” tab.

To make your Gmail account work with Outlook 2013, use these settings:

• For Incoming server (POP3): enter 995.
• For Outgoing server (SMTP): enter 465.

Be sure to select “This server requires an encrypted connection (SSL).”

Leave all other options as they are, or change them to your liking. They won’t affect your Gmail settings.

Please see screenshot below. Highlighted settings are required.

7. Testing and Done.

Clicking on “OK” will take you back to the first settings window.

Click “Next.”

Outlook 2013 will then send a test message to your account. If you have set it up properly, you will be able to get the test message on your Outlook 2013 inbox!

The Last Word: Why POP3

This is actually just one way to receive your Gmail e-mails on Outlook 2013. You can also use IMAP to fetch your Gmail emails and read them on Outlook 2013. Both IMAP and POP3 are very capable protocols as far as allowing you to read and manage your Gmail using Outlook 2013.

But there are differences.

POP3 allows you to have a copy of the e-mails you receive on Gmail. This is the best option for backing up your Gmail e-mails. You can delete the e-mail you have on your Outlook 2013, but it will still be there in your G-mail inbox as long as you choose the option to leave messages on the server after download. In the same manner, the messages you read on Outlook 2013 will not be marked as read on Gmail.

On the other hand, IMAP will delete the e-mails you delete on Outlook from the server. When you use IMAP, you are actually just reading the e-mails off the Gmail server. You do not download anything to your computer.

IMAP is good if you are going to access your e-mails across different devices, such as your iPhone, your laptop, your desktop computer and everywhere else. This is because if you delete or read a message anywhere, it stays deleted or it gets marked as read no matter where you access your Gmail e-mails.

The good news is that you can use IMAP on Outlook 2013 and setting it up basically follows the same steps outlined above, with the necessary changes.

First, you need to enable IMAP on your Gmail account instead of POP. You specify the IMAP account type instead of POP3. Your incoming and outgoing mail servers are imap.gmail.com and smtp.gmail.com, respectively. IMAP ports at 993 and the encryption you need is SSL, while SMTP port is at 25, with TLS as your encryption. We will talk more about this method on our next article.

Outlook used to be the go-to email client. Until people began to realize how Web mail services such as Gmail and Yahoo Mail made managing and reading emails easier.

Outlook suddenly looked old and slow.

But things are changing with the release of Outlook 2013. Microsoft has added a number of features to simplify email management.

Here are the top eight.

1. Easily manage your unread emails

Problem:

When we read email, we sometimes leave some unopened while attending to more important ones, which can make it easy to miss an unopened mail.

Solution:

Outlook 2013 now displays all your unread mail in just one click — no more going through the menus just to see the email that you have missed.

Once you are done, you can easily see all your mail by clicking the “All” button.

2. Preview your email

Problem:

Outlook users have often complained that they had no choice but to open their emails to read them.

This wasted a lot of time as people wound up opening emails that they could have ignored.

Solution:

Outlook 2013 offers you a preview of your emails right on the message list. The preview shows up to three lines of the email’s body without having to double-click it. This way, you can skim through the emails and decide whether it goes to a special folder, stays on the inbox or whether it goes straight to the Deleted Items folder.

3. Make your schedules easier to manage

Problem:

When somebody invited you to a meeting or event via email, your first instinct was to switch to your calendar to check your availability.

Solution:

Outlook 2013 allows you to take a peek at your schedule right inside the program. On the navigation bar, you can mouse over calendar and you see appointments, important dates, and even tasks you have that day.

You can also dock your calendar on your Outlook window. This way, you can easily glance at your schedule even without having to mouse over anything.

4. Centralize Your Contacts

Problem:

Contacts weren’t integrated with email.

Solution:

Outlook 2013 incorporates contacts into its interface, allowing you to centralize all the information you have on your contact. Each card has the person’s name, company details, position, photo, contact details, birthday, and other information.

What’s more, you can instantly schedule a meeting or send an email right from the card. You can even call, chat or give them a video call.

As a bonus, your contacts are instantly filed alphabetically and are fully searchable.

5. Remember that attachment

Problem:

People forget to include the files they wanted to send.

Solution:

Outlook reminds you.

How does it work? Outlook 2013 searches for words and phrases such as “here is”, “attached with,” “enclosed,” and similar words that indicate an intent to attach a file to the email. It will then detect whether or not an attachment was sent.

If you did forget to attach anything, Outlook 2013 will notify you.

You can enable this feature by clicking on “File” > “Options” > “Mail.” Look under the Send Messages heading the following option: “Warn me when I send a message that may be missing an attachment.”

If you get tired of pop-up reminders, you can click on “Don’t show this message again” when the attachment reminder appears.

6. Delete, mark, and flag right on the message lists

Problem:

You couldn’t mark a message as “unread” or “read” right from the message list.

Solution:

Now you can. You can also delete the email or flag it for follow-up later.

7. Make your emails pretty

Problem:

Outlook mails could be a bit … homely.

Solution:

Microsoft Outlook 2013 comes with the option to apply backgrounds or stationery to your emails. There are pre-sets available, but you can create your own customized stationery for use.

You can apply the background or stationery to a single message or to all of your outgoing messages.

8. Manage add-ins better

Problem:

In the past, add-ins slowed down the program or made Outlook perform badly. And some add-ins simply did not work the way they were intended to.

Solution:

Outlook 2013 now automatically disables all add-ins that can slow it down or make it less reliable. If an add-in you find very useful is disabled, you can enable it manually via the “Manage Add-Ins” button..

One of the most convenient and often overlooked features of Outlook is the ability to create a contact distribution list. There are times when you may have to send email to a handful, dozens, sometimes even hundreds of other people and a contact distribution list makes this process easy.

A distribution list is simply a list of email addresses from your contact list that you can select to email all at once. These lists can be saved in your contacts folder and selected whenever creating a new email. Distribution lists are great for when you are working with several different groups of contacts.

While earlier versions of Outlook (2007 SP1 and previous) had a limit to the maximum size of a distribution list, there is no such limit to the number of contacts that you can add to a distribution list in versions after Outlook 2007 SP2. Keep in mind that your mileage may vary with this as environments with Microsoft Exchange servers for email use may have limits set on maximum distribution list size by their administrators.

Creating a Distribution List in Outlook 2013

• Open Outlook 2013
• Select the People tab.

3. Under the Home tab, click New Contact Group.

4. A new window will open. You can add contacts by clicking the + New Members button.

5. The Name field will allow you to name your distribution list. This is the name that will be displayed in your contacts folder for this distribution list. When you have finished adding contacts, click the Save & Close button. The new distribution list will now be displayed on your contacts page.

Creating a Distribution List in Outlook 2010

• Open up Outlook 2010.
• Select the Contacts Tab.
• Under New Items, select Contact Groups.

4. A new window will open. You can add contacts by clicking the + New Members button.

5. The Name field will allow you to name your distribution list. This is the name that will be displayed in your contacts folder for this distribution list. When you have finished adding contacts, click the Save & Close button. The new distribution list will now be displayed on your contacts page.

Managing Your Distribution List

One of the best aspects about distribution lists is how easy they are to edit. This can be done by clicking Contacts in the Navigation Pane, then double-click the name of the person that needs to be changed in the distribution list. The same screen that you used when creating the distribution list will appear here. You can make the following changes, along with many others, from this screen:

• Remove someone from the list: Select the person’s name and click the Remove button.

• Adding someone new to the list: Click the Add New button, then select either the Address Book or choose to add an address that is not in your address book by selecting New Email Contact.

Sometimes if several edits need to be made, it may be easier to just delete the current distribution list and start a new one. The distribution list can be easily removed by clicking the Delete Group button.

A distribution list is not a separate contact. The list only stores the email address for each contact on the list. If an individual contact’s information is changed, it will automatically be updated inside the list and it is not necessary to make any changes to your distribution list.

Sending an Email to Your Distribution List

Now that you have your distribution list, you can easily send an email to everyone on that list. The new distribution list will show up in your contacts just like an individual contact added to your address book. Sending an email to your new distribution list is the same as emailing anyone else from your contacts. The following steps will walk you through sending your first email to the new distribution list:

1. Switch back to your Mail tab and click the New Email button.

2. Once you have your new email screen up, click the To button.

3. A new box will pop up that displays your address book with your new distribution list. Double click the distribution list name and it should appear in the To field.

Adding a distribution list received from an email to your Contacts

It’s a very easy process to add a distribution list from an email received. It’s essentially the same as adding any new contact from an email.

1. Open the email that contains the distribution list you want to save.

2. Right-click the distribution list located in the To field and select the Add to Outlook Contacts from the short cut menu.

Distribution lists can also be shared with others by emailing the list as an attachment. You can add a distribution list two ways. The first option is dragging and dropping from the contacts screen into a new email.

You can also attach a distribution list to a new email by switching to the Insert tab and clicking the Outlook Items button. This will open up a menu with the option to select Contacts and then your new distribution list.

Windows 8 is creating quite a stir, and although the Modern interface may take some getting used to, the new features and customization tools are attracting positive attention. However, Windows users are reluctant to give up their tried and true Google services, like Chrome and Drive – and now, they don’t have to – here’s how to add Google products to Windows 8 in a relatively easy and efficient way.

Once you understand how to navigate the new Window 8 Modern User Interface by accessing common services, such as Google Search, Chrome and Gmail through the Windows 8 Start screen, you’ll be ready to roll.

Get the Google Search App

First, go to the Microsoft app store and do a search for the official Modern Google app. Similar to the Google Search app for iOS, it is a full-screen Modern-style app that includes voice search, history and works well with either a mouse or a touch screen interface. And the best part of all is that you can access other Google services, such as Gmail, YouTube, Calendar and more by simple tapping on the Applications button on the main screen.

Setup Gmail in the Windows 8 Mail App

Although setting up Gmail for the Windows 8 Mail App and Windows RT Mail App is a bit involved, following a few simple steps will do the trick:

First, open the Windows 8 Mail App and use the charms bar on the right to select “Settings.”

• Find “Accounts” and select it.

• Choose Google and then add your Gmail email address and password.

• Warning: Do not choose the “Include your Google contacts and calendars” option, because it will create problems with synchronizing. Windows 8 uses ActiveSync protocol, which Google no longer supports in Gmail effective July 2013 for new accounts and devices. You want Windows 8 to utilize the IMAP protocol.

Grant Windows 8 Access to Google Contacts

Most people have a long list of Google contacts, but with the new Google restrictions, accessing your Google contacts isn’t as streamlined as it used to be. Here’s a helpful workaround that will give you full access from your Microsoft account:

• Go to your Microsoft account page.

• Sign in using the same Microsoft account you used to set up Windows 8.

• Click on “Permissions,” and then choose “Add accounts.”

• Select Google from the list and connect the two accounts.

• When you have granted access, give it a few minutes before you check the Mail and People apps again.

Make Chrome Your Default Browser in Windows 8

You can use Chrome as a full-screen Modern app on Windows 8 machines by setting it as your default browser. However, it is not currently available for Windows RT. To launch Chrome as a Modern app follow these steps:

• Open Chrome on your desktop and click on the Settings menu.

• Select “Relaunch Chrome in Windows 8 mode.”

• Pin the Chrome shortcut to your Start screen by finding Chrome in your apps, pressing WinKey and typing “Chrome.” Right click on it and select “Pin to Start,” from the bottom.

• Once you have launched Chrome in Windows 8 mode, it will start like this by default each time you want to use it.

Pin Google Apps Shortcuts

Right now, there are no other Modern Google apps available, but you have the option to pin Google app shortcuts to your Start screen for better functionality. You can pin shortcuts to websites such as Google Drive or Google Maps to the start screen for one click access. You can do this with just about any Google service by doing the following:

• Using Google Chrome, navigate to the Google App page you would like to Pin to your Start Screen

• From the Settings drop-down menu, select Tools and choose Create application shortcuts.

• From your desktop, right click on your new shortcut and select, “Pin to Start.”

• You now have the option to delete the shortcut from your desktop. Repeat the steps with all your most-used Google services to access them on your Start screen, which will open a standalone window for the app.

Although Windows 8 and Google don’t always play nice, with these simple steps, you will be able to enjoy using Google services on your Windows 8 OS with very little effort. And hopefully sometime in the future, Windows and Google will find a way to get along in the PC, tablet and desktop playground.

We’ve just released Social Contact Update, a great new feature added to Scrubly.  You can now update your Outlook, Mac and Google contacts with your friend’s latest Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter contact information. Scrubly imports photo, birthday, company, job title, websites and more and adds this information to your address book. With Scrubly, you can now import all of the rich contact information that exists on your social network to enhance and update your contact list.

Control Exactly Which Contact Information You Want to Update

Scrubly gives you complete control over the data you wish to import from your social network. Individually select the fields you would like to sync. You can also control which fields overwrite existing information that may already exist in your contacts. This level of control is helpful in the case where you would like to overwrite all of your existing contact photos imported from Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter but keep all the other existing information. You can turn on or off Overwrite so that any current information in your address book will be either overwritten or maintained.

Scrubly does not import all of your social network contacts. It only updates the existing contacts you already have inside your address book. We purposely limited the update to only those contacts that already exist in your address book. So many of your social network connections are people you only interact with online, but are not central to your daily life. Adding hundreds of new contacts to your contact list in most cases doesn’t make sense. We’d love your feedback on this.

We hope you like this new feature update. Give it a try starting with Express Scrub. Even if you are not already a Scrubly Premium subscriber, you can test it out and see the results online before upgrading to Premium. We’d love to get your feedback!