Supported Browsers for Google Apps for Education/G Suite
(from an article on Google’s website) To have the best experience with Google applications on your computer, use a supported, up-to-date browser. You’ll have access to the latest features. And you’ll get improved security and performance.
Firefox, Safari and Google
Google supports the current and previous major release of Firefox®, Safari®, and Microsoft® browsers. This currently includes Microsoft Edge™ and Internet Explorer® 11. Each time a new browser version is released, we begin supporting that version and stop supporting the third most recent version.
Tip: If your organization depends on an older version of Internet Explorer, consider a dual browser strategy.
Chrome
Google supports the latest version of Google Chrome. Normally, Chrome updates automatically when a new version becomes available. If you don’t have the latest version, you can update Chrome yourself. For details, see Update Google Chrome.
NOTE: More information on this article and additional links to browser downloads can be found here.
NOTE: Some bard.edu users have experienced incompatibilities between Google Chrome and some campus services, including: Space Management and Banner/BIP. If you encounter this, choose another, up-to-date browser.
How do I access G Suite?
G Suite is a web-based application, so you will always access your BardMail and calendar through an Internet browser. To access G Suite:
- Logon to your BardMail (Gmail) account by going to this address in your browser: https://mail.google.com/.
- In the upper right hand corner of the screen, click the six dot menu icon to the left of the notifications icon (bell icon) and your account icon if you have one. Click the app you want to use.
Benefits of G Suite
Some of the benefits you can expect from G Suite: Unlimited storage space in Gmail and Google Drive (no more quota warnings!)
- User-controlled document sharing in Google Drive
- Shared drives for members-only access to shared files
- Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides applications for real-time document collaboration
- Google Groups to more easily manage permissions and mailing lists
- Improved mobile device support
- Improved security including support for two-factor authentication
- Calendar sharing with editing permissions
- Files are saved automatically in G Suite applications
- Google Calendar can also be used to create public calendars that can be embedded on public webpages and made accessible to anyone who views that webpage. You can also create and embed calendars that are only visible to people with Google Apps accounts.
- Using Google Forms for quizzes and surveys
- Instant messaging and video chat is available for your department through Google Hangouts
- Using “labels” in Gmail allows you to organize emails
- Gmail conversations can be organized into one thread or not
- Gmail option allows “undo send” for sent email for a period of time
- Powerful filters and rules for Gmail
- Robust mailbox search capabilities
- Using Google Classroom as another option to Moodle
- G Suite provides document editing and spreadsheet applications to students who don’t have or use MS Office
Best Practices for G Suite
- Start any documents or files you would like to collaborate on using G Suite instead of MS Office. Although you can always convert a Word or Excel file to a G Suite file format, you may lose style formatting or data in the process. Therefore, you should begin any forthcoming projects by using G Suite applications from the start.
- Check any files you have converted from MS Office format to G Suite format for any loss in data or formatting. Also, remember that after you convert an MS Office document to a G Suite document, the original MS Office document will still be available in its original location.If you have not already done so, consider creating folders or organize your files when moving to or creating documents for Drive storage.
- Consider using Drive storage as a backup for your hard drive’s files and folders.
- Consider using two factor authentication for access to your Google account.
- If you have been using a personal Gmail account for Bard business, we recommend that you begin using your Bard Gmail account as primary. This is especially important due to privacy concerns that are addressed with Bard’s G Suite for Education hosting solution.
- Is it also recommended that you NOT forward your Bard Gmail to another email account for the same reason as above.
- When sending invites to share a calendar, it is recommended that you send email invites rather than links because anyone who has the link can view the calendar whether they have a Google account or not.