ISG Blog

Here's a few notes from Google on how to use Google Keep.

Hope it's useful to you. Just another app readily available for you to use within the TSA environment.

We've talked about Google Keep in quite a lot of detail previously. It is a fantastic little app that can act like little post-it notes, or checklists, and do clever things like remind you to do something when you arrive at a specific location (that is my favorite feature, when I arrive at work my phone (thanks to Google Keep) pops up with a note or to-do list)!

Anyway, I stumbled on the following blog post which provides some great tips for using Google Keep. Things like putting labels on your notes so you can filter them easily. After all, if Google Keep were a notebook I kept in my pocket it would be big enough to demand a bag to carry it in now!

See the post here. 

And if you want to look at our previous blog posts providing Google Keep tips look at these:

Get Organised Digitally
Intro to Google Keep
Google Keep #1
Google Keep #2
Google Keep #3
Google Keep #4
Google Keep #5

Now enjoy having all your notes always in your pocket, or purse, or wherever your mobile phone is!

Maybe you've decided that you want to use your smartphone to be more organised this year. Or perhaps you just decided that a to do list will keep you on top of your work. Whatever it is you're trying to organise, we suggest using Google Keep.

Last year we ran a series on how to get the most out of Google Keep (listed below). However it seems like a good time to suggest that Google Keep with your Salvation Army login will let you be digitally organised wherever you are!

Out of the office and remember you need to see someone? Set a Google Keep reminder (using your voice) to prompt you when you get back to the office! Need to make a list of those last items you need to take on your visit? Make a Google Keep list and check things off as you put them in your bag!

Here are the links to the series we ran in August last year on Google Keep:

• Google Keep #1
• Google Keep #2
• Google Keep #3
• Google Keep #4
• Google Keep #5

Hoping you have a very successful digital year!

This is the last post in the short series we've been running on Google Keep. It is also probably one of my favorite features and I use it a lot particularly when I'm in a driving. In my car I have a cradle so I don't have to touch my phone. Then I say OK Google Now and my phone wakes up, so I say Note to self and get prompted as follows. You can also say note to self send monthly report to executive and a similar chain of events will follow:

As you can see there are lots more options than just Google Keep. And even better whenever you have a keyboard onscreen to type you can tap the microphone and speak to your phone!

Select (with a single tap) the app you want to use to create this voice note. 

One final tip which isn't related to Google Keep, rather to Android and using your voice to control it ... If you haven't enabled the wake on OK Google Now voice command you can still speak to your phone. Just tap on the little microphone on the Google Search bar:

Don't forget about the little microphone on your keyboard either ... that lets you talk to any app instead of using seek & peck method of typing or swipe (we blogged about that in the Type FAST on Your Mobile post)!

Sometimes when you make a note it is as much for someone else as it is for you. Maybe it is a job you're working on together and Google Keep notes or checklists are helping you collaborate. Or maybe you're preparing a presentation and you want some help gathering the bullet points.

Whatever the case with Google Keep you can share your note(s) with anyone else. In fact you can share a note with multiple people! Simply start or open a note and click on the person:

Now just type the name or names of the people you want to include. By default (when you're signed in with your salvationarmy.org.nz account it will automatically find people who work for The Salvation Army. Once you've added all the people you want to include simply tap on save and then get back to your job 

Finding notes is easy when you only have one or two, but we've seen many monitors with dozens of sticky notes placed around it. So while making notes is a great idea, finding them (especially on a mobile device) can be a little difficult.

Google Keep has this covered! You can colour code your notes. This means that instead of just having pretty notes you can make orange apply to phone messages, green to information you need to remember, blue to work you need to complete, yellow to mission ideas, etc. You can also use the search feature and select the type of note it was:

Google Keep really makes it easy to keep notes organised and haver them appear at your finger tips when you need them.

Keeping a note that you have to do something is great, but sometimes (personally speaking) I need a reminder. For me the best kind of reminder is one that as I walk into work says, hey go see X when you get to work. Google Keep lets you create a reminder for either a specific date and time OR a specific location!

To create a reminder enter your text (or steal the text from photo using our tip yesterday) then tap on the reminder text at the bottom of the note:

This will popup a choice of either day & time OR location based:

Then simply type in the address you want to be reminded at. This works really well for reminding me of things I need to do when I get to work, or home, or the supermarket, or anywhere else you may go to get things done!

We've previously blogged about Google Keep and today we're starting a few posts on some really powerful features that Google Keep has. On the surface Google Keep appears to be a digital version of PostIt notes and checklists, and it is, but it is also oh so much more!

Did you know that Google Keep can transcribe text? It is a fairly simple process, just start a new note and take a photo. Then tap on the 3 dots (see screen shot below) and select the grab text option.

In my use of this feature Google Keep has performed flawlessly. I have always been trying to grab typed text off signs, or posters. Give it a try yourself and see just how helpful this feature of Google Keep can be.