Get help and training before your organization switches to Google Workspace*.
| 1. Understand Google Workspace | 2. Clean up old mail and calendar events | 3. Prepare for Google Workspace tools and schedule training | 4. Prepare to use Chrome Browser |
1. Understand Google Workspace
Google Workspace helps you:
- Communicate and collaborate instantly with your co-workers—Connect with your team over video meetings, email or chat whether they're using Google Calendar, Gmail, Google Meet, and Google Chat.
- Store files securely and find what you need instantly, on any device—Keep documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and more all in one place with Google Drive.
- Create, share, and present professional templates, project plans, and slide decks—With Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides you can create and edit documents, spreadsheets, and Slides right in your web browser.
If you’re switching from Microsoft Outlook, you’ll notice a few differences when you start using Gmail.
- Gmail groups a message and its replies in a single conversation thread. You can use conversation threads to see multiple related messages in one view. You'll see new messages at the bottom of a thread.
- If a thread has a lot of messages, click the 3 dots at the bottom to see the entire thread.
- In Gmail, you can tag messages with labels and use search operators to find messages.
You must have access to Chrome Browser 30 days before before your company transitions to Google Workspace. If you don’t already have Chrome Browser, download and install it.
You’ll work in Chrome Browser to use Google Workspace tools, such as Gmail, Google Drive, and Google Docs. You can customize it and work securely across all of your devices. With Chrome Browser, you can:
- Synchronize bookmarks and settings across all your devices.
- Add to your browser’s functionality with Chrome Web Store extensions, such as photo editors and project-management tools.
2. Clean up old mail and calendar events
About 30 days before your organization switches to Google Workspace, it's a good idea to start cleaning up your email and email folders. You need time to think about what you really need to keep in Outlook. Here are some other tips to get you started:
- Try and keep your email folder structure to 10 folders for a smoother migration process.
- Check messages in your folders, including nested folders that might not be visible. You might need to search for messages.
- Delete email messages that you don’t need to keep.
Review your mailing lists in Outlook and see what lists you need to keep or delete.
Make a note of recurring events and important meetings before you switch to Google Calendar—during the migration process, some recurring meetings might not appear in Calendar.
3. Prepare for Google Workspace tools and schedule training
When you start using Google Workspace, you’ll find files, email messages, and more by searching for what you need.
- On the day your organization switches to Google Workspace, allow time to review your account settings and familiarize yourself with your new Google Workspace account.
- Work with your manager to coordinate this schedule with other members of your team.
If you work remotely, schedule 1:1 and peer support time at your organization’s office the week your company switches to Google Workspace.
Before your company switches to Google Workspace, contact your training team to see what Google Workspace courses and resources are available:
- Review Google Workspace training resources from your training team. For example, is there an internal website where you can find learning resources, such as recordings or presentations?
- If your training team has a shared training calendar, check out upcoming dates and add these to your calendar.
- Go to the Google Workspace Learning Center for switching guides, tips and tricks, and more.
- If your training team offers it, register for advanced training and sign up for the mailing list to hear about Google Workspace updates.
Check with your IT team to see if they have a signature template with an appropriate publicly-hosted image. If there is a template available, make sure you get it before your organization switches to Google Workspace.
If your IT team doesn’t have a signature template, here are some other options:
- If your organization can share Google Drive files externally, then copy and paste the signature from Outlook into Gmail.
- If your organization cannot share Drive files externally, ask your company’s IT team for a signature template with a public URL for the image. Or, if this isn’t possible, search for a public image from the site and copy the URL.
- Paste your Outlook signature into a Google Doc and then paste this into Gmail. You’ll need to test to see if this works so have an external person verify the logo in the signature.
Contact your training team about your company logo so you can add it to your new Gmail signature.
Enroll a company-owned Android or iOS device in mobile management to access your new Google Workspace account and work apps on the go.
- Add a password to protect your device.
- If you own an Android device, you can set up a work profile that separates work apps and data from your personal apps and data.
- Get approved and internal apps on your device.
4. Prepare to use Chrome Browser
Migrate your bookmarks, browsing history, and saved passwords from any other browsers to Chrome Browser.
Import bookmarks:
- In Chrome browser, at the top right, click More
Bookmarks
- Select the program that contains the bookmarks that you want to import.
- Click Import
Add bookmarks:
- In Chrome browser, go to a site.
- To the right of the address bar, click Star
.
.Note: You can plan to set up Gmail and Calendar bookmarks on the day your company switches over to Google Workspace.
Manage bookmarks:
- At the top right, click More
- On the left, click a folder to see its contents.
- Drag to reorder a folder or bookmark.
- Next to a bookmark, click More
and select an option to edit or delete.
To save a file or image on your computer or device, download it. The file will be saved in your default download location.
- In Chrome browser, at the top right, click More
- At the bottom, click Advanced.
- Go to the Downloads section and choose an option:
- To change the default download location for all files, click Change and select where you want to save your files.
- To choose a specific location for each download, check the Ask where to save each file before downloading box.
With Chrome Browser, you get an alert whenever websites, apps, or extensions try to send you notifications. If you don’t want to get notifications, you can turn them off.
- In Chrome browser, at the top right, click More
- At the bottom, click Advanced.
- In the Privacy and security section, next to Site Settings, click the Right arrow
.
- Next to Notifications, click the Right arrow
- Choose an option:
- To block all notifications, next to Ask before sending (recommended), click Turn off
.
- To block a notification from a site, next to Block, click Add. Enter the site and click Add.
- To allow a site, next to Allow, click Add. Enter the site and click Add.
- To block all notifications, next to Ask before sending (recommended), click Turn off
You can tell Chrome Browser to reopen the same pages that you were looking at when you quit.
- On your computer, open Chrome Browser.
- At the top right, click More
- Under On startup, select Continue where you left off.
Your cookies and data are saved, so any websites that you signed in to before, such as Gmail, will open again. If you don't want to be automatically signed in to these pages, follow the steps below:
- On your computer, open Chrome Browser.
- At the top right, click More
- At the bottom, click Advanced.
- Under Privacy and security, click Site settings.
- Click Cookies.
- Turn on Keep local data only until you quit your browser.
If you accidentally closed a tab, you can reopen it by pressing Ctrl+Shift+T.
*The instructions in this guide are for desktop only.
Next steps
Want to get a jump start on becoming productive on Google Workspace? See the Day 1 checklist.
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