NPS Adopts Gmail for Email Services

Monday, September 28, 2009

Norman Public Schools has moved its email operations to Google's Gmail service. Support for Microsoft Outlook and Zimbra will be dropped on Friday, March 12, 2010.

Why?

Email currently consumes a large percentage of the storage allocated to each person's U drive. Moving email services to Gmail will free this space on the U drive, making it available for documents. Microsoft Outlook is the source of a large number of technical support issues. This includes missing or corrupt "PST" files and misconfiguration. Email is an essential service and should not be plagued by these problems. Moving email services to Gmail will free technical support staff to address other issues.

Other Benefits

Moving to Gmail has other benefits, including:

  • Storage: In addition to freeing U drive space, Google provides more storage for email than most people will ever need.
  • Spam Control: Gmail has very powerful spam filters that virtually eliminate unwanted email.
  • Calendar Sharing: Create calendars and share them with anyone. You can give others read-only access to your calendars or you can give them the ability to add events/appointments.
  • Mobile Device Support: Many cellphones and PDAs can remain synchronized with Gmail without the need of a computer connection. This happens over the cellphone network or a local wireless network. Mobile devices that support the ActiveSync protocol are compatible.

Accessing the Service

You do not need to create a Gmail account. An account has already been created for you. Your email address remains the same, continuing to end with @norman.k12.ok.us. The service is accessed with a web browser. Chrome, Firefox and Safari on Macintosh work well. Internet Explorer is known to have problems and should be avoided. The URL will be provided in a number of places. Either of the following URLs take you to the Gmail service:

If you are not signed on, then you will be presented with a sign-on page. Enter the same user name and password used for the UDT, with a possible exception. Google requires passwords to be at least 6 characters long. If your password is less than 6 characters long, it has been padded with trailing zeros to make it 6 characters long. For example, the UDT password "cat" would be "cat000" on Gmail. It is recommended that you change your UDT password to be at least 6 characters long so that your UDT and Gmail passwords can be the same.

Using the Service

Once you have successfully signed in to your Gmail account and agreed to the terms of service, you are ready to start using it. Google provides this "Getting Started" guide.

Importing Existing Data

All NPS email since mid-May 2009 is already stored in Gmail. If you have older emails that you want to carry forward to Gmail, you will need to forward those to your own email address from your old email program so that they are delivered to your Gmail account.

Existing calendar items can be moved to Google Calendar by following these instructions.

Existing contacts can be moved to Gmail by first exporting them to a CSV file and then importing them into Google Contacts. Instructions for Outlook 2003 can be found here. Instructions for Outlook 2007 can be found here. Group definitions can not be moved to Gmail at this time. If you have contact groups defined, they will need to be redefined in Gmail.

Getting Additional Help

The technology site contact for your site can provide further assistance with this transition.