Google Apps at Butler Frequently Asked Questions

All Butler students, faculty and staff automatically have Google Apps accounts. To sign into your account, visit http://docs.google.com and use your Butler email address and password. If you have problems signing in, contact the IT Help Desk.

To access the Dashboard for your Butler Google Apps account visit http://apps.butler.edu/google.

A: Possibly. If you signed into Google using your @butler.edu email address before March 22, 2011, you will have what Google calls a "conflicting account". A conflicting account occurs when two Google accounts have the same email address. The first time you try to log into your account you will see a page titled 'An update to your account is required'. You will see this page each time you sign in until you have updated your account. This page will direct you through a process to update your account. To better understand this process, IT highly recommends taking a tour.

If you DID NOT use your @butler.edu email address to log into Google before March 22, 2011, you will see no change. You will just gain the option of logging into your new Butler Google Apps account with your @butler.edu email address and password.

Your Butler Google Apps account is completely separate from any other Google accounts you may have.

A: A Butler Google Apps account helps you connect with people at Butler because you use Butler email addresses to share documents within the Butler community. Having a Butler Google Apps account can also help you keep your Butler and personal information separate. Also, a searchable user directory and autocomplete features makes sharing easier. Autocomplete allows you to begin typing into an address field within any App and have a list of matching contact names automatically appear. The list narrows as you type more letters. You can then select any address from this list, and the full address automatically fills the field.

A: Google Docs is the first Google app that will be fully supported by Butler IT. Mail is not available, but most other apps (e.g. Calendar, Sites, Blogger, YouTube, Google+, etc.) are available for use at your discretion. IT does not provide support for any apps other than Google Docs at this time. While Google Calendar is available, it is separate from and does not sync with your BUmail calendar.

A: Just like BUmail, My.Butler, etc., Butler has access to the data in Butler Google Apps accounts. However, Butler would only access this data in limited circumstances as defined in Butler's policy on the Privacy of Personally Created Content. Google Apps accounts are powered by Google but administered by Butler University. Therefore, Butler (not Google) owns all data stored within Butler Google Apps accounts. Visit this page for Google's Security and Privacy Frequently Asked Questions.

A: By default, data stored in Google Apps is private to you. You may choose to share this data with others or publish it on the web. Once you choose to publish something to the web, Google and other search engines may index it and present it in their results.

A: No. While IT feels very good about Google's security measures, until Butler has more experience with these tools, social security numbers, credit card numbers and bank account information of our constituents should not be stored in Google Apps. See Butler's policy on Identity Theft Information for more details.

A: Your Butler Google Apps account is treated the same as all other Butler computing accounts. Please see the Network Account Frequently Asked Questions for details.

A: Not at this time. Today, Butler email is not being delivered to Google, but continues to be delivered to BUmail. Not making Google email available should help eliminate confusion around which systems to use for this function. IT and the IMC believe that having the community on one email and shared calendar system is of great value because it reduces complexity when working with others.

A: You can download most of the information stored in your Google Apps account at anytime by using the Data Liberation tab in your Account Settings. For more details visit http://www.dataliberation.org/.

A: While most Google Apps are supported in all major web browsers, IT has found that Google Chrome provides the most consistent experience and can provide increased usability. If you plan to use Google Apps heavily, IT recommends using Google Chrome.

A: There are a number of ways to learn more about Google Docs.

Get help on the web from the Google Docs Help Center
Learn at your own pace by taking a free online course on Google Docs from Atomic Learning
Boise State Univ. has created a helpful blog post called 40 Quick Tips for Google Docs
Learn from others in the Official Google Docs Community Forum
See videos about Google Docs on YouTube
Attend a training session at Butler (coming soon)
If you run into a problem, visit the Known Issues Page

A: Google Docs is by no means a replacement for Office (at least for heavy users) and Office is by no means a replacement for Google Docs. Their "sweet spots" are very different. Many people can (and do) benefit from using both tools. Office provides fine grain control over formatting and has many features, but does not allow for easy collaboration with others. Google Docs makes it easy to collaborate, but has far fewer features and provides less formatting control than Office. Both Office and Google Docs will be available at Butler. The grid below provides guidance on which tool to use for what. Collaboration in this grid refers to document collaboration e.g., documents, spreadsheets and presentations.

Tool	Good For	Not Good For
Google Docs	Collaborating with people inside and outside of Butler in real-time or asynchronously Quickly collecting data via an online form Accessing documents from any computer using just a web browser Easily sharing documents with others	Creating complicated documents, such as those with large images or complex formatting People who regularly work without an Internet connection Collaborating on documents that contain sensitive business information (identity theft information)
Microsoft Office	Creating complicated documents, such as those with large images or complex formatting People who regularly work without an Internet connection Working on documents that contain sensitive business information (identity theft information)	Collaborating with others in real-time Quickly collecting data via an online form Accessing documents from any computer with just a web browser Easily sharing documents with others
BUfiles	Storing documents that contain sensitive business information (identity theft information) Storing files other than documents, spreadsheets and presentations	Collaborating with others in real-time Collaborating with people outside of Butler Easily sharing documents with others

If you are collaborating on a complicated document, consider using Google Docs to collaborate on the content and then take that content out of Google Docs and bring it into Office or some other software to finalize the formatting.

A:

Use Google Forms to quickly collect data for student peer evaluations, beginning of the year "get to know you" surveys, event sign-ups, and more. Consider using forms to collect real-time feedback in class.
Use Google Docs to collaborate with one other person or group of people on presentations, papers, business plans, course plans, etc. We can't even begin to list all of the uses!
Use the commenting system inside Google Docs to help make the feedback cycle shorter and keep track of the discussion that takes place while creating the document.
Use a Google Spreadsheet to help make a search committee's work easier. During a search, if you use a scoring rubric, each member can score each candidate on a number of variables in the spreadsheet. Everyone can then see how the candidates are stacking up.

A: Yes. Google+ is available as part of Butler Google Apps. Keep in mind that if you already have a Google+ profile under a personal Google account, your Butler Google+ profile will be IN ADDITION to your personal profile - meaning you will have two Google+ profiles. The Google+ team is aware of this and is looking into ways to merge accounts when students graduate. Just be aware that the two accounts are separate.

A: This is under discussion, but is dependent on the outcome of an email test project. The email test project will investigate the feasibility of moving email and calendars into the cloud and make a recommendation for consideration.

A: It is not possible to combine two Google accounts or merge data. To learn more visit Google's Account Merge and Data Move Options page.