Colleagues,

On Thursday, we sent out an email about how to use Gmail’s Multi-Send feature. It quickly came to our attention that this feature was replaced very recently with the more advanced “mail merge” feature.  Mail merge has all of the same benefits of multi-send and is a much better option than mass BCC emails.  

Mail merge allows you to link a Google Sheet with up to 1,500 recipients and use any data column from the Sheet as a mail merge tag. Contact information must be in the first tab of your spreadsheet and can only contain text. Here’s how to use mail merge:

1. On your computer, open Gmail.
2. At the top left, click Compose.
   • You can also open an existing draft.
3. Go to the “To:” line.
4. Click Use mail merge:
5. Turn on Mail merge.
6. Click Add from a spreadsheet.
7. Select a Google Sheet, then click Insert.
8. Use the dropdown menus to select the columns from the spreadsheet to determine each recipient’s address (e.g. Lisa Rodriguez <lisa@example.com>). You can choose the following contact information from your spreadsheet:
   • Email
   • First name
   • Last name (optional)
9. Click Finish.
   • Your spreadsheet is added to the “To:” line in the message.
10. In your message, enter “@.”
11. Select a merge tag.
    • Merge tags are determined by the column headers in your spreadsheet.
12. To select a merge tag, press Enter.

Thank you to everyone who sent us their feedback on this recent tip. Of course, as always the SJSU IT Service Desk is here to help by phone at (408) 924-1530 or online.

Thank you,
Bob Lim
Vice President for Information Technology
and CIO at San José State University

Campus colleagues,

Here’s a tip for something simple you can do to help keep our university more secure: report phishing attempts!

During a phishing attack, a scammer disguises their email to look like a legitimate message from a colleague or company in an attempt to trick you. The goal of the phishing email is to have you click on a link, open an attachment, or take you to a fake login website that will ask you for sensitive or confidential information. You can find more information about Phishing on the SJSU IT website.

Although your first instinct might be to delete or ignore suspicious emails, please report them. If you suspect an email to be a phishing attack, you can use the “Report Phishing” button inside Google. This button will only appear if Gmail identifies the email as a potential phishing attempt. When this alert comes up, if it’s from a known contact, try reaching out to them with a phone call, chat, or email from your SJSU account to verify if the email is really from them or if it’s an impersonation.

If you’ve been targeted by a phisher, chances are your coworkers have been, too. By reporting suspicious emails, you can keep our campus safer. Here’s what the “Report Phishing” alert looks like in Gmail:

If you suspect an email is a phishing attempt and the alert has not appeared, you can click on the menu button within the email and select “Report Phishing.” Here’s what the menu option looks like:

If you think you have been compromised, email the Information Security team at security@sjsu.edu or call (408) 924-1530. Remember, SJSU will never send unsolicited messages asking for your password or other personal information.

Thank you Janice Lew, our Information Security Program Coordinator, for helping keep our university secure and providing this tip. As always, the SJSU IT Service Desk is here to help by phone at (408) 924-1530 or online.

Thanks,
Bob Lim
Vice President for Information Technology
and CIO at San Jose State University

Spartans,

This week’s tip is a quick heads up to help you manage your personal Google accounts (it doesn’t apply to your @sjsu.edu account).

Citing security concerns, Google recently updated its policy and will begin deleting accounts with long periods of inactivity. According to Google’s blog post on the policy update, “Starting later this year, if a Google Account has not been used or signed into for at least 2 years, we may delete the account and its contents – including content within Google Workspace (Gmail, Docs, Drive, Meet, Calendar) and Google Photos.”

If you have an older account you want to keep, all you need to do is sign in. We recommend updating your password and adding two-factor authentication.

If you don’t plan on keeping or maintaining your older account, consider downloading anything you may want to keep and then deleting the account. Google Takeout allows you to download or export your Google data to other platforms. After that, deleting your personal account is a fairly simple process.

Thank you Jeff Japp and Andrew Weiglein, both from our Project Management Office, for providing this tip. As always, the SJSU IT Service Desk is here to help by phone at (408) 924-1530 or online.

Thanks,
Bob Lim
Vice President for Information Technology
and CIO at San Jose State University

Campus colleagues,

Here’s a tip for those of you managing DocuSign forms with many signees: Uncheck the Set a Signing Order for faster signatures!

If you have a document that requires multiple signatures that can be done in any order, uncheck the “Set signing order” option. With “Set signing order” disabled, all recipients receive the document at the same time and they can all sign it as soon as they receive it. This is the fastest way to collect multiple signatures at once, and it’s perfect for things like hiring committees or group resolutions.

Using tools like DocuSign and OnBase do so much more than make our processes and paperwork faster. They also make what we do more transparent and accessible for our students.

Thank you Jocelyn Tom, Application Business Analyst, for all your work on digitization and for providing this tip. As always, the SJSU IT Service Desk is here to help by phone at (408) 924-1530 or online.

Thanks,
Bob Lim
Vice President for Information Technology
and CIO at San Jose State University

Dear MLMLers,

Looking for a space at MLML to hold a video conference call or collaborative Zoom session? Here’s a tip: book the group study room in the MLML main building, recently upgraded with Neat teleconferencing technology.

The new conference room technology is easier to use, starts up quicker, and can even be relocated to the Seminar room if requested in advance. It’s a straightforward system with high-quality audio and video that can integrate directly with Zoom.

Check out the MLML Knowledge Base for more information on how to reserve and use the Neat Bar.

Thank you Mikhail Golbin, Lead Systems & Network Analyst, and Lor Vang, IT Consultant, for providing this tip for MLML. As always, the MLML IT help desk can be contacted by phone (831) 711-4418, email mlml-helpdesk@sjsu.edu, or online.

Thanks,
Bob Lim
Vice President for Information Technology
and CIO at San Jose State University