When in first launched,Gmail-or GoogleMaii as it is known was something of a revolution boasting over 2GB of storage space, which has gradually increased overtime. Today, the average GoogleMail inbox has nearly 5GB of storage. If you're not using all this for email and use the Firefox web browser, then you might be interested in a little tool called Gspace.

This converts unused Google Mail inbox space into an online-storage location that can be accessed from anywhere,a bit like an online hard disk. The add-on can be used to copy any type of document to this storage space and built-in tools make it possible to play music files and view uploaded photos without the need to download them.

IN ORDERTO USE Gspace,a GoogleMaii orGmaii email account is required. If you already have one, skip straight to Step 2; otherwise launch Firefox (remember, Firefox is required to use Gspace) and visit.Click the link labelled 'Sign up for Google Mail:

Enter your name and type the user name you would like to use before clicking the 'check availability' button. Once an available name has been found, enter and confirm a password and follow the remaining on-screen instructions to set up the account. If you need additional help using Gmail, see the Workshop published in issue 246 .

LAUNCH FIREFOX BROWSER AND type www.getspace.com.when the Gspace home page appears, click the Download button labelled for Windows. If the information bar is displayed at the top of the screen, click the Edit Options button followed by Allow before closing the Allowed Sites window. Click the Download link for a second time, wait for the countdown timer and then click the Install Now button. Once the installation is complete, restart Firefox by clicking the button .

WHEN FIREFOX HAS RESTARTED, click the Tools menu and select the Gspace option. Click OK on the dialogue box that appears and then click the Manage Accounts button in the toolbar that appears beneath the row of tabs. Enter the email address and password associated with your GoogleMail account, tick the Remember Password box and click the Add button. If you have more than one account, repeat the process as many times as required and then click the Close button .

CLICK THE DROPDOWN MENU next to the Manage Accounts button and select the account that is to be used, before clicking Login.A moment later,a message reading'Congrats - successfully logged in!'should appear in the Status window in the lower right¬hand corner of the screen. In the status bar beneath this is a range of useful information including details of which account is currently logged in.To the right of this are details of how much storage space has been used and how much is available.

USING THE PANE TO the left of the screen, it is possible to navigate through the files and folders on the PC's hard disk and select which to upload to Google Mail.Aher selecting one or more files/folders, make sure that File Transfer Mode is selected from the dropdown menu next to the Inbox toolbar button and then click the button featuring an arrow pointing to the right.The Transfers pane in the bottom left of the Firefox window shows the progress of uploads and, once complete, the selected files will be visible in the My Gspace pane on the right .

CLICK THE INBOX BUTTON in the Gspace tool bar to visit your GoogleMail inbox. Notice that the inbox contains an email, apparently from yourself, which is marked as having an attachment. Click the subject line to open the email and the file or files that have just been uploaded will be listed as the attachmentThere will also be an attachment called 'metadata.txt; but this can be ignored. As GoogleMaii can be accessed from any computer with internet access, the attached files will be accessible from anywhere.

TO PREVENTTHE GOOGLEMail inbox from becoming cluttered with files that have been uploaded and therefore making it more difficult to see any emailsthathavebeenreceived.itis a good idea to create a filter to help keep things organised. At the Google Mail website click the'Create a filter'link at the top of the page and enter your email address in the To and From boxes.Type d$ in the subject box and click the Next Step button. Opt to add a new label and then click Create Filter .

AS WELL AS UPLOADING files so that they can be accessed via Google Mail, Gspace can also be used to make a small music collection available from other computers. Upload some music files using the same method as described in Step 5 and,once the transfer is complete, click the dropdown menu next to the Inbox button in the Gspace toolbar and select Player Mode. Select one or more music files in the My Gspace pane and click the left arrow. Use the player control to the left to listen to music.

GSPACE CAN BE USED in a similar way to view images that have been uploaded.Just select the Photo Mode option from the dropdown menu and when an image is selected in the My Gspace pane, a small preview will be displayed immediately below and a large one to the left. Above the larger preview,c1ick the first button to open the image at full size in a new window and use the second button to toggle the preview between full¬size and shrink-to-fit modes .

WITH NEARLY 5GB OF storage space to work with, there is scope to upload a fairly large number offiles and this can make it difficult to find individual files in Gspace.To make things easier, it is possible to create folders within the online storage to categorise files as required. Simply click the Create Directory button in the My Gspace pane or right-click within it and select Create Directory before typing a name. Uploading files into folder makes no difference to the way they appear on the GoogleMaii website .

GENERALLY SPEAKING, GSPACE NEEDS very little, if any, configuration, but there are a few options that can be set Click the Preferences button in the tool bar and certain options can be changed to help improve performance for slower connections, Unticking the boxes labelled 'Show file/folder Timestamps' and 'Show Thumbnails in Photo Mode' can help to speed things up,as can reducing the default attachment size from 14MB, Here it is also possible to edit which file types should be recognised as images.

WHEN BROWSING THE INTERNET, it is still possible to access the files that have been uploaded to GoogleMail without the need to explicitly launch Gspace, In the lower right~hand corner of the Firefox window atthe far side of the status bar is a blue icon,Click this and Gspace will appear in a pop-up window, From here it is possible to download files that have already been uploaded, as well as keep an eye on the transfer of larger files, Click the icon again to hide the panel.

WHILE IT IS PRETTY easy to access Gspace via the Tools menu, the process can be reduced to a single click, Click the FirefoxView menu and then select Customise from the Toolbars sub~menu,Scroll down through the list of icons that is displayed and a Gspace icon should be visible, Using the left mouse button, drag and drop this icon onto the main Firefox tool bar and then click the Done button, Clicking this button in future will launch Gspace in a new tab.

AN ALTERNATIVE TO GSPACE is Gmail Drive, which does not require Firefox to be installed. Once installed, the program makes it possible to treat GoogleMail storag'= space as an extra hard disk that can be accessed from Explorer or My Computer and files can be simply dragged and dropped into place,The program can be downloaded free from/code/gmail.htm.Gspace can also be used to access Gmail Drive by making the relevant selection from the dropdown menu in the toolbar.