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Note: This Gmail guide is not for new users, but for those of you who already use Gmail and
want to take advantage of its many features. Those of you who are new should probably
read The Beginner’s Guide to Gmail first, which will give you an introduction to the service and
how to use its most basic and important features.
What is the first thing you notice? Is it the Gmail Calendar integration, helpful tabs for
organization, or notification icon?
Actually, the first thing we are going to start with is your Gmail theme. It’s probably the one
thing you did not notice right away. There are no fancy stars, no ninjas hanging between
subject lines, and no picture in the background. And that’s the point: the theme is simply out of
the way. With themes, you can choose for your Gmail to have a different appearance, which is a
favorite feature among many users. You can read the original Gmail guide to learn how to apply
them, but if you are serious about being effective with your emails, you should consider
keeping things as simple as possible.
Your Gmail theme is more than just a collection of colors or a neat background. It sets up your
mood when you’re viewing your emails and can even affect how you respond to them. In a
professional Gmail account where you deal with work and projects, efficiency should take
precedence over creativity. Choose a clean theme with high contrast and don’t overwhelm
yourself with a bunch of distractions.
We will later learn how to use Gmail’s powerful filters (see chapter 4) to organize incoming
emails and how to use keyboard shortcuts (see chapter 5) to quickly archive emails that do not
require your immediate attention. Gmail also offers tabs and an automatic labeling system for
easier organization (also in chapter 5).
Treat your inbox like a “to do” list. Any email in it requires you do something about it (usually
reply to it). As soon as you’re done taking care of that email, archive it. You may be surprised to
learn how relieving an empty inbox can be.
Many of the enhancements to Gmail described in this manual work through these other
services that are fully integrated into Gmail. In order to take full advantage of these, you will
have to venture forth and look into them. I strongly encourage you to do so.
If you want to use Gmail as a communication hub, you have to give the chat area a much more
prominent position on the screen. To do this, we will move the chat bar to the right of the
screen. Click the gear icon at the top and select Settings. Choose Labs from the top and in the
search window that appears, type “chat” to see only the available option for chat features. Then,
Enable the Right-Side Chat option and click Save Changes at the bottom of the page. Gmail
should then reload with the change.
That was easy, wasn’t it? Remember this Labs tab because we will return to it soon and use it
for additional features.
Right side chat uses the right side of the screen, which is relatively unused in Gmail. It allows
you to see more of your contacts at once, makes chat more visually prominent and gives you
more room to view your labels at the left, without constantly moving that annoying dynamic
bar. This is a simple win-win situation.
Let’s take a closer look at our chat bar. First is the Hangouts Contacts button which will display
those you have joined a Hangout with previously. If you select one, you have options to contact
them via video call, Hangout, or email. You can also review their basic details.
Next is the Hangouts button, Google’s version of video conferencing. Hangouts are a Google Plus
component which allows you to talk with up to five people in Gmail (it is possible to talk to
more people directly through Google Plus). You can even have people join in via phone. It is
Gmail’s ultimate communication tool and one of the best features it can offer you.
To the right of that is the Phone Call button which will bring up contacts that you can call. This
will initiate the call in a small dial pad window.
At the top of the chat feature area, we see our profile picture. Clicking on the image or the arrow
right next to it will bring up a window that enables us to change our status and adjust other
settings.
The features in this area are self-explanatory: they allow you to insert a status message, such
as “busy at work” or “on my phone,” and indicate whether you’re busy or available. You can also
adjust your notifications, general settings, and review items like archived Hangouts and
blocked contacts.
Google Voice’s features go beyond the purposes of this Gmail guide. But, I will mention here
that if you have Google Voice set up, you can make phone calls and send and receive text
messages as well. Google offers very competitive prices for international calls, but you can only
set these up through Google Voice. This is truly an excellent service, especially if you have
friends and relatives abroad.
Labels work more like tags than folders. If emails are paper documents placed into folders,
labels are like colorful stickers placed on these papers to categorize them further. Emails are
not placed directly in a label, they are associated with a label. Therefore, one email can have
more than one label (think back to papers with several stickers), and emails can be searched
for with more than one label as well.
For example, my “professional” label in Gmail contains emails from both of my workplaces. I
have a label for each location, but some material is common to both places. These emails then
have three labels: the “professional” label, indicating it’s work-related, and labels for each
workplace. This allows me to search for material that answers the needs of both locations.
System labels and custom labels have a Show in IMAP option; you should configure these
options if you’re using a different app, software such as Outlook, or certain add-ons. This Gmail
guide focuses on getting the most out of the Gmail interface, thus I will not get into these
options here. If you’re interested, make sure you read The Beginner’s Guide to Gmail.
All Mail is that basement. Turning it on (choosing Show) means having instant access to your
past emails, organized by date. While you can access any old emails from the search bar, this
link becomes quite handy when you clean your inbox often and just want a quick glimpse to
find an email you received a bit earlier in the day.
What you may not have considered, though, is using drafts for simple notes, to write down
ideas, make shopping lists, or store someone’s contact information quickly. Most mail clients
today give you the option to attach files and pictures to an email. This makes your draft folder
an excellent place to upload files and sync between computers if you need a fast solution. Don’t
leave files in your drafts folder forever though! This is not the place for them.
Another great use for the draft section is to store templates. If you find yourself composing the
same email over and over, save a blank copy of the email in your drafts and copy-paste it into a
new email every time you need it (don’t send your original draft – this will remove the draft
label!). You can save your email signature, links, and even images this way. Give your template-
draft email a topic that reflects its usage to you for easy reference, such as “wedding: thank you
letter” or “fans: thank you for adding letter” etc.
Alternatively, you can use Canned Responses to hold email templates for types of messages
you send out all the time.
3.3 Categories
Categories are labels that correspond to the tabs you see in Gmail; Social, Promotions, Updates,
and Forums. Gmail applies these labels automatically to help keep your inbox well-organized as
messages arrive.
You can decide if you would like to show or hide each of these labels in both the label list and
message list. Note that this is separate from having those categories shown as tabs.
If you would like to add or remove a tab for one of the categories, click the plus icon to the right
of the last tab. Then, enable those you want by checking the appropriate box and
hitting Savewhen you finish.
You can add and edit labels from the Label tab under Settings, just like with any other label,
but it’s even faster to just click the colored square next to your custom label’s name. The pop
up menu is even more effective than the traditional Labels tab under Settings because it allows
you to choose and edit a label’s color directly.
First things first, get used to Gmail’s search window. You are probably familiar with the more
popular search operators, such as “from” or “has:attachment” (and if not, you’re in the right
place). These are words that tell Gmail to go and fetch something. Fortunately, these words are
mostly self-explanatory.
You can enter those operators manually, but Gmail will do it for you as you enter the
information into the search dropdown box. Just click the arrow in the search box and complete
the details for your search. This can range from who an email is from or to, what the subject line
is, if the message has or does not have specific words, and whether or not there is an
attachment.
You can then narrow your search by size and date if needed. Notice in the image above that the
search elements you enter display in the search box.
The next window will present you with a list of available options. You can choose to delete,
archive, and forward these emails automatically. You can apply a label to them or even set
Gmail to answer these emails automatically with a premade email just for that purpose. When
you are done, click the blue Create filter button. If you choose to apply the filter to all the emails
already in your Gmail, the actions you just selected can do that too.
You can always access your existing filters from the Filters tab under Settings. From there you
can choose to edit or delete any custom filters.
Some emails are not exactly junk, but also do not require your attention. Bills and credit card
statements, Facebook notifications, emails from the office that you know you might need one
day, or even just a family member who floods your inbox with pictures of their cute new puppy.
You don’t want to delete these emails completely, but you don’t want to sort through them
immediately either.
Next time Aunt Susie sends a picture of her puppy, it won’t even be in your inbox, but if she
calls you and asks you about it, you can find it in your archive quickly.
If you use Amazon a lot, you probably get many emails from them like promotions, receipts, and
requests for feedback. You could easily create a filter to send all of these to your “semi-junk”
label, but the problem is that you still want to know right away when Amazon shipped
something to you so you have the tracking number available. How do you do that?
Search for “Amazon” in your Gmail and click the down arrow to create your filter. The word
“Amazon” brings up every email ever sent to you from Amazon.com, so the next step is to
include additional words that only exist in Amazon shipping confirmation emails. In the “has
the words” line type in “has shipped!” in quotation marks. This tells Gmail that you are looking
for the word combination “has shipped!” exactly as it appears in the text: two words, space, and
exclamation mark. You will notice the list shrinks considerably to include only emails
from Amazon that include the phrase “has shipped!”
Still, some emails manage to get through, especially if you sell items on Amazon. You’ll get a
message asking you to ship your items. No problem. Just include the word combination “ship
now” in the “doesn’t have” line, and watch your list shrink further. Looks pretty good now,
doesn’t it? Then, create the filter.
To change your inbox type, click Inbox under Settings and make your choice from the
dropdown box. Be sure to click Save Changes at the bottom when you finish.
Gmail decides which emails are more important based on how often you read and reply to
emails from a certain contact and how you interact with them. Gmail’s mechanism is pretty
good on its own, but you can interfere directly and give some emails VIP status by marking
them as important. Alternatively, you can strip emails from their importance.
You can mark emails as important or not important by clicking the little tag icon next to them
in the main email list or at the top once inside the message (see figure below).
As you click and adjust your emails, Gmail will also adjust its own algorithm and respond
accordingly: there’s no need to mark all messages from a certain contact important. Gmail will
catch on after a few manual changes and mark them for you.
Why would you want to star emails if you already have an advanced feature like priority inbox?
Because sometimes you just need to remember something quickly or remind yourself you want
to do something about a particular email rather than just deem a group of emails important.
Keep in mind, stars work just the same both in your important emails and in your not-so-
important emails.
You can always access the list of keyboard shortcuts in Gmail by pressing a question mark, or
shift + / (forward slash), as long as you are not composing an email (which of course would
simply insert a question mark into the body of your email).
Before we can use keyboard shortcuts in Gmail, however, we have to make sure they are
activated. To do so, go to Settings and scroll down to Keyboard shortcuts to enable them.
Selecting emails this way allows you to quickly choose emails you want to delete, archive or
move to another label. After some practice, you will find that selecting emails this way is much
faster than using the mouse. As you start understanding the power of keyboard shortcuts, you
will be ready for more.
Actions:
• Press Enter to open an email and read it.
• Inside an open email, press R to reply to sender; press A to reply to all senders.
This is extra helpful on small screens, where you need extra space to read and reply to an email.
It also blocks out chat and labels allowing you to concentrate on the email.
Did you remember that Gmail integrates with Google Tasks? We will cover it next. In the main
list of emails, mark an email (X) and press Shift + K to attach the email to a new “to-do” item
on your task list. This feature only works with keyboard shortcuts! There is no mousey way to do
it.
• Press G and then P to bring up the phone window and make a phone call.
Access Google Tasks by clicking the down arrow next to the Gmail header in red at the top left.
This will bring up a menu which will lead you to tasks or contacts. Your tasks will appear at the
lower right corner in a window that resembles the chat pop up. Alternatively, you can access
tasks by pressing B and then K anywhere in Gmail, as mentioned previously.
Google Tasks with Gmail can actually be pretty useful. You can easily create a task and
then nest tasks inside it by “tabbing” new tasks to the right, making them subtasks of the
original one. This is useful for simplifying a project by breaking it down into smaller steps along
the way. Since you can connect emails directly to tasks you can include useful information
inside that task, such as links, contact information and even files. When a task is done, you can
check it off and be rewarded by a strike-through passing through it, crossing it off as complete.
Clicking on any task will open an option to add notes to the task or choose a due date. This
comes in handy especially if you work with Google Calendar, as the task lists sync seamlessly
and would show up on your calendar as well.
You will notice that when you click Contacts from your dropdown, you are taken to a new page.
Here, you can see each of your contacts with their email address and phone number, if
applicable. You can also click on Frequently contacted to see your most recent contact
communicators.
Just like with emails, you can create and edit labels for your contacts for business, school, and
family. This is a wonderful way to keep your contacts separated and easily accessible. You can
also choose how to sort your contacts page by clicking Settings from the left and choosing
from first name or last name for the sort order.
The easiest way to manage your contacts is to group them with labels so that you can contact
them from Gmail quickly.
They are accessible under the Labs tab in Settings. Below I will name a couple that I find
helpful, organized by their order in the Labs area. Feel free to explore and find more on your own.
One of my personal favorites, this handy feature allows Gmail to “guess” which of your
incoming emails are notifications, replies from online forums, and bulk (newsletters and such).
Gmail automatically adds labels to each kind and does a pretty good job at guessing. It will also
ask you to “train” it by choosing the right label for a few days when you turn it on. Try it and see
how it affects your organization.
Canned response:
A godsend if you receive many emails to which you reply the same way. Turn it on, and then
compose an email as a “template.” Save it, and use it next time you want to respond quickly.
This is excellent for thank you letters, for example, or for newsletters.
QuickBooks for finance, Trello for project management, Dialpad for communication, and Hire for
human resources are a few of the options available. If you choose to install an add-on, just keep
in mind that most come from third party sources, so you may want to check out the terms after
hitting Install and before pressing Continue.
Now it may be time to take our Gmail mastery to the next level and find out about hidden
Gmail features on Android.
Did we miss something? What have you discovered about Gmail that fellow readers must
know? Please share with us in the comments.
Image Credit: mady70/Depositphotos