Gmail is used by more people than Outlook and Yahoo!, and there is a good reason why. Gmail has tons of options for writing, sending, and archiving emails, many of which don’t exist with any other email manager. However, there are so many, and they are so different, that the less-experienced could get a bit lost in this ocean of possibilities. Here we explain how to better use Gmail and its tools.
Attach files by dragging and dropping
Save time when looking through your file explorer, as Gmail allows you to drag it and drop it directly into the message, and it automatically gets attached. It also has a smart feature that notifies you before sending a message if it recognizes the word “attached” and you haven’t attached any files.
Categorize your important messages
Gmail offers you the option of marking your most important emails with a star, but not all messages are equally important, and you don’t always know how to differentiate between the ones that are marked and those that aren’t. Because of this, there are up to 6 colors and 12 additional icons for better classifying important messages. To enable them, all you have to do is go to Settings > General > Stars.
Too many messages displayed
When stars aren’t enough for marking the level of importance, and several messages have the same priority, you can use labels that will gather all the corresponding messages under one field. For example, you can create a “Work” or “Personal” label, and group all the messages together so you can access them without having to search for them.
Filter system
Once you have organized your inbox, and you have your files stored and classified, you can create filters designed to manage incoming email, or help you organize or find those emails that you haven’t categorized yet.
To create a filter, you must go to Settings > Filters > Create new filter. Next, a formula menu will appear where you can enter the email address you think are less important, such social network updates or spam. The fields are the following:
– From: The email address you want to avoid.
– To: Your email address. Here you can add all the Gmail accounts you own.
– Subject: Keywords for avoiding specific emails.
– Has the words: Here you enter the words that you want to filter, and that are found in the text body of the messages you want to avoid. You can also recover emails that contain these words.
– Doesn’t have: The opposite of the previous option. Determine which words will or will not appear in the search.
When you have finished filling out your filter preferences, click on the blue magnifying glass, and Gmail will do a test search so you can see the results that your entries provide. If you agree with the result, you can apply that criteria to the filter.
On the other hand, Gmail offers a large amount of utilities that you are unaware of because you haven’t had to use them, such as offline access to your email, or closing remote sessions. The latter is as easy as clicking on “Details” on the bottom right, under the last account activity. Once that opens, you can close all the other sessions that are open.
Lastly, one of the least-known utilities this email manager offers us is Gmail Labs. What is Gmail Labs, you say? Simply put, it is a series of add-ons that can be used to make certain things easier when sending emails. You can access them by clicking on Settings > Labs. Among the many that are available, the most noteworthy are:
Undo Send
This feature gives you the option to un-send something that you accidentally sent too soon, or you changed your mind at the last second after clicking the send button. You have a few seconds to fix your mistake so you can breathe easy.
Insert Images
Allows you to add images to the text body, allowing you to create an email in the best way you see fit.
Mark as Read Button
If you’re tired of having to go to “More Options” to mark a message as read, you can enable this button so you can do it in just one click.
There are more than 25 different option in Google Labs that will make your life much easier, and they make Gmail the most complete email manager, qualifying it for being number one among users.
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