#5
/ June 26, 2009 / 2:54 min.
Using Labels and Colors to create Gmail Folders
When Gmail was first released one thing that troubled some users was that it wasn't going to use folders. Folders are used everywhere, right? In Windows, on a Mac, in Linux, in Outlook, in Thunderbird, they all have folders. How can you work without folders
? In short, better. If you give good labels
to your incoming email and filter
that email intelligently, by the time you add colors you have essentially made yourself folders without boundaries. Folders that aren't conventional folders, but they serve the same purpose.
download this episode now
show notes
-
Open Gmail in your Web browser.
- By using
labels, filters, and colors
you can effectively have a system better than folders.
- Colorizing aspects of your email lets you see immediately what has come in and from what sources.
- You can further refine email by
adding a filter
to narrow down the results.
- In our example, I created a filter for my sister-in-law and give it the label Family so I would know when an email was from her.
- With a traditional folder, you must decide which folder will contain a given email message. With Gmail's system you can apply multiple labels to one email. i.e. Family + Business.
- Gmail gives you the power to create flexible "folders" that can be modified on-the-fly with new
filters and labels
.
- Ultimately Gmail gives you a system that's better than traditional folders.
filed under
#1
/ June 22, 2009 / 1:54 min.
For doing email
Gmail
works very well. At the same time it looks rather plain and ordinary. Lots of white background with blue text links and so on. It doesn't have to be that way, however, if you take a little time to improve it.
#2
/ June 23, 2009 / 2:27 min.
Many people balk at
Gmail's lack of folders, but
Gmail's system of using Labels and Filters
is actually much more powerful and usable. With the intelligent use of
labels
you can flag your email as it comes in. On top of that you can then
manipulate labels through the use of filters
. It all adds up to a full-featured system. You can even
add multiple labels
to a single email. Try doing that with folders!
#3
/ June 24, 2009 / 3:01 min.
Nearly all email clients use folders for organizing your email.
Gmail doesn't. It has
Labels and Filters
. With the clever use of
filters
you can make your email more efficient and make yourself more efficient as well.
Filters
can go through your incoming mail and put things exactly how you want them before you ever have to look at an email.
#4
/ June 25, 2009 / 2:34 min.
Most of us get quite a bit of email each day. Email from friends, family, colleagues, and more. We get email from businesses we deal with, newsletters from groups we belong to and confirmation emails from payments or orders. Through the use of colors, in conjunction with Labels and Filters, Gmail gives you a powerful way to manage and
take control of your inbox and
organize your email.
#5
/ June 26, 2009 / 2:54 min.
When
Gmail was first released one thing that troubled some users was that it wasn't going to use folders. Folders are used everywhere, right? In Windows, on a Mac, in Linux, in Outlook, in Thunderbird, they all have folders. How can you
work without folders
? In short, better. If you give good
labels
to your incoming email and
filter
that email intelligently, by the time you add colors you have essentially made yourself folders without boundaries. Folders that aren't conventional folders, but they serve the same purpose.
#6
/ June 29, 2009 / 2:39 min.
The basic foundations of
Gmail are solid. However, the system is designed to work the way Google thinks it should... that may not be the way you like to work. Google has created
Google Labs so they can a toss out a variety of features and see which ones users really like. There are
Google Labs
features available that
give Gmail more functionality
.
#7
/ June 30, 2009 / 2:43 min.
As you progress in your use of
Gmail you're going to want to integrate more than just email. You can use a handy
Google Labs function to put
Google Documents just a click away right from your Gmail interface. This makes using Gmail even more handy and convenient.
#8
/ July 1, 2009 / 2:31 min.
Some argue that the cloud computing concept, where all your data is stored on the network, won't work because when the cloud is "down" you can't access... well, anything. With
Google Gears however, you can. By installing
Google Gears
you can have your
Gmail downloaded
to your computer so you can access it even when you can't get online. A powerful feature and easy to implement.
#9
/ July 2, 2009 / 2:42 min.
At this point you're becoming an intermediate user of Gmail. We've labeled, filtered, and colored our incoming mail. We've gotten access to Google Documents and we're using Gears so we can read our email even when we can't get online. Now it's time to add Remember The Milk so we can handle all of our tasks from the Gmail interface as well.
#10
/ July 3, 2009 / 2:25 min.
One of the many benefits of
Gmail is the ability to archive your email. Not on some remote hard drive, but as part of Gmail itself.
All messages that you archive are searchable. All attachments that are archived with email are still available. This is a huge benefit over traditional email and email clients.
about Gmail 201: Intermediate Studies
Michael "Doctor File Finder" Callahan runs us through Gmail Intermediate Studies in this 10-part tutorial series. Learn how to
tweak your Gmail inbox, use labels, colors and filters in Gmail, get offline Gmail access with Google Gears
and much more. If you've watched our 10-part
Gmail for Beginners tutorial series and are ready to
take control of your inbox
, the Doc abides with Gmail 201.
Quicktime 
