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10 GMail Features you MUST know!

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PCQ Bureau
New Update

1. Archive, don't Delete!

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All about the nice habit of archiving your mails! Archiving just means moving mail out of your inbox and storing it for safekeeping. Your messages will be waiting for you when you click “All Mail” or search for them. One never knows when one might need the mail one deletes.

2. Arrows ka chakkar!

For those who get irritated by those annoying forwards, here's a solution! Once you enable, "personal level indicators" view the arrow next to the messages in your inbox as it will tell you if an email was addressed to you, a group, or a mailing list that you're on. A single arrow ("›") is automatically placed next to the emails sent to you and others, and double arrows ("»") next to the emails that are sent just to you. I personally get a ton of emails from lists (mostly from my college and my various subscriptions to student group lists after a campus activity fair), so these arrows are a big big solution.

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3. Labels, labels & more labels!

When you have such a huge inbox, how about taking out some time and organizing it? Let's say I want to keep all mails related to "Google Alerts" in a particular folder (From now on, Label==Folder). On the left-side, just add another Label (say "GAlerts"). Now check all mails related to it and from the drop-down menu, choose Apply Label.. "GAlerts". Done! Oh & once you have loads of them, color code them by choosing the Label Style from the drop down! Manually selecting mails for each Label isn't the best way right? Read more about Filters & find a better way out!

4. *Isssstar* It!

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About adding Stars to special mails, and using SuperStars is an extension of Gmail's starring system from Gmail Labs to spice them up! Adds new star designs to better differentiate important emails. After enabling Superstars, simply click on the star icon repeatedly to rotate through new star options.

5. Speed up your Search!

So you've been archiving your mails for a long time. And now finding a mail has become a pain, right? Here are some of my common Search Queries:

Orkut Scrapbook Notifications :- from:orkut subject:(scrap OR message)

All unread, starred mails in Inbox :- is:unread is:starred in:inbox

The website someone told me a week back while chatting :- is:chat after:2008/7/9 before:2008/7/17 http

Recent mails in the label "GAlerts", not related to Alpha release :- label: GAlerts -Alpha

Scan of Ticket sent by Dad :- from:Dad has:attachment

Otherwise, you can always use "Show Search Options" :P :P

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6. Using Multiple Accounts - I

Do you have more than one Gmail Account ..?

If yes, then how about having multiple accounts, and accessing all using one! With this you can get all your mails from your secondary mail to your primary mail and save a lot of time signing in and out. Thank you Gmail for understanding your users.Under Settings-> Accounts, we can easily authenticate our secondary mail and get enabled the service and probably create a label for the secondary mail to view it in just a single glance.

7. Filters

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Have those Orkut notifications always bothered you? Would you prefer checking those "Daily Jokes" only when you are free, instead of it filling your inbox? Then use Filters! Filters allow you to set up particular actions for a specific type of mail. For e.g., I want to keep all my Google Alerts related mails in its "GAlerts" label, and star it automatically so that I'll first read them when I open my inbox. To do this, I go to "Create a Filter" (Next to the Search box on the top). I enter the criteria (Subject: Google Alerts) and in the next screen, I choose: Star it, Apply Label: "GAlerts" and apply. Simple & easy!!

You could also use filters to differentiate mails of your multiple accounts. For e.g., if I use gundeepbindra@gmail.com for subscribing to newsletters, then I can have a filter to mark all mails sent to gundeepbindra@gmail.com to Skip Inbox, and Label as "NewsLetter". No more cluttering my inbox anymore!

Interestingly when you have a mail open, open the Drop down menu on top Right > "Filter messages like this" to easily add a filter for similar mails!

8. Using Multiple Accounts - II

You got to send an immediate official mail from your Official Account, and you are checking your personal emails. Don't worry, Gmail takes care of this too!

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Sending a mail from a different email id's without Signing in & out again! How cool! This is an extension to the Multiple Accounts — I, with a different mail service running on a different port for your outgoing mails of your secondary mail.

Under Settings-> Accounts, we can easily authenticate our secondary mails and enable this service.

Now if we compose a mail, we get an option in the From: Field along with the name given in the Mail. We Select and Send ! Simple ! Saves a lot of time.

9. Making Multiple Gmail Ids from one Gmail id!

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A lesser known feature of Gmail, you can add "tags" or "keywords" to your email id by writing them after adding a + at the end of your id. The mails will still be sent to your original id, but with a different "To:" Address.

For example, for all my old DPS VK batch mates, I could give them the id as: gundeepbindra+DPS@gmail.com. I'll actually be using gundeepbindra@gmail.com to access these mails, but can easily make filters to organize the mails my old friends sent on this id!

Similarly I can have gundeep+Urgent@gmail.com which I could give to only a few close friends (And make a filter to Star all mails To: gundeep+Urgent@gmail.com).

Also, Gmail doesn't recognize the number/position of "." used in a gmail id. So all mails sent to gun.deep@gmail.com, g.undeep@gmail.com g.u.n.d.e.e.p@gmail.com are sent to the same id: gundeep@gmail.com!

10. Keyboard Shortcuts

Throw that mouse away. And if you are also a Laptop user, you HAVE to use this feature !

For Example: Use gi — to get to your inbox , c — to compose ..etc.,

Plus a new Gmail Labs feature to Customize the keyboard shortcuts too if the default ones were not enough!

Gundeep Bindra

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