40 Quick Tips for Using Gmail in Google Apps

Google recently released a handful of great tips for using Gmail, printable in handy pdf format. Many of the tips, though, are best suited for personal Gmail accounts, not for Gmail within Google Apps at the University.

Building on our recent posting of 40 Quick Tips for Using Google Calendar, here are 40 tips for Gmail we’ve found helpful for Google Apps at Boise State University:

1. Was this sent only to me? At a glance in your Inbox, quickly determine which messages were sent directly to you, and which were sent to you as part of a group. Turn on ‘Personal Level Indicators’ via Settings > General > Show Indicators.
2. Stars are great to categorize certain types of messages; Superstars are better! Turn on the ‘Superstars’ Lab under Settings > Labs > Superstars. Then, customize your Superstars under Settings > General > Superstars.
3. Search efficiently using Advanced Search Operators. Looking for a message from Jane? Don’t just type ‘Jane’ in the Search Box. Type ‘from:jane’ What if you know the message you’re looking for from Jane has the ‘HR’ label? Narrow your search further by typing ‘from:jane in:hr’ View all of Gmail’s Advanced Search Operators (print it out as a handy reference), and take a few minutes to watch our “Working with Lables, Filters and Advanced Search Operators” video.
4. Save your searches. Want to quickly search for something but don’t want to have to type in a series of Advanced Search Operators? Save your searches by turning on the ‘QuickLinks’ Lab under Settings > Labs.
5. Here’s Another Way to Find Frequent Search Terms: Turn on ‘Search Autocomplete’ in Settings > Labs. Now a list of frequent search terms (as well as email addresses of frequent contacts) will appear once you start typing in the Search Box.
6. Quickly email someone with one-click. Hover your mouse over the name of a sender in your Inbox (or any other folder) and click “EMail” from the pop-up menu that appears.
7. Work quickly. Turn on ‘Keyboard Shortcuts’ under Settings > General. A list of Gmail keyboard shortcuts can be found on Google’s website.
8. Give yourself time to reconsider. To give yourself a few seconds to retract a message you shouldn’t have sent, turn on the ‘Undo Send’ Lab under Settings > Labs.
9. Double your time to reconsider. Once the ‘Undo Send’ Lab is enabled, double the allowed time to 10 seconds under Settings > General > Undo Send.
10. Spruce up an email with pictures. Turn on the ‘Inserting Images’ Lab under Settings > Labs.
11. Sort on unread messages in your Inbox. Type ‘is:unread’ in the Search Box.
12. Rename a Label. Maybe you created a Label last month and have since realized you could’ve done a better job with the name? Rename a Label with ease under Settings > Labels; all email tagged with the old Label name automatically updates with the new Label name.
13. Make Gmail apply Labels for you. Most of us receive the same types of emails from the same people each day. Make Gmail do the categorizing for you by creating Filters for common senders and subjects; watch our video on “Working with Lables, Filters and Advanced Search Operators,” or read our post on the subject.
14. Turn an email message into a Google Doc. Enable the ‘Create a Document’ Lab under Settings > Labs. Now you can turn any email message into a Google Doc by clicking “Create a Document” to the right of an open message.
15. View your Google Docs within Gmail. Turn on the ‘Google Docs gadget’ Lab under Settings > Labs. You’ll be able to search and access your Docs without having to leave your Gmail screen.
16. View your Google Calendar within Gmail. Turn on the ‘Google Calendar gadget’ Lab under Settings > Labs. You’ll be able to see upcoming events and details at a glance without having to switch to Google Calendar.
17. Pop-out your messages. When working on a new email message, or viewing or replying to an existing message, pop the message out into its own window by clicking the pop-out button at upper-right (sometimes called the “New window” link). You can pop-out as many messages as you want into their own separate window.
18. Don’t want to save your Google Chats? Click Settings > Chat and customize your Chat preferences.
19. Don’t want to use Chat at all? Click “turn off chat” at the bottom of the Gmail window.
20. View Tasks in both Gmail and Google Calendar. Google Calendar now display Tasks by default; any changes you make to Tasks in the Calendar will be reflected in Tasks in Gmail (and vice-versa), but you have to turn on the ‘Google Tasks’ Lab under Settings > Labs.
21. Customize the subject line. When replying to a message, you can change the message subject by clicking “Edit Subject” just above the message toolbar.
22. Search the web from within Gmail and send search results via email with one-click. Enable the ‘Google Search’ Lab under Settings > Labs.
23. Send a quick note by only typing in the Subject line. Type “EOM” at the end of a Subject in a new email message to send only that text, rather than having to type text in the body of the message. “EOM” stands for end-of-message.
24. Leverage Canned Responses. Instead of typing/copying/pasting the same messages over and over, enable the ‘Canned Responses’ Lab via Settings > Labs to let you choose from one or more pre-written messages when sending or replying to a message.
25. Workaround for using multiple signatures. Gmail only allows one default signature (under Settings > General). A novel use for Canned Responses is to set up multiple signatures; pick and choose for any email message.
26. Don’t delete unless you have to! Too often I see people deleting email they actually want to file and organize. Google gives you over 7 gigabytes of disk space (that means “lots”); use it. Don’t delete anything unless you’re sure you’ll never, ever need it again. Instead, archive it, or better yet, attach one or more Labels to the message to help you easily find it again (especially when making use of Advanced Search Operators). Email messages will always stay in your account unless you delete them (Trash and Spam excepted, of course).
27. Break out a threaded message into a new conversation. If you want to start a new conversation using a message in an existing conversation, click “Edit Subject” on your reply/forward message and give the message a new subject. Any further replies to that new message will be placed within their own threaded conversation.
28. Customize your Web Clips. Web Clips (those revolving news headlines appearing above your mailbox) distracting you? You can turn them off completely by clicking Settings > Web Clips. Better yet, customize them to only display information you want to see. Add http://www.boisestate.edu/rss/boisestate.xml for Boise State news, or even clips from the stellar site you’re currently reading, BroncoBytes (http://broncobytes.boisestate.edu/feed/).
29. Add multiple attachments simultaneously. Hold down the Ctrl key on your keyboard (if you have a Mac, hold down the Command key) while clicking multiple files to select and attach them all at once.
30. Don’t care to read an ongoing conversation? Sometimes you’ll be participating in a threaded conversation, only to reach a point where you feel you no longer have any input to give, but other participants continue to chime in and copy you on replies because you were part of the initial emails in the thread. Don’t want these additional messages to keep showing up in your Inbox? Mute the conversation! Highlight the conversation, then click More actions > Mute.
31. Send a Calendar event along with an email. Click “Add Event Invitation” just above the message toolbar to send a Calendar appointment/invite along with your email message.
32. What time was that email sent? Email messages received before the current day are listed with only the date visible in the mailbox, not the time the email was sent. To see the time without opening the message, hover your mouse over the date, and the message timestamp will appear.
33. Quickly view how many new messages you have in your Inbox. The ‘Title Tweaks’ Lab under Settings > Labs will display the number of new messages you have on your Gmail web browser tab or window, so if you’re working in another browser tab using PeopleSoft or Blackboard, you can always see at a glance if new email has arrived.
34. Don’t forget that attachment! It doesn’t always work consistently (at least when using Firefox), but when it does, Forgotten Attachment Detector can be a lifesaver. When you send an email message that is supposed to have one or more files attached, but forget to actually, you know, attach the file, Forgotten Attachment Detector will key off certain words in your email message (e.g., “attached” or “attachment”) and question if you really want to send the message without any attachment(s). Turn on Forgotten Attachment Detector under Settings > Labs.
35. Share a Filter. Filters are equivalent to what “Rules” did in GroupWise; you can create Filters and share them with colleagues. Enable the ‘Filter import/export’ Lab under Settings > Labs. To share a Filter, go to Settings > Filters and check the Filter(s) you want to share, then scroll down to the bottom of the screen and click Export. This will export a file; save it to your computer, then attach the file to an email message to share it with others.
36. Assign your own photos for contacts. Annoyed by certain people’s photos when chatting or hovering your mouse over a contact in your mailbox? Replace selected photos with your own choices; here’s how.
37. Reply by Chat. Just because you receive an email message doesn’t mean sending a reply email is the best method of communication. At the bottom of the message is a link to ‘Reply by chat.’ If the individual is signed in to Google Chat and available, perhaps it might be best to reply via Chat instead?
38. Chat isn’t just for typing. If you have microphone (external or built-in), put it to use. Better yet, if you have a web camera, put the two together. Here’s how.
39. Get rid of the clutter. By default, Gmail displays the first words of a message in the mailbox next to the email subject. If you don’t want to see this extra text, go to Settings > General > Snippets and select “No snippets.”
40. Ninjas! Few things cheer us up in our office more than watching the romance unfold between the ninja and the geisha in the dojo via the Ninja Theme for Gmail. Check out all the Themes available for Gmail via Settings > Themes. Don’t like ninjas (really, who doesn’t like ninjas?) and want something a bit more business-orientated? There are more than two dozen other themes to choose from. And, coming soon, a custom Boise State theme will be available for you to decorate Gmail with beloved blue and orange!