Gmail Labs

One of the most beloved features of Gmail is the Labs (beta versions of possible Gmail features).  Labs are turned off by default because they are experimental features that may or may not make into future releases of Gmail.  Because the lab experiments are, well, experimental, they can act erratically and are sometimes half-baked.  Despite that, I have had good luck over the years with several of the labs.  Here are a few of the labs that I love.

Mark as Read Button:  Adds a button in the top menu bar that allows you to mark an email as read without having to dig into sub menus.  It is a huge time saver.

Canned Response:  I seem to write the same email over and over again to parents.  Canned response makes the process a lot less painful.  You type an email and save it as a canned response.  Next time you need to send out the same email, you just insert the canned response and press send.  You can find a how-to on creating canned responses here.

Apps Search:  There are times that I am tired of swapping between Drive and Gmail to find things.  Was it emailed to me as an attachment, or shared via Drive?  With the Apps Search lab you can use the Gmail search bar to search your Drive as well.  It searches only the titles of items in Drive so it isn't as powerful as the search feature in Drive, but it has saved me a few headaches.

Preview Pane:  I miss the preview pane in Outlook.  In fact, it is about the only thing I miss from Outlook.  This lab brings that feature to Gmail.  You can put your preview pane either below or to the right of the the message list.

Undo Send:  There are times that I send an email only to regret pressing send.  Undo send gives me an option to unsend an email.  The only drawback is that I have to make the decision within 30 seconds because that is all the leeway they give you with this lab.

You can find instructions on how to enable Labs at Google's help site.  If you would like to know more about Gmail labs you can visit the Google Guru or checkout his YouTube channel.

Leave a comment below and let me know what you think and what Labs you love.

Using Filters in Gmail

Gmail is a powerful email client based in part on its ability to apply an infinite number of filters on incoming and outgoing emails.  If you are unfamiliar with the concept of email filters, they are a set of rules you set up that determines what happens to certain emails when they come into your inbox or out of your outbox.

You can create filters in at least three different ways (there may be more, but this is what I have found so far).  The first is from the search bar at the top of the Gmail tab in Chrome (please tell me you are not still using IE).

The search bar looks like this.  Notice the small down arrow to the left of the magnifying glass

The down arrow to the left of the magnifying glass gives you quick access to creating filters.

Here you can set what emails will be filtered.  They can be filtered by incoming/outgoing email address, subject line, key words, or lack of key words.  You can even filter based off of attachments and email size, or combine multiple parameters.  This is useful if you want to filter emails from a certain person on a specific subject.  Once you have put in the parameters select "Create filter with this search" in the lower right corner of the dialogue box.  This will take you to a new window.

This window lets you determine what will happen to emails that match the parameters you set up in the previous window.  A quick run down:

• Skip the Inbox automatically archives the message so it never makes it to your inbox.
• Mark as read delivers the email to the inbox but as an already read email.
• Star it flags the email for easier access via the "Starred" tab on the left hand menu.
• Apply label will automatically label the email for quicker searching and organization.
• Forward will auto forward the email to a specified email address.
• Delete will delete the email.
• Never send to Spam will white list the email to make sure it doesn't get delivered to the spam.
• Send canned response will auto reply to the email with a pre written response.  (You have to create it).  You can find directions here.
• Mark as important will mark email as important.  (Useful if you use the priority inbox).
• Never mark as important is the inverse of the previous
• Categorize allows you to sort the emails into predetermined inboxes.  (You must have the inboxes set up before you can categorize emails).

Once you set up your filtering options you can apply the filter to emails currently in your inbox by checking the box at the bottom of the screen.  Now that everything is set up as you want, click "Create Filter" and you are done.  You can now rest assured that your inbox is working for you instead of against you.

The second way to create filters is through the settings cog on the right side of the screen.  Click on the Cog>Settings>Filters.  From their you can create and edit filters to your heart's content.

You can create a new filter by selecting "Create a new filter" at the bottom of the screen.

The third is from within an email itself.  To the right of the reply button there is a down arrow.  Click on it and then select "filter messages like this".  Follow the same steps as above.

Bonus Tip:  If you don't want to give out your email address because of fear of spam, throw in a couple of periods into the first part of the email address.  Gmail doesn't recognize the periods so they still get delivered to you.  You can then create a filter to automatically trash any email that comes to that period ridden email address.

Back in the Game

So, its been awhile.  Keeping up a blog can be daunting when you feel like every post should be some profound testament to who knows what.  After some sage advice and time to reflect, I have come to realize shorter and more frequent post will give rise to more timely and useful information/advice for those who so graciously read this blog.

I wax too much, time to get to the good stuff!

I just started to using Inbox, a new take on Gmail.  It automatically categorizes emails, grouping them together by content, and encouraging a tidy inbox by marking all emails as "done" or setting reminders to take a look at the email later.  Check out the link above and the video below for more info.  Right now, it seems that Inbox only works on personal Gmail accounts (or maybe just needs to be enabled by your GAFE admin) and is by invite only.  If you would like an invite, leave me a comment and I'll see if I can hook you up.