Tricks and tip about Gmail

While Web-based email is nothing new, Gmail introduces some new and unique concepts. Managing email has become very easy while at the same time having powerful tools to find and review information.

1.)  Advertizing:

This is probably the single most controversial aspect of Gmail. Opponents have said that Google's approach to inserting ads based on message content is a huge privacy breach.
Gmail does not "read" your email. Gmail does not breach your privacy. Gmail does not care about your message content. All Gmail is doing is running your message through a "processor" that looks for ad-related keywords so that it can display unobtrusive targeted ads.
Another important point about Gmail's ads is that they are VERY unobtrusive. They are much like the "Sponsored ads" you see on the right of a Google Search results screen. In fact, they don't even show up on every email message that you read, and so far, that's the only place you see the ads: when reading messages. They don't appear in any other screen. Gmail's ads are FAR less annoying than the flashy lights and huge billboards that services like Yahoo Mail and Hotmail use. And, given that the ads are intended to be targeted based on message content, you shouldn't see inapropriate or unrelated ads.

2.)  Reading Messages:

Note a couple things: First, no external graphics are displayed. By default, Gmail disables displaying externally referenced graphics. The reason is that many spam messages contain externally referenced graphics. When they are displayed, the email sender can use this to track that you opened the message thus validating your email address for future spam. Clicking on the "Display External Images" link will display the images if you want.
There is one glaring problem: If the original email is HTML or Rich Text formatted, Gmail will strip out ALL formatting including links, fonts, and images. ie: you can only reply in plain text.

3.)  Archiving :

One of the first concepts that you have to get used to with Gmail is that of "Archiving". The overall power of Gmail is in its message management, searching and archival capabilities. With 1GB of storage, the average email user will have enough storage space to hold several years worth of emails. Yes, there will always be emails that you simply don't want to keep.
Archiving a message simply tells Gmail to remove the message from your Inbox screen and keep it in your "All Mail" screen. All emails will remain in your inbox until you specifically "Archive" them. Archiving simply removes the message from your inbox screen.But what happens to it? Don't worry, all messages are always accessible through the "All Mail" screen. Archiving simply cleans up your inbox. Once a message has been archived, should you ever want to, you can easily move it back to the inbox, but there really isn't a need for that.

4.)  Labels :

A Label is a way of classifying an email. It's similar to "folders" but it goes much farther: You can optionally assign a user-definable Label to any email. Then, when you click on a specific label in the label list on the left of the screen, Gmail displays only those emails under that label. Sounds a lot like folders, right?
The power of Labels shows in being able to assign multiple labels to an email. When you organize emails in folders, an email can reside in only one folder at a time. Say you have one folder called "Family" and another called "Jokes". Your brother sends you a joke email, so where do you put it--the Family folder or the Jokes folder? Gmail's Labels let you assign multiple labels to each email, so you could label your brother's joke email with both "Family" AND "Jokes" labels.
At first, this may not seem too exciting, but after a while, you will see how this could be very powerful, especially with large numbers of accumulated emails.

Gmail Tip #1: All About Labels

You can add a Label to a message in one of two ways:

1. If you are viewing a message listing, you can just click the checkbox next to the message, click on the "Apply label..." dropdown, and select the Label you want to apply. Gmail will display the Label just to the left of the message's Subject.
2. If you are viewing a message, just click on the "Apply label..." dropdown, and select the label you want to apply. Gmail will display the new label to the right of the Subject line.

OK, you assigned a Label to a message, but at a later time, you want to remove it. How do you do that? Just select the Label view from the Labels box on the left, "select" the specific message by clicking the checkbox next to the message, and then click on the "Remove label 'xxxx'" button at the top of the listing. Your label has now been removed!

Gmail Tip #2: How to Maintain 'Notes'

Some email providers provide a "Notes" function to let you maintain a list of notes. For example you might keep Web site links, random thoughts, etc. Gmail doesn't offer this feature, but by using some of Gmail's other features, you can set up a very nice, easy to maintain group of notes...
Here's what you do:
First, create a Contact with a Name of "Notes" and an Email Address of "username+Notes@gmail.com"
Next, create a new Label called "Notes"
Finally, create a Filter to add the "Notes" Label any email addressed to "username+Notes@gmail.com". Also, check the "Skip the Inbox (Archive it)" checkbox.
The effect is this:
When you email yourself from an email account other than your own Gmail account, address the email to "username+Notes@gmail.com". When the message arrives in your Gmail account, it will automatically be archived into your "Notes" Label view, bypassing the Inbox. Nice and organized.

Gmail Tip #3: The 'Plus' Side of Gmail

Like many Email providers, Gmail supports the standard "plus" addressing scheme. But just what is it, and how can it help me?
The "plus" method of addressing lets you add additional words to your account name (the "left side" of your email address.) For example, if your email address is "john.doe@gmail.com", you could add "+club" when you give your email address to members of a club to which you belong. So, your email address would now be "john.doe+club@gmail.com". But why would you want to do this? Think of the "plus" word as an extra "keyword" or "tag" that you can use to better manage your messages.
Using our example, say you email an invitation to your friends in a club asking them to rsvp to the invitaion. You ask them to reply to "john.doe+nope@gtmail.com" when sending you a responseif they don't want to come, and reply to "john.doe+ofcourse@gmail.com". Assuming they follow your directions, You can then set up a Gmail Filters to automatically route emails to specific Labels based on the addresses. It's a simple example, but the uses can be numerous.
Another use is when you are shopping online. When asked for an email address, use something like "john.doe+amazon@gmail.com". That way, whenever you get future emails addressed to that address, you'll know that it's either from Amazon directly or from someone to whom they sold your email address. This can be a somewhat effctive way to track spam. Just be aware that not all email systems recognize or accept "plus" addresses. In fact, some spammers even strip it out completely, but it's a cool tool, none the less. The best way is to just try it and see if it works for your application!

Gmail Tip #4: What Happens To Sent Messages?

When you "send" a message, two things happen to it:

1. it gets copied into your "All Mail" view, and
2. it is visible in the "Sent Mail" view.

Many email clients and Webmail services let you optionally delete all sent messages by default, but Gmail doesn't offer this feature. Here's why...
One of Gmail's intentions is to get you out of the "trash everything" mindset. This is one of the reasons why they offer 1GB of storage.