Today’s geek school lesson will expand our discussion of labels in gmail to include filters and then move on to tracking important emails with stars.
Labels are great, but they can be used much more effectively if filters are built in, so that messages that arrive meeting certain criteria automatically have a label or labels applied to them. this helps a lot with organization and can greatly reduce inbox chaos.
create a new filter using the search box
To create a new filter, we’ll specify the search options in the “search” box and create a filter from the search. to do this, click the down arrow in the “search” box.
enter your search criteria in the search options box. you can choose to search for messages from a specific person or from an entire domain (@example.com), with certain words in the subject, as well as other conditions.
To create a filter based on this search, click the “create filter with this search” link.
Filter options are displayed. select the check boxes that indicate what you want to do with messages that match your search criteria.
for example, we select to always mark messages coming from the specified email address with the tag “htg school” and always mark them as “important”. we also decided to apply the filter to all existing emails from this person.
note: if you want your labels to act like folders, you can select “skip inbox (archive)” to automatically move emails to labels as they arrive. this keeps your emails more organized, though you risk missing an important message because it won’t automatically appear in your inbox.
once you have specified your filter criteria, click “create filter”.
Note: When you choose to forward a message as an action in a filter, only new messages will be affected. any existing messages to which the filter is applied will not be forwarded.
a message appears saying your filter was created. notice that in that screenshot, all messages from that person are tagged with the “htg school” tag.
Messages were also automatically marked as important (label icons to the left of senders are filled with yellow).
create a new filter using the configuration screen
You can also create a filter in the “settings”.
access the “settings” screen as described above and click the “filters” link at the top.
click the “create a new filter” link.
Specify your search and filter criteria in the same way as mentioned in the previous method and click “create filter” in the filter options dialog.
Instead of returning to your inbox, you return to the “filters” screen and your new filter appears. you can edit it, delete it, or select it for export (exporting filters is covered later in this lesson).
click the “inbox” label to return to your inbox.
use a specific message to create a new filter
You can also create a filter based on an existing message. To do this, select a message in your message list or in a tag.
click the “more” action button and select “filter messages like these” from the dropdown menu.
Notice that the “from” field in the “filter” dialog is automatically filled in. enter any other filter criteria you want and click “create filter with this search”.
Specify your filter criteria by selecting filter options in the following dialog as described above.
Note: You can use this method to configure filters to automatically remove spam emails as they are received.
apply the same filter to many senders
You can use a filter to manage messages from several different email addresses. for example, we can specify to tag messages from multiple people with the tag “htg school”. To do this, open the search options dialog using the down arrow in the “search” box.
add each email address in the “from” field, separated by the word “or” and click “create filter with this search”.
To apply the same label to messages from any of these email addresses, select the “apply label” checkbox and select the desired label from the pop-up list. apply any other action for this filter and click “create filter”.
Note: Remember to select the “Also apply the filter to matching conversations” checkbox if you want to apply this filter to messages you’ve already received from these two email addresses.
export and import filters
Now that you’ve learned how to set up filters, you’ve probably created some very useful filters that you may want to use on other gmail accounts. you can export filters from one account and import them into another.
export a filter
To export a filter, first access the “filters” screen in the “settings” screen (using the “settings” gear button). then select the filter you want to export from the list and click “export”.
note: you can select multiple filters to export at once.
In the “save as” dialog, navigate to where you want to save the filter. the filter is saved as an xml file with a default name that you can change if you want, just make sure to leave the extension as .xml and click “save”.
Now you have a file that you can back up, transfer to another computer, share with a friend, or import to another gmail account.
import a filter
To import a filter to your gmail account, go to “Filters” on the “Settings” screen and click the “Import Filters” link.
under “import filters”, click “choose file”.
note: if you change your mind about importing the filter, click the “cancel import” link.
in the “open” dialog, navigate to the location where you saved your exported filter. select the file and click “open”.
The file name appears next to the “choose file” button. click “open file” to open the file and import the filters into it.
a message is displayed below the “search” box while the filter file is opened. this may take a while, depending on how many filters are in the file.
all filters from the selected file are listed under “import filters”. select the filters you want to import. if you want to apply the imported filters to existing email messages (just as you would when creating a new filter), select the “apply new filters to existing mail” checkbox and click “create filters”.
A dialog appears showing the progress of the filter creation process. you can cancel the creation of the filters by clicking “stop”.
when filters have been created, they are displayed in your list on the “filters” screen.
keep track of important emails using the star system
gmail’s star system allows you to bookmark your most important emails so you can easily find them later. By default, starred posts are tagged with a yellow star, but you can add other colors and types of stars.
stars appear to the left of the sender’s name in your inbox.
add a star to a message
To add a star to a message in your inbox, click the star icon next to the sender’s name, as shown above.
You can also add a star to a message while it is open. to do this, click the star icon in the upper right corner of the message to the right of the date. in conversations, it will be to the right of the first message at the top of the conversation.
To add a star to a message you are composing, click the “more options” arrow in the lower right corner of the “compose” window.
Move your mouse over the “label” option and then select “add star” from the submenu.
In your “mail sent” tag, the message you sent is highlighted.
use multiple star designs in your posts
gmail allows you to use various colors and types of “stars” to differentiate messages from each other.
This feature is useful if you want to mark multiple messages with different levels of importance. for example, you can use a purple star for messages you want to read again, and a red exclamation mark for messages you need to follow.
click the “settings” button and select “settings” from the dropdown menu. On the “general” tab, scroll down to the “stars” section. drag the icons from the “not in use” section to the “in use” section to add different types of stars. If you have more than one type of star in use, clicking the star icon next to an email scrolls through all the stars in use. if you star a message while it’s open, only the first type of star is applied.
find featured posts
To see all of your starred messages, click the “starred” tag on the left side of the main gmail window. You can also search for starred messages by typing “is:starred” in the “search” box.
search for messages with a particular type of star
If you have used several different types of stars to mark your messages, you can search for a particular type of star. to do this, search using “has:” with the star name (for example, “has:red-bang”).
To find out the name of a particular star, access the “general” tab on the “settings” screen and hover your mouse over the desired star type. the name of the star is displayed in a pop-up window.
There is also a list of star names in the advanced search help topic in gmail help.
keep featured posts off main tab
If you organize your inbox using the configurable tabs mentioned earlier in this lesson, messages from other tabs that are marked with a star are also included in the “main” tab. If you don’t want to see the starred messages from the other tabs in the “main” tab, you can disable this option.
click the “+” icon to the right of the tabs.
in the “select tabs to enable” dialog, deselect the “include featured in main” checkbox and click “save”.
next…
We’re at the end of lesson 4, but you’re well on your way to becoming a gmail pro! In just four days, you now know everything you need to make your inbox shine, and messages will automatically find their way to their designated labels without cluttering your inbox.
In the next lesson, we’ll talk about signatures and how to keep your profile safe and your data backed up.