Make Gmail work better for you
Since Yahoo's downfall has begun, Gmail has become the most widely used email client in the world. Unfortunately, there are still many people who dread opening their email addresses because they are tired of dealing with the chaos inside. However, what you may not know is that there are quite a few very easy ways for you to keep everything tidy. In case you're interested in doing that, here's how you can make Gmail work better for you.
Filter options
Sort emails automatically
Filter settings
You don't have to manually manage all your emails. You can have Gmail automatically sort all the emails that come from a specific address, that have a certain subject or that contain a keyword. All you have to do is to go to your inbox, then press the button with a cog icon from the top right corner and click on Settings. In the page that opens up, go to the Filters and Blocked Addresses tab, click on Create a new filter, then insert the filters that you desire. Once you're done, press the Create filter with this search button and select the action that you want to take for this type of emails. From the same tab you can also see the addresses you blacklisted and manually block any email address.
Search operators
Search operators
If you're usually in a hurry and you truly want to become a Gmail power user, then you need to learn to use search operators directly in the email's search bar. For example, if you want to search just your emails and not your chats, you can add -label:chats into your query. In case you want to exclude specific labels from the search, add -label:<label name> while if you only want to search a specific label, you need to add +label:<label name> to the query. Additionally, you can use the before:<yy/mm/dd> and the after:<yy/mm/dd> operators to search for emails written before or after a specific date. Since regular searches don't include the Trash and Spam folders, you can fix this by using the in:Trash, in:Spam or in:Anywhere operators. Lastly, you can use filename:<file type> to look for specific file types included in emails. As shown in the image, you can employ all of these together and create a highly customized search.
Preview emails
Preview emails
Gmail also allows you to add a preview pane and quickly check out your emails without opening them, which can be a real time-saver. All you have to do is to click the button with a cog icon, then press Settings and then go to the Labs tab. Now, scroll down until you see the Preview Pane option, enable it, then scroll all the way down, click on Save Changes and you're done.
Now that you've learned how you can make Gmail work better for you, you may also want to check out some of our other related stories such as: "Hidden Gmail functions that you should know about", "You've got mail, or what are the best email clients for Mac?" or "How to quickly find passwords in your inbox using Dashlane".
