Waffle Bytes

Once you have an understanding of labels , using them makes more sense.  Here is how to assign & delete them as you want. To add a label to an email, either when looking at your email list OR inside the email itself, you can click on the label icon at the top of the window - When you click on it, you will see (1) a list of your existing emails.  You will also see (2) where you can create a new label on the spot - Because these are labels (NOT folders), you can assign as many as you would like.  Once you have selected all the labels you wish to assign the email, click on Apply - The email will now appear with the label next to the subject line - If you do not want the email to stay in your Inbox, you can select the "folder" icon next to the label icon.  This will allow you to assign one or more labels to the email, AND at the same time remove the Inbox label so it no longer shows up in your Inbox -  The list of labels should look fami...

There are 2 ways to have people you email (or that email you) added to your email contacts list.  If you wish for contacts to automatically be added,  you can go into your Google Mail settings and under General, find this option down the page just above the Signature area - If you prefer to add them manually, when in an email of someone you wish to add to your contacts, click on the More menu (stacked 3 dots) on the right side of the email -  Select to Add the person to Contacts list - the 5th item down the menu - That's it!  Going forward that person's email will show up as part of an auto-fill when typing their name.

(Reposting) There are many time I get an email that I want to make into an event on my calendar - both to make sure I block out the time, and to move the information out of an email in my inbox into the event. There is a feature called "Create event" that let's you do this - it is available in the More options when you are viewing the message. Once you select create event, Google opens up a new window, loads your calendar, and creates an event with the message subject as the name of the event, and the body of the message as the description within the event: You are then able to edit the date/time and other information as needed to finish creating the event. One caveat...it adds everyone that was part of the message to the Guest list (see above in red box), so unless you want it to be a group event you will need to click the x next to everyone's name but yours.

If you use the tasks list to help keep track of what you need to do, making a task from an email is an easy "task" to do.  Here is how to add an email to your task list. When in the email, you can either -go to the More Menu (3 stacked dots) at the top above the email and select Add to Tasks OR -use the keyboard shortcut of Shift + t Either method will automatically create a task. This will open up your task list on the right side of you screen: When you mouse over the task it created, you will see an pencil that can be clicked on to edit the task: When editing, you can edit/see all the following: The title of the task Details you want to add to the task Which task list it is part of Date/time of task (will add to calendar) Subtasks Direct link to the email used to create the task - so you can reference it

There are many ways to mark emails as read or unread.  (Q: What is the difference between read or unread emails?  Unread emails are bolded so they stand out.)  You can use any of these methods to change the state of any email. If you have the "Hover" turned on in your settings, when you hover over an email that is in the main window some icons appear to the right side.  The third icon will change the state of the email - closed envelope to change to unread: Or open envelope to change to read: At any time, if you check next to one or more emails (if mass changing them) you can go to the top More menu (3 stacked dots) and change from the current state to unread or read: When inside a message you can click on the More menu (3 stacked dots) found on the upper right side of the email underneath the print icon to change it between read and unread: Finally, you can use the following keyboard shortcuts:

One of the hardest concepts when transitioning people to Google Mail from a software-based email application is the idea that all mail is "in" one location.  In thinking of email in a traditional sense (like snail mail), we think of sorting it "to" locations.  It is in the inbox, in the trash, in a folder, etc. When using Google Mail in the web, all your mail is in one location (I think of it as being a junk room full of my email).  Instead of organizing the emails "into" folders, we actually are tagging emails to make them easier to find (think of it as putting stickie notes on them).  This gives us great flexibility as emails can have multiple stickie notes on them - and I do not have to remember "where" I put them!  An example - an email in my inbox has a tag of "unread" (which makes it bold) and Inbox (so it appears when I click on Inbox). This brings us to labels - these are the tags we want to create and assign to our emails. ...

If you need to either print your email, or save it as a PDF, there are several ways to accomplish this. When viewing the email, you can either click on the printer icon in the upper right:  Or you can click on the More menu (3 stacked dots) and select Print there: Or you can use the shortcut: Using any of those methods, it will open a print preview window: You can: Change which printer is selected Select which pages to print Select the number of copies Change the layout (portrait vs landscape) Display more settings When you click on the Destination (which printer), you have options to save the email as a PDF or to Google Drive as well: Under the More settings, you can adjust other settings, including scaling the document and turning on/off headers & footers: Once done, clicking print will print the document with your preferred settings (or save it to PDF or Google Drive).

Perhaps you would prefer to have a larger window when composing email, or perhaps occasionally need a larger window to see more of the draft message.  Here is how to switch between views with Google Mail When composing a message, the default is for it to be in pop-up view.  To extend the window into what is called "full-screen" click on the middle icon of arrows in the upper-right corner: Please notes - this will extend the window to be larger, but does not truly make it full screen. To shrink back to the pop-up view, click o the middle icon of arrows in the upper-right corner (the arrows will be pointing towards each other): If you find that you prefer the larger window to compose email in, you can set it as your default by going to the More menu (3 stacked dots) and selecting "Default to full-screen": Likewise, if your email is already set to the default of full-screen, you can turn it off by going to the More menu (3 stacked dots) and de-selectin...

Sometimes when people discover their Draft label, they realize they have a LOT of drafts saved.  Here's a quick overview of how drafts work in Google Mail. When you are creating an email, it is auto-saved periodically.  You can note this as at the top of the email in the title bar it will say "Draft Saved" periodically instead of the subject of the email. These emails are tagged with "Draft" so can be found by clicking on the Drafts label on the left side (which remember - is actually a quick-search...) To save an email you are working on as a draft, click on the X in the upper right corner.  (Note that it says Save and Close when mousing over it.) You can see how it is easy to inadvertently end up with many drafts if closing an unwanted email instead of deleting it (trash can at the bottom).  However, once you know this, it is convenient to quickly start an email you want to complete later and not clutter up your screen with open compose windows. ...

Knowing about and using the Archive button in your email is one key to keeping your Inbox under control.  When looking at an email message, OR if you have checked next to an email in your inbox, you have several options at the top, the Archive icon is the very first one (which should clue you in to the fact it is important!) Using the Archive, means having at least a basic understanding for what it does.  Here it my very simplified explanation I provide in my trainings: Google uses a "label" system instead of a "folder" system.  With a folder system (what many of us trained to with programs such as Outlook...and even before electronic mail when dealing with paper mail), mail is stored in a specific location - it can be in 1 location, and 1 location only.  So you need to remember where you "put" it.   Whereas a "label" system deals with (essentially) sticky note labels "attached" to emails.  I can put as many - or as few ...

There are a few emails that I use on a regular basis - the email body is pretty much the same each time, just a small part of it is changed.  An example is the Technology Tidbits emails I send out when we are doing a series - the only part that changes is the actual tidbit, while the introduction and other information stays the same.  To not have to recreate this email each time (or find an old one and copy and paste it), I have turned on the Email Templates and created a template email to use. 1. How to turn it on: When in your email, go to the Gear icon and select Settings Click on Advanced in the tab options across the top of the settings window - Scroll down the list until you find Templates - Click Enable, and then click the button to Save Changes - 2) How to set up a template: Open a new email.  Compose the standard message you want to turn into a template, just as if you are creating a new message. You can even format the message as desired...