Here is a small selection of tools that you can use to increase productivity when using your Gmail account. This article will go on the assumption that you have the basics of Gmail down, and that you are simply looking for some added tips and tricks to help you maximize your production. If you are a complete Gmail novice, you probably want to do some exploring to get the basics down before moving on to any of these more advanced options.
Gmail Tips
1. Canned Responses:
If Gmail is your service of choice for sending and receiving messages then you probably realize that you often are sending the same messages time and again. The best tool to deal with this is the “canned responses” feature. It isn’t much unlike the “signature” feature you can use with other e-mail programs. What this won’t do is auto-fill your subject line or automatically insert the name of the recipient. You can active this feature in Gmail Labs.
2. Filters:
A Gmail filter is akin to having a person who sorts out your mail before you even see it. As quickly as an item arrives in your Inbox, a filter can file it to the correct label. It is also able mark it as read if you so choose, and will file it away until you are ready to look through that label. So, for my example, I do a lot of research for the people search market and receive a lot of emails (by the way if you’re interested in learning how to search people, start with this article) so my filter name would be ‘free people search’. So the filter name should be really relevant to the type of email you’re receiving to avoid confusion.
Activating filters (if you haven’t done that before) is not so simple so I highly recommend you read this article from Google on how to do that.
An even better feature is that you can instruct Gmail to delete messages from particular addresses so you don’t have to deal with it. This is good for those items that aren’t quite spam, but are just as unwanted. We have all signed up for things, only to realize that we really didn’t want to get their newsletter or whatever they continually send. However, when you unsubscribe, it still keeps coming! The way to do this is to create a filter and click on “Delete it” next to suggested actions for the filter.
3. Attachment Dragging:
This is a fairly new feature and works with all major browsers. Google instituted it as a convenient way to add attachments to e-mail. Just drag the file or files you are looking to attach, and Gmail does the rest. To do this, just drag the attachment from your browser to desktop and you’re done.
4. Attachment Alert:
This is by far one of my favorite features of Gmail. How many times have you sent an e-mail, intending to attach a file, but forgotten to attach anything? We have all done that, but it doesn’t ever have to happen again. You will find this under the Labs tab, and you must enable it to utilize it. Once it is enabled, it will read through every e-mail you send, and if you have mentioned the word “attach”, but not attached a file, it will verify whether you intended to send an attachment.
Previously this was a Gmail labs feature but now it’s integrated into the main Gmail interface.
5. Last Login:
Do you ever get the feeling that someone is trying to log into your account? This feature will allow you to see who accessed your Gmail account last, and where they did it from. To see it, look at the footer of your Gmail page where it writes “Last account activity” and then click on “Details”.
6. Themes:
Themes are a hot item with many applications, and the themes available with Gmail can stand toe to toe with any of them. There are hundreds of ways to customize your Gmail page and make it truly unique. There is a feature you can choose that will give you a different random theme every time, if you like.
To activate a theme in Gmail, click on “Settings” (top right corner) and then look for “Themes”. Currently you have around 40 themes to choose from.
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