How to make using gmail better

Gmail filters is a good way for you to set rules for your email and allow you to organize your inbox without you doing the manual work. Here are a few ways that you can make good use of Gmail Fliters

1. Forward all incoming emails and archive them

If you have multiple Gmail accounts, and you really only use one of them, a good way to manage all your emails is to forward all the emails from all the accounts to the primary account. In addition, you can mark the emails as read and archive all of them, so they won’t show up in the inbox.

To accomplish this, create a new filter with @ in the “From” field. (It will work with * as well)

In the next section, you can select “Forward it” as well as “Mark as read” (or “Archive”).

2. Auto-reply to Email Using Canned Responses

If you always receive emails from the same user, or have the same pattern (like questions on a particular topic, guest post request, etc), you can compose a canned response and create a filter to auto-reply with the canned response for such emails.

3. Sort attachment of various size

The standard filter allows you to select emails with attachment. You can further improve this filter by specifying the attachment size. For example, to add a label “big file attachment” to emails with attachment of more than 10MB:

1. In the search bar at the top of Gmail, type:

2. Next, click the down arrow at the end of the search input field. This will pop up a filter window. You can add additional rule to further narrow down the search. Lastly, click the “Create filter with this search” link and you will be able to assign the specific label for this filter.

Yet another way to customize this filter is to sort attachment according to their file types, something like:

and place the respective email either in “Picture” or “Documents” folder.

4. Configure tabbed inbox emails

For the new tabbed inbox interface in Gmail, Google is the one that decides which email go into which category/tab. By using the filters, you can set your own rule to override the default settings, like emails from Twitter will go directly into “Primary” instead of “Social” tab.

To do that, you just have to add “twitter.com” in the “From” field and select “Personal” under the “Categorize as” section.

5. Quickly organize old emails into label

After you have created a filter, it will only work for future incoming emails. If you already have thousands of emails in your inbox and you only just started out using filters, there is an option for you to quickly apply the filter to all the emails in your inbox.

After you have selected the action for the filter, just before you click the “Create the filter” button, check the box beside “Also apply filter to matching conversations.” This will apply the filter to all the matching emails in your inbox.

6. Export/Import Filter to new Gmail account

If you have multiple Gmail accounts and you want all of them to have the same set of filters, instead of creating each filter one-by-one in all the accounts, you can simply export from one account and import to other Gmail accounts.

In the “Settings -> Filters” tab, scroll down all the way to the bottom. Click “All” to select all the filter and click the “Export” button. This will export all your filter in xml format. Altneratively, you can go through each filter and place a check beside the one that you want to export.

In the other Gmail account, click the “Import filter” link to import your filter.

7. Send a to-do list to yourself and auto assign it to label

If you have the habit of recording down the things that you need to do, you can simply email yourself with the subject “TODO” and make use of a filter to add “TODO” label to the email.

8. Use Gmail as a RSS reader

Using a service like IFTTT, you can easily convert a RSS into an email and have it delivered to your inbox. You can then make use of a filter to assign “RSS” label to the email.

9. Create a disposable email address with the “+” alias

This is an old trick. You probably know that you can append a “+” sign to your email address and anything behind the “+” sign is ignored by Gmail. This means that you can quickly create a disposable email address of the form “[email protected]” to use for various signup.

For this to work, you have to create the filter:

Conclusion

There are tons of ways to make use of Gmail filters and we have only scratched the surface. Do share with us the cool filters you have come up with and innovative ways to make use of them.

Damien Oh started writing tech articles since 2007 and has over 10 years of experience in the tech industry. He is proficient in Windows, Linux, Mac, Android and iOS, and worked as a part time WordPress Developer. He is currently the owner and Editor-in-Chief of Make Tech Easier.

Gmail is one of the most popular email services around. But did you know you can access your account through alternative clients? Here are some great third-party clients to consider.

With over 1.4 billion users worldwide, Google’s Gmail is one of the most popular email services around. What you might not know is that you don’t have to access your email account through the Gmail website or the native mail apps for Windows or Mac. Instead, you can use one of the many third-party apps, some of which have been designed exclusively for use with Gmail. Here are our favorite Gmail clients for both Windows and Mac.

Recommended Clients

The following Gmail clients get the job done and will enhance your overall email experience.

Kiwi for Gmail

With this app, the Gmail web experience comes directly to your desktop. But that’s not all. With Kiwi for Gmail, you’ll get windowed versions of Google web applications such as Docs, Sheets, and Slides.

Perhaps the app’s most impressive feature is the Focus Filter Inbox, which has been designed to remove email noise by allowing you to limit the content you see on the screen based on date, importance, unread, attachments, or starred.

The app also includes the ability to combine filters to create lists of relevant emails. It also works with Boomerang, a popular scheduler plugin that lets you assign a later date or time to send an email automatically.

Kiwi for Gmail works with multiple Gmail accounts and is available for Mac and Windows.

eM Client

One of the oldest email apps for both Windows and Mac, eM Client works with all of the primary email services, including Gmail, iCloud, Outlook, and Exchange. The client offers a free, clean interface, and besides email, it includes a calendar, tasks, contacts, and chat.

With eM Client, you receive a conversation view that automatically groups messages into relevant conversations. In doing so, you experience a cleaning inbox. Other features include the ability to schedule the sending of emails, quick text, a translator, email rules, and more.

You can use eM Client with one email account for free. The Pro version of eM Client is

$50 and it gives you unlimited clients, professional support, and other perks.

Mailplane

Exclusively for macOS, Mailplane gives you Apple-like keyboard shortcuts to help you manage your email, calendar, and contacts. With Mailplane, you get a notifier, which lets you know how many unread emails you have without accessing the app. There’s also a quick reply feature you can use as emails are incoming.

Unlike other solutions, Mailplane integrates with other macOS apps, including Evernote, Photos, Calendar, OmniFocus, and many more. In doing so, you can take advantage of shortcuts to share information with ease.

The app also works with a long list of third-party extensions, including Boomerang for Gmail, Grammarly, FullContact, Salesforce Inbox, and others.

Fluent in five languages, Mailplane is available through a 15-day free trial. After that, there’s a one-time fee of $30 for personal use and $40 for families. You can also purchase site licenses.

Also Worth Considering

The following email clients are also worth your time. Each offers something unique.

Wundermail

Here’s an email client for Gmail that is perhaps the most beautiful to date. Built on top of the Gmail API, Wundermail supports lots of functions unique to Google’s email service. In doing so, you can organize your emails with labels and sorted by categories.

Fully integrated with the Windows 10 Action Center, Wundermail uses push notifications so you can receive alerts in real-time. You have a choice of getting alerts through popups or LiveTiles.

Wundermail is free but supported by ads. This version supported unlimited Gmail accounts. If you rather not see ads, Wundermail Premium is available for $10 per year or $30 for a lifetime license.

TouchMail

If you’re looking for a visual approach to email, you’ll want to consider TouchMail. Exclusively for Windows users, the app groups emails by color code. As its name suggests, it also works with touch (or with your keyboard and mouse, of course).

Besides Gmail, TouchMail also works with Outlook.com, Yahoo Mail, iCloud, AOL, Office 365, and other IMAP email accounts. TouchMail is free to try and $30 for a lifetime license.

Canary Mail

For those concerned with security, consider Canary Mail, which offers end-to-end encryption using PGP. When enabled, this type of security limits the intended recipient as the only person that can read an email. You can set encryption system-wide or on a per-email basis.

Beyond security, Canary offers advanced features like natural language search, smart filters, algorithmic bulk cleaner, and more. There’s also the Focused Inbox where emails from your most important contacts are located. This personal inbox uses machine learning to determine which emails should go here based on your previous usage.

Other features include read notifications, snooze, email templates, and one-click unsubscribe. If you’re both a Mac and iOS user, you should consider Canary, which is available for both operating systems. The macOS version is $19.99 in the Mac App Store.

What’s Wrong With Web Version?

While there are plenty of benefits of using a third-party Gmail app on Windows or Mac, perhaps you don’t have to. The web version recently received a significant design change that uses Google’s Material Design. This version also includes a new Confidential Mode that lets you set an expiration date for sensitive messages, integrated rights management, and two-factor authentication. It also introduced a useful new right-click context menu. If you truly enjoy how Gmail looks on the web, stick with it, especially if you’re also using Google’s Chrome browser. The choice is yours!

Don’t want to read the whole post? Follow these simple steps:

1. Create an email and begin composing your message.
2. Open a new Google Sheet or Google Doc in a separate tab or window.
3. Create your table in the Google Sheet or Doc. Format it as required.
4. Copy all the cells in the table.
5. Return to Gmail and paste the cells into your email message.

Alternatively, you may like to check out the +table Google Chrome extension.

A common feature people miss when transitioning to Gmail is the ability to insert a table into an email. However, although Gmail does not have an in-built function to insert a table, it does support the use of tables in a message.

There are two methods you can use to add a table.

Method 1: If you are a Google Chrome user, you can try the +table Chrome extension. This will allow you to insert a basic table and add and edit content. However, you cannot format the table or modify the design of rows and columns after inserting.
Method 2: Copy an existing table into the email message body. The quickest and easiest way to do this is by creating your table in Google Sheets or Docs, and then simply copying and pasting it into your Gmail message. This will also copy across any formatting on the table. You can edit the content within the cells, but not the design of rows and columns.

Here’s an example of method 2:

Step 1: Create an email and begin composing your message.

Step 2: Open a new Google Sheet or Google Doc in a separate tab or window.

Step 3: Create your table in the Google Sheet or Doc. Format it as required.

Step 4: Copy all the cells in the table.

Step 5: Return to Gmail and paste the cells into your email message.

As you can see, all the cells and table formatting are maintained. You can add multiple tables using this method.

If you want to include a very large or complex table to your email, it might actually be better to provide a link to the Google Sheet in the email instead. But for simple and small tables, this method works well.

Here are a few more tips to help you make the most of this work-around:

• If you use tables regularly, save time by making a Google Sheet or Doc called ‘Email tables’ and adding it to your Starred view in Google Drive. You can then re-use this file each time you need a table.
• You can also copy tables from Word documents and Excel spreadsheets.
• You cannot adjust the column and row widths in the table once it is pasted in the Gmail message, so get these right beforehand.
• You may need to adjust the overall table width in the source document (e.g. Sheets or Docs) before copying it to ensure it fits in the Gmail message.

Tired of opening your inbox and being overwhelmed by a seemingly never ending list of emails? Frustrated with trying to keep your inbox organised and find what you’re looking for amongst the chaos? Our Get efficient with Gmail the SMART way online course can help you take back control of your Gmail inbox for good!

Some people find the Gmail compose box a little bit small and cramped. That’s why the five resize tricks I am about to share with you are so popular whenever I show them in our Gmail workshops. They’re guaranteed to get a shout of excitement from at least a couple of people in the room! So, if you’ve wished the Gmail compose box could be resized, read on to learn how to make it happen.

Method 1: Full screen view

The first method is the most frequently used as it is the most obvious. In the right-hand corner of the compose window is a double-ended arrow. Click this to open the window in full screen view.

Click the same button (which now has a different looking arrow) to ‘pop’ the window back in to the smaller view.

While this method certainly makes the window bigger, you will need to shrink the window down if you want to use the rest of Gmail as you’re composing a message (e.g. to locate another email).

Method 2: Default full screen view

If you love the full screen view, then the good news is that you can set it as the default view. To do so, click the three dots button located at the bottom right of the Gmail window. Click the open to Default to full screen.

Method 3: Pop into a new tab

This third method is great for people who want even more space to prepare their email, as it allows you to ‘pop’ the compose window into its own tab. The trick is to hold down the Ctrl key (or Cmd key on a Mac) in your keyboard as you click the full-screen button covered in method 1.

This will open the compose window in a brand new tab. You can pop it back into the standard box by click the same button (which now has a different looking arrow) again.

Method 4: Pop into a new window

The fourth method is perfect for people who use multiple monitors and like to have their work spread across them. Instead of popping the compose window into a new tab, you can pop it into its own window. This makes it very easy to move around and drag between different monitors. Simple hold down the Shift key on your keyboard when clicking on the full-screen button covered in method 1.

Once again, You can pop it back into the standard box by click the same button (which now has a different looking arrow) again.

Method 5: Pop into a new window or tab even quicker

If you’ve decided that the new tab or window view is your favourite, then I’ve got some good and bad news. The bad news is that there is currently no way to default to this view. However, you can get there even quicker by holding down the Ctrl or Cmd (for a new tab) or Shift (for a new window) keys on your keyboard when you click the Compose button in Gmail. This will immediately open the compose window in your desired view.

Are you feeling overwhelmed by emails and want to learn how to better manage your Gmail Inbox? Check out our Get efficient with Gmail the SMART way online course!

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There’s nothing like a nicely organized Gmail inbox to take the stress and worry out of your life. But there’s one area of your email that may not be as well organized as it could be: Gmail’s Starred section.

I love using stars in Gmail to remind me about important messages or emails I want to hold on to for later. Labels are great and all, but the immediacy of clicking that star is much better for me than setting up a bunch of filters or dragging and dropping messages into categories.

Look at all those fancy colored stars.

But did you know there’s more to the Starred section than just yellow icons? If you dip into your Gmail settings you can add red, orange, purple, green, and blue stars, as well as check marks, colored exclamation points, and other items.

You can use all these different colors to differentiate between items that need a timely or urgent reply, messages you need to hold for later on in the week, or any other system you want to use.

The downside of the stars is that you’ll have to remember what your productivity scheme is; there’s no direct way to personalize each star color with its own name or purpose.

Getting set-up

From your Gmail inbox, click on the settings cog in the upper right corner, and from the drop-down menu select Settings.

The default settings for Gmail stars.

When the settings screen opens it should show you the General tab by default. Look for the Stars section close to the top. If you’d just like to get going with Google’s presets you can select 4 stars or all stars to have more star colors available to you.

Alternatively, you can drag-and-drop each star/icon to the In use: category from Not in use:. That way you only get the number of stars you want or need. You can also drag-and-drop stars within the In use: section to get the lineup exactly as you want–this will be important later on.

Once you’re ready to go scroll down to the bottom of the settings screen and click Save Changes. This will kick you back to the inbox.

Using the stars

When you see a message you want to add a star to, click it once and you get the default yellow color. Click it again and the next star in the lineup appears. Successive clicks will make the next one in the rotation show up.

That’s about it to using more than just the yellow stars. Enjoy the new highly-organized starred section of your inbox.

Ian is an independent writer based in Israel who has never met a tech subject he didn’t like. He primarily covers Windows, PC and gaming hardware, video and music streaming services, social networks, and browsers. When he’s not covering the news he’s working on how-to tips for PC users, or tuning his eGPU setup.

How to Design Professional-Looking Emails in Gmail

Posted On: 7/14/2016 By: selim Dizdar

Sending a well-designed email is like wearing a tailored suit to a business meeting.

It creates an excellent first impression.

Clearly, Gmail does not make very nice-looking emails. As text-based emails, it’s very drab.

But by adding graphics, colors, or other branding elements, Gmail has the huge potential to be engaging.

Our new free Chrome extension is here to help. It’s called, “ Gmail Email Templates .”

It’s 100% free for anyone with an “@gmail.com” account or a business email hosted through Google Apps.

Using a Pre-Designed Template

Once you install the Chrome extension, you’ll have access to a library of standard templates.

To use a template, click the Email Templates button, then select the template you’d like to use:

Want a Custom Template?

If you’d like to create unique email templates, it’s a simple four-step process:

1. 1. Open a new Google Docs document.
   2. Design your template in Docs.
   3. Use the Convert Google Docs to Gmail Drafts Chrome extension to import the template into Gmail with a single click:

1. 1. Save the template in Gmail:

Once you’ve saved your template, it will be available to use with any email message you create in the future.

Creative Ideas for Using Gmail Email Templates

There are dozens of ways you could use email templates. Here are just a few to consider:

1. Internal or external email newsletters (be sure to comply with CAN-SPAM legal requirements )
2. Professional-looking thank you, birthday, or reminder emails
3. Event invitations
4. Onboarding messages for new clients

Your brand is more than just the sum of the products you sell. It’s your reputation—your calling card.

Want to establish yourself as a professional?

Gmail Email Templates is an easy, free way you can use to reinforce your reputation as a professional and set yourself apart from others in your field.

If you use Gmail as your email backend but prefer a good old-fashioned desktop email client for handling your day-to-day email, you’re probably aware that many clients—like Outlook or Mail.app—don’t play that nice with Gmail. Here’s how to fix that.

While Thunderbird no longer needs any extra work to become the ultimate Gmail IMAP client , mail clients, such as Mail.app or Outlook, do not exhibit normal behavior when using Gmail’s servers.

Turn Thunderbird into the Ultimate Gmail IMAP Client

Gmail’s IMAP support roll-out this week had nerds all atwitter about the possibility of…

Gmail may have won our hive five for best email client, but there are still quite a few of you that preferred something like Outlook or Apple Mail. The trouble is, even though Mozilla has caught on and made Thunderbird integrate almost perfectly with Gmail, most other mail clients still don’t work all that well with Gmail. If you set up Gmail in Mail or Outlook, you wouldn’t necessarily see all your labels, your sent messages may go into different folders, and archiving and deleting a message would archive it by default (with no real delete function in sight). Worst of all, Gmail thinks it knows what’s best for you , but its recommended settings don’t match up with most people’s instincts (for example, most people expect that the delete function means “delete” and not “archive”). Here’s how to make your client behave properly, without sacrificing all of Gmail’s more advanced options.

Best Email Client: Gmail

Last week we asked you to share your favorite email client, then we rounded up the results for a…

Note: While there are a plethora of email clients out there, this guide will give specific directions for both Apple Mail and Outlook 2007, each of which is slightly different. In general, though, most mail clients should have similar options to one of the two (most likely Apple Mail), and these guidelines should at least help point you in the right direction.

Set Up Your Client with Gmail’s IMAP Servers

If you’ve tried to set up Gmail in a mail client before, this part isn’t very different (in fact, if you already have Gmail set up in your IMAP client, you can skip this step). The very first thing you need to do is go to the Gmail web interface and go to Settings > Forwarding and POP/IMAP . Make sure you’ve enabled IMAP access to your account at the bottom of the page (see the screenshot at left). Save your changes and open up your mail client of choice.

You can find specific instructions for setting up most email clients with Gmail’s servers on Gmail’s support page , complete with screenshots for each specific client, but the key things that you’ll want to pay attention to are your incoming and outgoing servers (imap.gmail.com and smtp.gmail.com, respectively, even for Google Apps accounts), and that your port numbers for each are 993 (using SSL encryption) and 587 (using TLS, if available, otherwise using SSL). Both servers will need authentication with your Gmail username (which is your entire email address including the @domain.com portion) and password. Again, check your client-specific instructions on Gmail’s support page to make sure you’ve followed everything “correctly”. If you have, you should be able to view at least your inbox in your mail client, if not all the other folders.

Once you’ve completed the basic setup, it’s time to get your desktop email client working with Gmail the way it should.

Enable Advanced IMAP Settings

One of the main problems with Gmail in most clients is that the client doesn’t use Gmail’s sent mail and trash folders by default, leading it to create its own labels that don’t match up. In order to organize our folders and labels as best as possible, we’re going to turn on a Gmail Labs feature that will allow us to customize which ones are shown in the mail client. In Gmail’s web interface, go to Settings > Labs . Scroll down to “Advanced IMAP Controls”, enable it, and save your settings.

If you’re not seeing all of your Gmail labels in your client’s sidebar (including Sent Mail, All Mail, Trash, and the like) you’ll need to go to Settings > Labels in Gmail and enable them with your newly-installed lab feature. Check the new “Show in IMAP” box next to every label if they aren’t checked already. This will make sure that we’re able to use these folders in the mail client for what they were intended, and stop the mail client from creating its own sent or trash labels.

Note that labels in Gmail are the same as folders in pretty much every mail client, so from here on out I’ll be referring to the two interchangeably.

There are a lot of people interested in learning how to insert an image into the body of a Gmail email message rather than adding images as attachments which your reader will have to download. It’s a simple process to have your photos show in full when someone first opens your message.

It’s good to note before we start that if you’re trying to send an image out as an e-blast to a group list, you might want to consider using an email service provider such as MailChimp.

MailChimp is free up to 2,000 contacts on your mailing list, and it’s easy to use. Emails delivered by an email service provider company will have better delivery rates than you’ll get from your email account. And your recipients will be able to opt-out of receiving your messages should they want to.

Offering an unsubscribe link when sending bulk emails is mandated by the law as specified in the Can-Spam Act. But actually, you’ll want to provide the unsubscribe button to avoid irritating your recipients who otherwise won’t be able to unsubscribe.

Now that we got the warning out of the way let’s get started with step-by-step instructions on how to insert a photo into the body of a Gmail email.

1. Start by choosing Compose in your Gmail app.

2. If you want to have text above the image, we suggest starting your message first before uploading your pictures. Add your copy and then put your cursor where you want it to show up. Then select, “Insert Image”.

3. Once you click on the insert image button at the bottom of the email screen, you will be prompted to choose from “photos,” “albums,” “upload” or “web address”. You will most likely want to use either “upload” to upload an image from your computer or choose “web address” to insert an image that is on the Internet by typing in its URL.

4. First, select the image to insert. Then you’ll be able to choose whether to insert the image either “inline”, which has the image display in the body of the message or to add it as an attachment which would show up as a downloadable file at the bottom of the message.

5. Here is the image automatically resized and inserted into the body of my email message.

4. You may want to send a test email to yourself and view it on both desktop and mobile devices. You have a couple of options to resize the image if you’d like it to be a different size. You can click on the image and see a box of options for resizing. Select the new size: “small,” “best fit,” “original size,”.

Another way to have more control over changing the size of the image is to click on the image to get the blue border with square “handles” on the corners. Grab a handle with your mouse and drag the corner in or out to the desired size.

I hope that gives you what you need to add this skill to your bag of tricks. If you have problems go ahead and reach out to us in the comments below.

Free Book Preview: Ultimate Guide to Google Ads

Long time Gmail users may notice that their accounts have gotten sluggish over time. It can take longer to load your inbox and be a frustrating experience to open or send a message. This can happen for several reasons such as using a large number of add-ons or accumulating a high volume of messages, folders or filters.

There are several ways to counteract this slowdown process. Here are seven tips to get Gmail feeling fast again:

1. Disable Labs features. Google offers a feature called Gmail Labs that lets you try out experimental functionality that isn’t quite ready for prime time. While many of these features are useful, they’re not really necessary — and may be contributing to Gmail slowdown.

Go to your Gmail Settings (the gear icon in the upper right), head to the Labs section and disable any features you don’t use. Google also allows you to temporarily shut off Labs, if you prefer.

2. Turn off Chat. You may not even realize that Google Talk is running in a left sidebar Chat module whenever you log in to Gmail. To turn it off permanently, access your Gmail settings, look for the Chat section in the top menu, select the “Chat off” radio button and save your changes. Instead of using Gmail’s Chat, use a dedicated chat client such as Adium for the Mac or Digsby for Windows.

3. Display 25 messages or less. Go to the General section of your Settings and look for the Maximum Page Size controls. Use the dropdown menu to adjust the “Show X conversations per page” down to 25 items or even less — you can go as low as 10 threads per page.

4. Remove connected services. You can give a number of third-party sites and apps access to your Google Account in order to work with your Contacts, Calendars and other data. You may have a long list of connected services you no longer use. Head to your Authorized Access page and revoke access to any defunct web accounts or unused apps.

5. Disable browser check. Gmail checks for browser compatibility when it loads in order to provide the best user experience. However, this browser check can potentially take more time than it might save. You can disable this automatic process by using the “?nocheckbrowser flag” at the end of your login URL.

6. Delete filters. Using Gmail filters can be a powerful way to sort and route your messages, but you can accumulate an unwieldy collection over time. Go to Settings then Filters and remove any old directives that are no longer relevant. Consider unsubscribing to any infrequently read newsletters instead of filtering them into bulk folders.

7. Use a default theme. Custom themes are a fun way to personalize your Gmail account, but additional graphical elements take extra time to load. Try using the default Light theme instead, found at the top left under Settings then Themes.

What steps have you taken to improve your email service? Let us know in the comments below.