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Ten tips for making the most of Google Mail

Mark Kaelin Tech Republic

Published: 21 Nov 2005 17:20 GMT

Google continues to make its case as the only Web destination you ever need — much to the delight of its investors. One of the more useful Google offerings is the Google Mail — until recently known as Gmail — Web-based emailing application. Although technically still in beta, Google Mail is in fact a very useful and feature-rich mostly-complete application. However, not all of the features that can be found in Gmail are readily apparent. The 10 things listed in this document will draw out some of the hidden features and make this Web-based email client event more appealing.

1. Labels
When it comes to organising your Google Mail inbox, there is perhaps no better mechanism than the label feature. You can label any email with a keyword or keywords of your own choosing. From that point on, that email will be identified by its label(s) and, most importantly, can be searched and listed according to that label. Using this feature, you can basically index or tag your email for later retrieval; only you get to decide what that system for retrieval looks like.

Creating and assigning labels can be accomplished under the More Actions dropdown box.

2. Conversations
A set of emails associated by a common label is known as a conversation. Certain actions, such as moving to a different folder, can be accomplished in a single pass on the entire conversation. This can save a tremendous amount of time if your conversation is a lengthy one. One caveat, don't add an email to a conversation unless it is really an integral part of that thread, because any changes made to a conversation will be made across the board.

3. Searching multiple labels
The feature that separates Google Mail's Web-based email service from everyone else's is the searching capability — something that Google does very well. Besides the typical keyword search, where you type in a word or phrase, click the search button, and wade through the corresponding results, you can perform more advanced searches.

Advanced searches rely heavily on the labeling system outlined in number one above. Using the label: designation, you can perform Boolean searches on the contents of your Gmail account. Here are some examples:

To search for more than one label (siegfried and roy):
label:siegfried AND label:roy
To search for one label or another
label:siegfried OR label:roy
To search for one label but not another
label:siegried AND NOT label:roy

4. Searching query words
If you click the "Show search options" link of the main Gmail page, you get to a Search Options dialogue page.

In the Search Options dialogue you can specify the usual search parameters like From or To a certain address, email with a particular subject line, and even designate whether the email is read or unread. If you are looking for that one incriminating photo attachment of your spouse, you can set parameters like "must have an attachment and have been received within these dates."

While this GUI interface has many options, there are even more available to those who want to master the query operators that govern the Google search box. For example, you could type this search:

label:siegfried AND NOT label:royhas:attachment before:2005/11/17

That search would find emails labeled Siegfried and not Roy, with attachments, and dated before November 17, 2005.

The table below shows you a complete list of query operators that you can use in advanced searching.

Operator

Definition

Example(s)

from:

Used to specify the sender

Example - from:amy
Meaning - Messages from Amy

to:

Used to specify a recipient

Example - to:david
Meaning - All messages that were sent to David (by you or someone else)

subject:

Search for words in the subject line

Example - subject:dinner
Meaning - Messages that have the word "dinner" in the subject

Search for messages matching term A or term B*
*OR must be in all caps

Example - from:amy OR from:david
Meaning - Messages from Amy or from David

-
(hyphen)

Used to exclude messages from your search

Example - dinner -movie
Meaning - Messages that contain the word "dinner" but do not contain the word "movie"

label:

Search for messages by label*
*There isn't a search operator for unlabeled messages

Example -from:amylabel:friends

Meaning - Messages from Amy that have the label "friends"

Example -from:davidlabel:my-family
Meaning - Messages from David that have the label "My Family"

has:attachment

Search for messages with an attachment

Example - from:davidhas:attachment

Meaning - Messages from David that have an attachment

filename:

Search for an attachment by name or type

Example - filename:physicshomework.txt
Meaning - Messages with an attachment named "physicshomework.txt"

Example - label:workfilename:pdf

Meaning - Messages labeled "work" that also have a PDF file as an attachment

" "
(quotes)

Used to search for an exact phrase*
*Capitalization isn't taken into consideration

Example - "i'm feeling lucky"
Meaning - Messages containing the phrase "i'm feeling lucky" or "I'm feeling lucky"

Example - subject:"dinner and a movie"
Meaning - Messages containing the phrase "dinner and a movie" in the subject

( )

Used to group words
Used to specify terms that shouldn't be excluded

Example - from:amy(dinner OR movie)
Meaning - Messages from Amy that contain either the word "dinner" or the word "movie"

Example - subject:(dinner movie)
Meaning - Messages in which the subject contains both the word "dinner" and the word "movie"

in:anywhere

Search for messages anywhere in your account*
*Messages in 'Spam' and 'Trash' are excluded from searches by default

Example - in:anywheresubject:movie
Meaning - Messages in 'All Mail', 'Spam', and 'Trash' that contain the word "movie"

in:inbox
in:trash
in:spam

Search for messages in 'Inbox', 'Trash', or 'Spam'

Example - in:trashfrom:amy
Meaning - Messages from Amy that are in the trash

is:starred
is:unread
is:read

Search for messages that are starred, unread or read

Example - is:readis:starredfrom:David
Meaning - Messages from David that have been read and are marked with a star

cc:
bcc:

Used to specify recipients in the 'cc' or 'bcc' fields*
*Search on bcc: cannot retrieve messages on which you were blind carbon copied<>

Example - cc:david
Meaning - Messages that were cc-ed to David

after:
before:

Search for messages sent during a certain period of time*
*Dates must be in yyyy/mm/dd format.

Example - after:2004/04/16 before:2004/04/18
Meaning - Messages sent after April 16, 2004, but before April 18, 2004.*
*More precisely: Messages sent on April 17, 2004.