Tips for Navigating the Features of Gmail

I have used Gmail since the very beginning. Because of my long experience with it, I have quite a bit of experience in how all the settings work and I would like to show you how to use all of the ones that even casual users should use.

Gmail is unique in that it gives the user nearly three gigabytes of space as of now. When it first started, it gave one gigabyte; this may seem like a little but consider the leading email provider at the time gave only ten megabytes, the huge jump in free space was unprecedented. Hotmail, my original email provider, quickly proved to be only trouble as I switched between Hotmail and Gmail to test out all the nuances. From this, I can assure you that Gmail is better than just about every single email provider out there (except maybe private emails).

To send a email, just click on Compose Mail on the left and fill out the minimums to send. You don't even need a subject line, although you should have one. After sending, you'll have some options like adding that email to your contact list; Gmail will also automatically remember everyone you've ever sent a email to; after a while, if you type out the receiver's address, it wil automatically give you "suggestions". I find this to be faster than typing everything out so that's a great thing to do.

Receiving emails is like anything else; you'll see it in your inbox with read emails highlighted and non-read as white. However, there are lots of options you can do with emails you receive. The following lists some of the features I use.

All of the following options can be accessed from "Settings" near the top right side of the main page in Gmail.

Labels are exactly that: Labels! It's like having a folder in your email so that all of your emails can be organized in a certain way. Each of your emails can be tagged with a label so they can quickly be found through the built-in search function or just selecting it from the left side. Creating one is simple: just click on Labels and type a name for the new Label to create it. Labels are very, very helpful for Filters.

Filters allow you to "program" Gmail to do certain things when certain emails arrive. If you automatically receive emails from places, then this can label them and archive them for you to receive when you need to. It's also a good way to create an archive of many emails, for example, for finances or emails with (personal) attachments. To create a Filter, go to the Filter tab and click Create a new filter. This will give you a "conditions" tab above. Fill in all the necessary blanks, for example "From: google.com" or if it has an attachment; if you're unsure whether or not you filled in this part correctly, just click on Test Search to test the filtering. Then click on Next and choose the actions you want Gmail to take when those emails arrive. Now, all emails that meet the criteria that arrive will automatically be Archived or Forwarded or has a Label attached to it, etc.

Forwarding and POP is useful if you have an external email application like Mozilla Thunderbird or Microsoft's Outlook. Forwarding is like a filter that sends a email somewhere else as they come except it automatically applies to all incoming email. This is very useful if you have multiple email accounts and want all of them forwarded to one account so you only need to check one email. If you want even more options in emailing, you can get an external email application for POP Download. This will allow all email you receive to be enabled for POP Download, meaning they can be accessed through these programs. Setting this up is easy, just select which you emails you want it enabled (those are the only ones downloaded) and select "archive Gmail's copy". If you prefer to do something else, choose that but in 99% of the cases, that will be the option because you'll have two back-ups. To configure your application, refer to the applications help file or read Gmail's tutorial for many applications that allow POP Download.

Finally, you can use Chat in Gmail, a great way to talk to someone if you're in a hurry. Simply open up Gmail in a supported browser and you'll seen a list of contacts on the left. If you don't see any contacts, you probably don't have any; if this is the case, just add them by entering their email inside the add contact textfield. To chat, just double click anyone who is online and a new window will pop up; everything you say and they say will be saved so you'll never forget or if you simply need a reference. It's also a handy way to keep track of all of your contacts!