GMAIL Labels

Google email works differently than your traditional email systems.  It is based around the concept of searching (which makes sense since Google is really good at searching).  GMAIL uses labels to help us categorize things in our searching.  Lets learn a little more about the GMAIL inbox (Part 1) and how to do work with labels (Part 2).

Part 1 - More About the GMAIL Inbox

Lets understand more about how the GMAIL inbox works:  Google puts all your email in one large container.  Every piece of email is stored in the container called "All Mail".  To see the "All Mail" container, simply click on the "More" button (which becomes the "Less" button once you do click on it).

If you click on the "All Mail" container, you will see that when new mail comes in, GMAIL automatically tags it with the "Inbox" label.  

When you click on "Inbox" in your list of labels, Gmail will show you everything with the "Inbox" label.  

Part 2 - Labels

Hopefully the explanation above helps you understand labels a little bit better.  Now lets explore how to manage them.  Click on the "More" link on the left and select "Manage Labels".

          

The Labels tab will open.  (You can also get to this page by clicking the gear cog, clicking on settings, and then clicking on the "Labels" link toward the top.)  The labels you see are the default labels in your Gmail account (unless you have added any since the creation of your account.  

Once you click on the "Create new label" button, you will see a "New Label" window.  To add your label, type it in and then click the "Create" button.  

Once you have created at least one label, you will have the opportunity to nest your next label under any of your preceding labels by placing a check in the box next to "Nest label under:".

Your new label will now appear in the list of labels on the left hand side of the screen.  

Clicking on the tiny arrow to the left of the label will reveal the nested label called "Evaluations" we placed under the "Email from my Principal" label.

Applying Labels To Emails

There a few options for applying labels to emails.

• Simply drag and drop the email from the right to the left and drop it on the label you wish it to be applied to.  

• Select the email by placing a check in the checkbox to the left of it.  
• Then click on the "Move to" button toward the top of the screen (Doing this will remove the "Inbox" label and apply the label you wish to apply).  
• You may also click on the "Label" button toward the top of the screen and place a check next to the label you wish to apply.  (Doing this will retain the "Inbox" label AND also apply the new label.)

As you can see, you can apply multiple labels to a single email.  

Finally, you can customize the look of your label.  Hover over the label you wish to customize and an arrow will appear to the right.  Click on the arrow to the right of the label.

From here you can adjust the color settings, where the label will show in the label list and you can also edit the label from here as well.  

This is what the label looks like after you apply a color to it.  While fairly subtle, it can help you more quickly identify labels you frequently use.  

Enjoy labeling all your emails!