Google Gmail is a very popular email service with a lot of tools. One valuable tool is the use of Labels and Filters. They with organization and are similar to folders in other email systems. Other email clients also have these abilities but this tutorial will only cover the function of Gmail.
Important! This guide was composed as of March 2014. Google can change the label system or even do away with it all together, though that is very unlikely. It is the desire of this author to try to keep it up to date as it is a very valuable skill.

Labels are essentially folders that you can move emails into. However, a single email can have multiple labels. Another way to think of labels is as like tags. Labels are on the right of your email in the tree view, as in, there is one column with a list of all the labels, and you can expand downward for sub labels.

Notes:

• It is very important to understand that the Inbox is a label. This will be very beneficial for filters discussed later in this guide.
• Labels are usually listed to the right of the subject. There is also an X directly to the right of the label name. Click this to remove that label

Viewing and changing Label settings can be accomplished by:

1. Click on settings gear in the top right for drop down menu
2. Click “Settings”
3. Click “Labels” Tab
4. Make any changes and it will save automatically

At this page you can see a list of all the types of label. Here you can choose to hide or show labels that will appear to the right of your email. Note that even if you hide a label and go back to your email, you can still get to them by scrolling the labels down and clicking “more”. Here is a description of the built in labels:

• System Labels: This is things like Inbox, sent, trash, etc
• Categories: Google is trying to help you stay organized by automatically putting certain emails into categories based on the content of the email. This may not be the best practice for most people and may eventually be phased out. You can easily hide these.
• Circles: This has to do with Google+. If you do not use Google+ or do not want them in your email, you can hide these also.
• Labels: These are all your custom labels.

Note: When you view the label settings page, most things should be intuitive and easy with this guide, but on the right is a check box that says “Show in IMAP.” Always leave this checked unless you have a technical reason to un check it.

There are 3 main ways to create labels. One way is from the settings page, but there are other easier ways to do it as you view you email.

1. Hover your pointer over the left side column until all your labels are expanded downward.
2. Scroll down to the bottom
3. Click “more” if available and scroll down until you see “Create new Label”
4. Click “Create New Label”
5. Enter label name like “Work”
6. You can choose to nest labels, which is like a sub folder.
7. Click create.

1. Open an email
2. You can create a label from the folder menu, or from the Label Menu. The folder and label icons are just above an email you are viewing. The folder icon looks like a classic manila folder. The labels icon is to the right of it and looks like a price tag.
3. Click on one of these for a drop down.
4. Click “Create New”
5. Enter label name like “Work”
6. You can choose to nest labels, which is like a sub folder
7. Click Create.

Note:

1. If you choose folder, the email will be moved to that folder, and you will now be moved either to the next email, or back to the inbox
2. If you choose label, it will only add that label and you will remain in the inbox or current label

As stated above in Understanding Labels from the settings page, you can scroll down to below system labels where it just says “Labels” and click “Create new”

Using the skills to create labels, you can easily move emails to labels (folders) or add multiple labels to an email. We will discuss filters after this. There are mainly 2 ways you can do this.

1. You can simply click and hold the email, and then drag and drop it into the label you would like for it to be placed. This does remove the inbox label.
2. You can also click the folder icon to move an email to that label (folder).

As stated before, Emails can have multiple labels to them. They can also have the inbox label and a custom label or labels. Usually if you want to make an email have one label you would just use the folder option to move. Adding labels to an open email is a bit different. Here is how:

1. Click on email
2. Click on the labels icon
3. Check the box you would like to add to the email. The current label(s) will be checked (inbox, etc)
4. Click “Apply” at the bottom of this drop down menu. This is important and can often be missed.

You should now see the two or more labels listed at the top of the email.

Now that you have learned about labels, you can try to use filters. This feature can give you a type of automation. There are many ways to use filters, but outlined here are a few basic but powerful methods.

There are 2 ways to create filters. In your email, and in the gmail settings. The easiest and most efficient way is from an email, but I will outline how to get to them via settings in case you need to edit them.

1. Click on the gear to the right of email
2. Click on Settings
3. Click on Filters Tab
4. Create or Edit filters

1. Choose Email and have it open. If you are in a thread, make sure you are in an email sent to you, not your reply.
2. Click the drop down arrow next to the reply button.
3. Choose “Filter Messages like this”
4. Edit the filter

By following the steps above, there should be a window where you set the parameters of the filter. There are a lot of parameters that can be created, but this article is meant to focus on a simple automation.
Note: Filter parameters different or in addition to these procedures may not always produce the result you intend them to. It is important to keep an eye on your email activity when creating a filter with different parameters from this tutorial.
Here is an outline of the filters parameters you may want to fill in:

• From: If you chose to create a filter from an email, then this should auto fill the “from” field with the person the original email was from.
• To, subjects, etc: These parameters can be valuable, but a basic entry for “from” is powerful.
• Click “Create Filter with this search” for the second page of parameters.
• Skip Inbox: Leave unchecked. This is a very important option and should only be checked if you DO NOT want to see these emails in your inbox. You can check it if you view your other boxes regularly, but know that mobile phones will usually NOT check the inbox folder unless set up to do so.
• Mark as read: Leave unchecked. Also very important to understand for the function of your inbox and filter.
• Apply the Label: Check this box. Then select from the drop down the label you want applied to the email. You can choose one you have created, or you can create a new one, just as you would create a normal label. This will apply the chosen label, and keep your item in the inbox unless you checked “skip inbox”
• Others: These are all optional and should only be checked for those purposes.

When you are done, you can click “Create Filter.” You can now see that filter in your settings and change it later.

If you have followed these steps in managing labels and filters, you now can have a very organized inbox. As new mail comes in and is filtered to apply the label, you can easily remove the inbox label by clicking the x next to where it says “inbox” above the email. It may seem simple at first, but it can save a lot of filing time.

• Labels will carry over in Android or Apple iOS.
• Labels can be applied with multiple or bulk actions. Just check all the emails you want to edit, and do the normal label functions
• Color coding labels also can help organization. On the left where the labels are listed, just hover over a label and click the drop down menu to choose a color.
• Clicking on the label in an email, will bring you to that label (folder).
• You can also use the stared feature to help you organize emails.
• If you have multiple email addresses forwarded to or managed by gmail, you can create filters that will make these emails have their own box
• In the filter parameters, checking “Skip the inbox” is helpful with filtering out emails like newsletters or social network notifications. Then you can look at that label at your leisure.
• In the filter parameters, checking “Never send to spam” and “never mark as important” is a minor option but might be good to help important emails from ending up in spam, and keeping the important tag off.