I think I'm missing something with Gmail...

[Sukhoi]

I understand there are labels. But that still leaves all the mail in the main inbox. How do I get folders so I don't have to look at the stuff I want to keep but don't need often?

 

[Sukhoi]

Hmm I should have checked Google first.

I love using GMail. It?s easy to use and is accessible from home and work. Plus it has more disk space than Hotmail and doesn?t use up room on my computer. I moved all of my mailing lists over to GMail.

One thing I noticed after moving all the mailing lists over was the absence of folders in GMail. I have become very attached to mail folders to organise my email in Outlook, and I was disappointed that this functionality was not available in GMail. That is until I found a workaround. Here?s the process I use.

1. Create a new label (i.e. CSS-D) by clicking on ?Edit labels? in the Labels panel or going to ?Settings?
2. In Settings, click on ?Filters?
3. Click on ?Create a new filter?
4. Type in mailing list prefix (i.e. [css-d]) in subject field and press ?Next step?
5. Make sure ?Skip the Inbox? is checked and select the new label from the ?Apply the label? dropdown
6. Select ?Create Filter?

Your Labels panel will now act as a folder list. This filter will prevent mailing list messages from showing up in the GMail Notifier. This would be a benefit to some and a detriment to others.

I?ve since become attached to labels and now prefer them to folders. One of the benefits is being able to store messages under multiple labels rather than being stuck with a single folder.

Either way, there you go. I hope you find this useful.

UPDATE (03 Jan 2006): This post was listed on digg.com.

IMHO really stupid decision on Google's part. But I lose my school e-mail on Monday so I need to switch to something.

 

[eakers]

no, you make labels then you apply them to emails.. then archive them.

 

[regnez]

You just search for the email you want; that's the Google way.

 

[mugs]

To get around that you can set up filters to archive messages and apply a label and delete them from the inbox. That effectively puts them in your label/folder and not in your inbox.

I hate that Google uses labels instead of hierarchical folders. I like to have more than one level!

 

[Sukhoi]

I hate that Google uses labels instead of hierarchical folders. I like to have more than one level!

Exactly! I have a bunch of student loan e-mails I need to keep, but I don't need to see these things every damn day when I login to my box. I'll try out these filtered label things.

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: Sukhoi
Hmm I should have checked Google first.

I love using GMail. It?s easy to use and is accessible from home and work. Plus it has more disk space than Hotmail and doesn?t use up room on my computer. I moved all of my mailing lists over to GMail.

One thing I noticed after moving all the mailing lists over was the absence of folders in GMail. I have become very attached to mail folders to organise my email in Outlook, and I was disappointed that this functionality was not available in GMail. That is until I found a workaround. Here?s the process I use.

1. Create a new label (i.e. CSS-D) by clicking on ?Edit labels? in the Labels panel or going to ?Settings?
2. In Settings, click on ?Filters?
3. Click on ?Create a new filter?
4. Type in mailing list prefix (i.e. [css-d]) in subject field and press ?Next step?
5. Make sure ?Skip the Inbox? is checked and select the new label from the ?Apply the label? dropdown
6. Select ?Create Filter?

Your Labels panel will now act as a folder list. This filter will prevent mailing list messages from showing up in the GMail Notifier. This would be a benefit to some and a detriment to others.

I?ve since become attached to labels and now prefer them to folders. One of the benefits is being able to store messages under multiple labels rather than being stuck with a single folder.

Either way, there you go. I hope you find this useful.

UPDATE (03 Jan 2006): This post was listed on digg.com.

IMHO really stupid decision on Google's part. But I lose my school e-mail on Monday so I need to switch to something.

Yeah you can apply two labels, woohoo. For the rare times I want to do that, I'd rather just have two copies of the message. I want my hierarchy!

 

[geckojohn]

Google email rocks though - really cool.

 

[OulOat]

That is what the ARCHIVE button is for. When you want your student loan emails, you can click on your student loan label to bring them back from the archive. Labels are better than folders because you can apply multiple labels per email.

 

[BeauJangles]

Originally posted by: OulOat
That is what the ARCHIVE button is for. When you want your student loan emails, you can click on your student loan label to bring them back from the archive. Labels are better than folders because you can apply multiple labels per email.

Yeah, the archive rocks. Your inbox can be empty, but all your mail is still nicely organized.

 

[ultimatebob]

I've never archived anything in the three years that I've had my GMail account. That's what the search is for!

 

[trmiv]

I asked this question in a gmail thread like a year ago, and people bit my head off. I too prefer folders over the label system, and I've never gotten used to it.