Gmail: Advanced tips

Automatically label and sort messages

Next: Filter Calendar responses from Gmail

Tips

Manage incoming email messages automatically with Gmail’s filters and labels. You can also flag important email, or archive messages so you can read them later.

Examples

Automatically apply labels to categorize incoming messages, such as customer feedback or project-related messages.

Getting messages you don’t need right now, such as newsletters? Let Gmail automatically archive them so you can keep a clean inbox and read them later.

Flag VIP emails.

Archive notifications.

Note: These instructions are for computer. For mobile device instructions, go to the Gmail help center.

Create a label

Open Gmail.
At the top right, click Settings See all settings.
Click the Labels tab.
Scroll to the Labels section and click Create new label.
Enter the label name and click Create.
- Gmail label names can be up to 225 characters long.
- You can also create nested labels, which are like subfolders.

Create a filter and automatically label email

In the search box at the top, click Show search options .
Enter terms to match specific messages. For example, to filter and label emails from an account, in the From: field, enter the email address.
At the bottom of the search window, click Create filter.
Scroll to Apply the label: and choose a label.
Click Create filter.

For more tips on applying labels and filters, see Organize your inbox.

Flag an important email

Click Star Star or Important to mark an important message.

You can find messages with stars and importance markers in the Starred and Important sections of your inbox.

Archive email

Archived email messages move out of your inbox but stay under All mail, so that you can find them later. To archive email, select one or more email message. At the top, click Archive Archive . Or, you can point to a single email and click Archive Archive .