Gmail's Lack of Mail Folders? Learn to Love labels!

Posted By: Cameron Childress | July 9, 2004 12:43PM
Related Categories: Technology

Last night I had a discussion with someone about Gmail and how she was frustrated by the lack of "folders" to physically move messages into. This is also something I've run up against since most mail clients allow you to move mail into "folders". After a bit of tinkering though, you can make Gmail imitate other mail client's "folder" behavior, effectively moving mail out of the inbox and into a "label" by using filters. Here's how:
  1. Click on "Create a filter" at the top of Gmail.
  2. Enter whatever filter criteria you want to filter mail on and click "Next Step".
  3. Check the box called "Skip the inbox", this moves the message out of your inbox.
  4. Check the box called "Apply the Label", and select a label from the dropdown to create a new one.
  5. Click "Create Filter".
DONE! Now all new mail matching the criteria you entered will be "moved" from the inbox and into the label you selected. One drawback is that you apparently can't retroactively apply filters to messages already in your inbox. However, once you've manually moved any existing mail, you should be all set!

Comments (5)

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Amber I've been frustrated with the same thing. Thanks for the tip. Very helpful!

And thanks for the gmail invite too!

# Posted By Amber | July 9, 2004 3:25 PM

James Edmunds This label feature of gmail (and, of course, the 1GB of storage) is indeed very handy, especially coupled with the filtering.

Plus, the fact that gmail tracks threads makes it a great way to receilve list mail.

I have actually gone to a real-time subscription to CF-Talk in my gmail account!

# Posted By James Edmunds | July 10, 2004 7:03 AM

Al Hudson It takes a bit of a mindset shift. After attaching a label to a message (remember, you can attach more than one label to a message), archive it which puts it into the archive folder. The label now acts as a sort of screen. If you want to see all conversations (a conversation being a collection of like-titled messages), just click on the label at the bottom left and you will see a list of all conversations having that label.

I like the addition of conversations. I am able to deal with all the CF-Talk traffic with my webmail. I find that amazing. I created a filter which is like an Inbox rule in Outlook, which takes every incoming message from "CF-Talk", attaches a CF-Talk label and then archives the message. That way it doesn't clog up my inbox and I just go delete the uninteresting conversations by title and read those I am interested in.

Way cool is gmail!

Al Hudson

# Posted By Al Hudson | July 19, 2004 3:36 PM

Brendon Actually, there is an option to "Also apply filter to X conversations below", next to the Create Filter button

# Posted By Brendon | August 2, 2006 11:54 AM

mash Yes, labels can replace folders.
But what about sub-folders, how can you replace them in gmail?

# Posted By mash | September 30, 2008 5:40 PM

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