Web Worker Daily

Gmail–many of us web workers could hardly get by without it. I happen to use both Outlook and Gmail, but Gmail is increasingly the e-mail engine I spend most of my time in. If you do too, a few tips on customizing your setup, optimizing searches, and more can save you lots of time. In this post, I’ll round up 10 examples.

Customize Your Settings. Many Gmail users don’t bother to customize their settings, which is a shame. At the upper right in Gmail, near the Sign Out link, you’ll find a Settings link. It lets you enable keyboard shortcuts, and much more.

Create Filters. Next to Gmail’s search field is a link called Create Filters. Use it to categorize what Gmail should do with incoming messages of various types—a big time- and clutter-saver.

Use Keyboard Shortcuts. See the tip above for enabling keyboard shortcuts. Once enabled, you can use “n” to go to the next message, “g” and “c” for Go to Contacts and more. Find an entire list under “Learn More” in Settings.

Connect Securely. Use this URL, with the “s” after http to get SSL security as soon as you log in to Gmail: https://gmail.google.com.

Search By Subject Only. You can search by subject, but eliminate positive search results found in the body of messages, by typing subject: before a query term. For example subject:Baseball will give you messages with Baseball in the subject line.

Show Search Options. Next to Gmail’s search field, there’s a link called Show Search Options. Click it to input advanced search options of several kinds.

Use Query Words. Google has good table of Gmail query words you can use to help drill down to exactly what you want when searching.

Use the Hyphen to Eliminate Unwanted Search Results. When entering search terms, use the hyphen to narrow down to exactly what you want. For example, typing Bob-Mary will return all messages about Bob that aren’t about Mary.

Ferret Out Attachments. Type from:Mary has:attachment to find all messages from Mary that have attachments.

Use Parentheses to Narrow Down Query Results. If you want messages about basketball, and the ones you want to review pertain to Kobe Bryant, enter basketball (Kobe Bryant) to get just the messages you want.

Do you have any good Gmail tips?