Manage Your Messages Masterfully in Gmail

Most E-mail users dream of an empty inbox evidence that we've read and deleted (or filed) all incoming messages, and are now free to take the rest of the day off. Because Gmail offers more than 6GB of storage, the only messages you need to delete are those you never want to see again. To banish messages from your inbox but keep them handy, add a check mark beside them under select on the left side of the screen, and then click Archive. This hides messages without expunging them.

To make your archived messages easier to find later, use labels to categorize them by topic, project, or other criterion. Most mail apps let you sort mail into folders. But Gmail's labels improve on folders in one powerful way Instead of requiring mail to go into one folder a time; they let you assign messages to multiple categories simultaneously. For example one message that pertains to both Project A and Project B can appear among messages labeled ‘Project A’ as well as in the ‘Project B’ group.

To categorize a message, open it and select one of the labels on the More Actions menu, or check one or more messages in one of the message list views, and choose the label from the More Actions menu. You can create new labels from the menu.

To modify your labels, select settingàLabels in the upper right-hand portion of the screen; this will open a page where you can rename or remove labels, view a list of messages tagged with each label or create new label (see the screen shot above).Unlike deleting a folder in a standard e-mail app, deleting a label doesn't kill the messages tagged with label, so you should feel free to delete labels you don't need. You can also remove labels from messages without deleting the labels. First, open a message or check multiple messages in the mail list: then choose More Actions. Scroll to and select the unwanted label under the Remove label' heading. To find messages those are no longer tagged with a label. Click All Mail, and you'll sec all your messages listed together.

Tag Restoration
Gmail’s inbox is simply another tag that incoming messages receive by default. If you mistakenly archive a message (which strips it of its 'Inbox' tag), you can return it to your inbox by clicking All Mail, selecting the message and clicking Move to Inbox. A similar method enables you to retrieve messages that you in advertently send to the Trash folder. Gmail's habit of grouping conversations into message threads means that messages you've archived will pop back into your mailbox when someone sends a response to an earlier message in the thread. If you no longer have any interest in the conversation, you can prevent it from reappearing in your in box by checking it and then choosing Mute from the More Actions menu.

*.* Source of Information : April 2008 PC World