How to use labels in Gmail This tutorial will show you how to use labels in Gmail to organize your email conversations. If you've seen the previous two tutorials, you should know what labels are and how to manage them, and how to manage conversations. If you haven't watched the previous tutorials, we recommend that you do so before proceeding with this one. The Move to and Labels submenus in the actions menu, directly below, are the two ways you have to label conversations. To use either, you must first select at least one conversation. We'll start with the Labels submenu. Click this button to activate it. Here, you can choose one or more of your existing labels to apply to the selected conversation(s). The search box may be useful if you have many labels. You can also create new labels and go to the label management area using these links. Let's label the selected conversation as both Business and Personal. Click Apply. This conversation has now been labelled Business and Personal. You can see its labels here, next to its title. If you watched the first tutorial on Labels, you will have seen how to change a label's color. Let's do that again now, to show you its usefulness. Click here. Choose a color. Notice -- the color has changed here, too. Next, let's see a shortcut method for applying a single label. Deselect this conversation, and select the two beneath that. Open Labels. This time, instead of clicking on the checkbox next to the label, click on its name. Now, let's see how Gmail treats a selection wherein not all conversations have the same labels. Select this conversation. Instead of showing a checkmark in the box next to each label, a line is displayed to let us know that some but not all of the conversations use this label. Simply click the box as before to apply a label to all selected conversations... ...and the line becomes a checkmark. Click Apply. The Move to feature is similar to the Labels feature, the difference being that Move to will remove the label we are currently viewing (Inbox) from the conversation and replace it with the one we choose. To demonstrate, let's select the only conversation that hasn't been labelled yet. Click None. Select this conversation. Open Move to. As you can see, this has the same basic layout as the Labels submenu. The checkboxes have been removed -- you can only move a conversation from one label to one other. We're also now able to move conversations to Spam and Trash (these weren't listed under Labels). We'll move this conversation to Travel. Another way to move a conversation is to drag it over to the label in the menu. Click and drag this conversation over to Personal. Let go of the mouse once the label is highlighted. There is one last way to manage a conversation's labels. Open a conversation. At the top of the conversation, you can see a list of labels with an X next to each. Click a label's X to remove it from this conversation. If instead you click on the label's name... ...you'll be taken to a list of all conversations that share that label. This is the end of the tutorial. You now know how to use labels in Gmail.
How to search for messages in GmailThis tutorial will show you the basics of performing a search in Gmail.Just like with Google searches, search queries in Gmail can be as simple or as complicated as you want them to be, so we won't be able to cover everything.To start, let's perform a search for the word definitely, which appears right here in our latest email conversation.Type your search queries in this text box, located at the top of every page in Gmail.Then, click the Search Mail button.Your search results will be displayed below, as if you were viewing your Inbox or some other label's contents.You should recognize all of the action buttons at the top and bottom of the results box. These will function exactly as you were shown in the previous tutorials, as will everything else you see.Now, let's perform another search. The next word in that email is takes, so we'll try searching for take.The new results show up here, but our message isn't part of the results. This is because Gmail searches are more specific than your typical web search. For example, if you want to find all emails containing the word takes, you must search for takes and not any variations like take in order for it to work.To finish, we'll show you how to make an advanced search. Click Show search options.With these options, you have more control over the search results that are returned. We'll test out the From field.Enter a name or email address.You also have the ability to limit where you want the search to be performed.Of note is the Mail and Spam and Trash Option. Unless you choose this option, Gmail won't display search results labelled as Spam or Trash.We'll leave ours set to All Mail.Now, click Search Mail as before.It worked! The only conversation containing mail from Demo User has shown up.As this message indicates, even if you don't choose Mail and Spam and Trash, you'll still be informed if Gmail finds a match in your Trash. This won't happen for Spam, though.This tutorial is now complete. You now know how to perform a search in Gmail.
How to use Gmail's chat feature As with most online email services, Gmail provides you with instant messaging capabilities. Gmail Chat works inside your browser, while GoogleTalk is a program that you can install on your computer. Both of these allow you to communicate with your Gmail friends, and both have their advantages. In this tutorial, we'll be showing you how to use Gmail Chat. Scroll down. Here is the chat area of Gmail. It's visible on the left column of every page. As these two notes tell you, text chats are saved and searchable just like with email conversations, and you can even have a video chat with a friend. Click each X to close the notes. In the Options menu, you can sign in and out of chat and choose who shows up in your chat list, among other things. Your name is first in the chat list. From here, you can change your status, set your availability, etc. Click this arrow for more options. Let's set our status to Busy. We'll change that back to Available. With this box, you can search through and find contacts to add or invite to chat. When you start typing, entries from your Contacts list should appear. At right, you're given a number of actions that you can perform on that contact. Click on a contact's name to switch the actions menu to that person. Click anywhere in the background to cancel and close the contacts list. Let's chat with Demo User. Click on his name. A chat window will appear in the bottom right corner of the screen. Click here, type a chat message, then press Enter to send. Note that this person is currently offline. Messages you send to an offline contact will be delivered when he/she comes online. When he logged in, the currently offline message disappeared, and his icon changed from grey to green. When you receive a response, the title bar of the chat area will be highlighted in orange, as will the user's name in your chat list. Let's respond. You will be notified when the other person is typing a message. Click the X to close the chat window. It will reappear if he responds again. Scroll up. Go to the Settings area. Open the Chat tab. There are a number of chat-related settings here. Most of these, you'll probably want to leave as the defaults. One useful feature in Gmail is the ability to sign in to an AIM account. This allows you to use Gmail to chat with your buddies on AIM as well as your Gmail chat contacts. Click Sign into AIM. You will need an AIM account in order to log in. If you don't have one, you can get a screen name via this link. Enter your login info, then click Sign in. Or, click Cancel. If you make any changes on this page, be sure to click Save Changes when you've finished. This is the end of the tutorial. You now know how to use the Chat feature in Gmail.
How to import contacts into Gmail This tutorial will show you how to import contacts from other mail clients into Gmail. Before you begin, you'll need a contact list that you exported from your old mail client in CSV or vCard format. To import the file, go to Contacts. Click Import. Use the Browse... button to find your file. When you've found the correct file, double-click to select it. If you would like for these imported contacts to be added to a group, click this checkbox... ...then choose the group from the list. To finish, click Import. That's it! The four contacts have been imported successfully. Click OK to return to your contacts. Here are the four new contacts. They've also been added to our Internet Friends group. This is the end of the tutorial. You now know how to import contacts into Gmail.
How to export contacts from Gmail In this tutorial, you will learn how to export contacts from Gmail. Exporting contacts from Gmail is easy. You can export in several different formats, and can even choose to export only certain groups of contacts. Go to Contacts. Then click Export. First, tell Gmail who you want to export. My Contacts contains only those contacts you have added, while All Contacts contains everyone you have ever been in touch with using your Gmail account. We'll choose a specific group. Then, select a format for the export file to be in. Finally, click Export. After a moment, a download box should appear. Click OK to save the file to your disk. That's it! You've successfully exported your contacts from Gmail. Now you just need to import the file into your favorite mail client. This completes the tutorial. You now know how to export contacts from Gmail.
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