Here’s how to set up your email signature, labels to
organize your email (similar to folders), and filters to automate what happens
to certain types of email.
Create an email signature
1. Open Gmail.
2. In the upper-right corner of the Mail window, click
the Gear icon and then click Settings.
3. On the General page, scroll down to the Signature
section and enter your signature in the box. 4. If desired, use the options
above the box to format your text and add links and images.
5. Click Save Changes at the bottom of the page.
Note: By default, you can set up only one signature.
However, if your system administrator allows Gmail Labs, you can enable the
External Signature lab to specify a different signature for email addresses
outside your domain.
Create and apply email labels
Use labels to categorize your messages. Labels are like
folders, but with a twist: You can apply multiple labels to a message, so you
can "store" a single copy of a message in multiple labels. You can
also:
● Open a
label on the left side of your Mail window to see all messages with that label
● Search for all messages with a label
● See
labels on messages in your Inbox, to quickly identify different types of
messages
Make your labels easy to identify by applying different
colors to them. Here’s how labels look in your Inbox:
To create a label
1. Select or open any message to display the Labels icon
in the toolbar:
2. Click the Labels icon and then click Manage labels:
3. Under Labels, in the Create a new label field, type
the name of your new label, and then click Create
Under Labels, in the Create a new label field, type the
name of your new label, and then click Create
Tip: Use the Nest label under option if you want to add a
sub-label to an existing label. For example, you might add a sub-label for each
day of the week under a parent label called “To Do.”
To change the color of a label
1. In your Labels list on the left, hover over the label
and then click the down arrow that appears:
2. Select a color from the palette that appears. The
change is instantly applied to all messages with that label:
To apply a label to messages (and keep them in the Inbox)
1. Select the check box next to the messages you want to
label, then click the Labels icon:
2. Select the label name from the Labels drop-down menu
and click Apply. You can select more than one label:
1. Select (or open) the message or messages you want to
move.
2. Click the Move to icon and select a label.
1. Click and hold near the box to the left of the
message...
2. … and then drag the message to a label’s name.
To move messages out of your Inbox without applying a new
label
1. Select one or more messages in your Inbox.
2. Click
the Archive icon in the toolbar:
To view a labeled message that you’ve archived, just
click the label in the left pane. (If you have a lot of labels, you might need
to click More or scroll down to see your label.)
Tip: If you archive unlabeled messages, you can still
find them under the system label called All Mail.
Set up email filters
Use filters to manage your incoming messages. With
filters, you can automatically label, archive, or delete messages based on
keywords and other criteria.
Gmail filters are similar to Email Rules in Microsoft
Outlook or Lotus Notes.
1. In the upper right corner of Gmail, click the Gear
icon and then Settings > Filters > Create a new filter.
2. Enter your filter criteria in the fields. For example,
you might filter all messages from your manager with the words “Action
Required.”
3. Click Create filter with this search, then select one
or more actions to apply to messages that match this filter's criteria. For
example:
4. To apply the filter to messages you've already
received, click Also apply filter to [x] matching conversations.
5. Click Create Filter.
