These were blatantly stolen from the user “pipebomb” at the SA forums:
Multiple Labels
Each message can also have multiple labels, so you can view them in different ways.
For instance, say that I have a message from ‘Scott’, from ACME INC. I can create a label called ‘ACME’, another called ‘Scott’ and yet another about the TV show ‘24’.
Now, when I get a message from Scott, I can assign a message about something technical the labels ‘Scott’ and ‘ACME.
If I get a message about what a badass Jack Bauer is, I assign it the label ‘24’ instead.
Now, when I want to see our conversations about ‘24’, but not every message Scott has sent, I simply click on the ‘24’ label on the left of my screen.
In Entourage, a similar feature is available called ‘Mail Views’. In Outlook 2003, it is a ‘search folder’.
The difference in the Gmail implementation and the ‘software’ use is that Gmail doesn’t require you to create a complex ruleset just to assign a label. One click and you’re set!
Removing Labels
One cool thing about labels is that you can assign them so quickly. What’s not so intuitive is how to remove a label.
Here’s how:
• Click on a filter view
• Select the message you want to change (click the checkbox)
• Click the button marked ‘Remove label “label name”’.
Pretty simple, eh?
Remember that you can only remove the label if you are be IN the label view that you want to remove.
Label Summary
Click on the ‘Edit labels’ link, and you are presented with a page showing all of your labels, and lo and behold: you have a summary!
Custom email addresses
You can create a site specific email address by adding +sitename to your Gmail account. For instance, if you want to track email coming from Amazon, you could enter ‘[email protected]’ into Amazons contact area.
Then you create a filter for incoming messages with that email address to have a certain label and you’re set. This is NOT a Gmail specific feature, but most ISPs don’t support it, so praise Gmail for allowing it.
Use a period in your username…or not
You can use a period in your Gmail username, and even if someone doesn’t type it, you will still get your mail.
For instance, [email protected] is the same as [email protected] (and vice versa). Used in conjunction with filters, this could be quite useful also.
You could tell family members to send to ‘[email protected]’ and work contacts to use ‘[email protected]’ and filter thusly.
Email other Gmail users without a full address
If you want to email another Gmail user, simply put their username into the To/CC box. No need for the Gmail.com portion.
Renaming a Label
When renaming a label, for instance to change the case, you will get an error if it is spelled the same.
The solution is to change the spelling, then rename it with the proper case.
Example:
GMail > Gmail = error
GMail > Fishheads > Gmail = Success
Filter limits
Currently, you can only have 20 filters…use labels instead.