T103.6b - Gmail Explained
Very few people understand "why" gmail is so good, and very few people understand what makes it truly "different."
If you take a few minutes to understand what is unique about it, you may find you can also use it a lot more efficiently. In this case an ounce of education is worth a pound of knowledge and power.
Sections on this page include:
If you take a few minutes to understand what is unique about it, you may find you can also use it a lot more efficiently. In this case an ounce of education is worth a pound of knowledge and power.
Sections on this page include:
- Gmail vs Old School Email
- When an email arrives for you at Google -- Inbox or Spam
- NOT Spam will appear in "All Mail" with Inbox Label...
- Inbox -- With Tabs (aka Categories)
- Archiving
- Right Click Menu -- Archive, Delete, Move to Tab, Mark as Unread
- Reading an Email -- Archive, Delete, Report Spam
- Reading an Email -- Folder and Labels
- Reading an Email -- The More Menu...
- Reading An Email -- Reply All
- Reading An Email -- Send and Archive
- Gmail -- Folders and Labels
- The Notes Label
- Summary
1) Gmail vs Old School Email
Before Gmail and other web mail providers like hotmail came about, an email in everyone’s world was stored as a text document on your computer in a secret folder. The text document had a little meta-structure so it could be parsed into things like to, from, subject and body for pretty presentation.
Google took a far different approach with Gmail. They took all the data that arrived for you in an email, and instead of saving it as a text document, they parsed the data into fields and stored that data as a database record.
A database record in visual form looks like a row in a spreadsheet. A database is much easier to query for information than individual text files spread across hundreds or thousands of user create files and that is why Google's first claim to fame was it's ability to search and find emails. They were searching a database not text files.
Below is an example of what 8 database records might look like in a Gmail database...
Google took a far different approach with Gmail. They took all the data that arrived for you in an email, and instead of saving it as a text document, they parsed the data into fields and stored that data as a database record.
A database record in visual form looks like a row in a spreadsheet. A database is much easier to query for information than individual text files spread across hundreds or thousands of user create files and that is why Google's first claim to fame was it's ability to search and find emails. They were searching a database not text files.
Below is an example of what 8 database records might look like in a Gmail database...
2) When an email arrives for you at Google -- Inbox or Spam
- When an email arrives it goes thru a spam filter and it is assigned a System Label of “INBOX” or “SPAM” by the Gmail System.
- Google has the best spam filters on the planet, primarily because they handle more spam and email than anyone else, but also because they allow users to identify spam, and as such the filters can actively learn based on everyone's feedback.
For Reference:
- The System Label Values are: INBOX, SPAM, TRASH or {Blank} where blank represents "ARCHIVED (KEEP)" and those can be found by doing a general search or looking in the the "All Mail" label.
- The Category Options are: Social, Promotions, Updates, Forums (I only use Social and Promotions)
3) NOT Spam will appear in "All Mail" with Inbox Label...
The "All Mail" menu item is the most misunderstood/overlooked/confusing view in Gmail.
If you can get your arms around this view, you can get a much better feel for all aspects of Gmail.
"All Mail" is 1) all Sent Mail and 2) All Received Mail that is NOT SPAM and NOT TRASH.
Thus from the System Labels defined above, it is either INBOX, or
If you can get your arms around this view, you can get a much better feel for all aspects of Gmail.
"All Mail" is 1) all Sent Mail and 2) All Received Mail that is NOT SPAM and NOT TRASH.
Thus from the System Labels defined above, it is either INBOX, or
- The first column is the FROM column. It is either from "me" or from someone else (to me).
- The second column is the SUBJECT column.
- The second column starts out with any applicable System Labels or User Applied Labels. I have highlighted 4 emails with "INBOX" label. Just above the 4th arrow is an email with a User Applied Label of "bryancanary70".
4) Inbox -- With Tabs (aka Categories)
As shown above, there are 4 items with the label of INBOX.
I could certainly read those items in the "All Mail" view and never need an inbox view, but an INBOX view would make reading my mail that much easier.
Below is a screen shot of my inbox, but there is a PROBLEM!?! Only 1 of 4 of my emails is showing up?!!?
I could certainly read those items in the "All Mail" view and never need an inbox view, but an INBOX view would make reading my mail that much easier.
Below is a screen shot of my inbox, but there is a PROBLEM!?! Only 1 of 4 of my emails is showing up?!!?
Gmail automatically "CATEGORIZES" emails to assist you with mail sorting in your inbox...
While initially I and many others were angry Gmail was overly complicating my inbox with these tabs and this Categorization System, their accuracy separating items is exceptional and it really helps keeping my inbox (the primary tab of my inbox) very clean.
Imagine it this way -- Gmail delivers everything to the Primary Tab of your INBOX, and then it will move Social emails to the social tab and it will do the same with Promotions. And then, behind the scenes, it will apply those Category names to the database record for each email.
Thus, the other 3 emails in my INBOX are actually on the Social tab. If I didn't want Gmail putting my YouTube info on the social tab, I could right click it and tell it to move it to my Primary tab, and with time, it would learn that behavior.
5) Archiving ...
IF GMAIL HAD SIMPLY REFEREED TO "ALL MAIL" AS "ARCHIVE" OR "MAIL ARCHIVE" IT WOULD LIKELY HAVE SIMPLIFIED THE COGNITIVE LIVES OF MILLIONS OF GMAIL USERS.
When you ARCHIVE an email in Gmail, all you are doing is REMOVING the INBOX System label from the database record. Since you are not replacing that label with SPAM or TRASH, it will always be accessible via the ALL MAIL view. By ARCHIVING an email, you are saying it is NOT SPAM and NOT TRASH, and it should be kept for easy access in future mail searches.
Furthermore, anytime you search Gmail, ALL MAIL is the default collection of mail that is searched (so it is your INBOX items and anything you have ARCHIVED, as well as all sent mail).
Spam and Trash have be searched specifically.
When you ARCHIVE an email in Gmail, all you are doing is REMOVING the INBOX System label from the database record. Since you are not replacing that label with SPAM or TRASH, it will always be accessible via the ALL MAIL view. By ARCHIVING an email, you are saying it is NOT SPAM and NOT TRASH, and it should be kept for easy access in future mail searches.
Furthermore, anytime you search Gmail, ALL MAIL is the default collection of mail that is searched (so it is your INBOX items and anything you have ARCHIVED, as well as all sent mail).
Spam and Trash have be searched specifically.
6) Right Click Menu -- Archive, Delete, Move to Tab, Mark as Unread
If you can tell from the sender, the subject, or the email preview that you want to ARCHIVE it or DELETE it, you can access a short cut menu by "right clicking" on the email. Likewise, if you'd like to train Gmail with Categories it missed, you can select "Move to Tab" (Social/Promotions). Marking as Unread will return the text on the line to Bold.
7) Reading an Email -- Archive, Delete, Report Spam
8) Reading an Email -- Folder and Labels
Gmail has incredibly powerful search systems. You want to try to use labels and folders (which are just labels) as little as possible. The only thing I stick in a folder are things that may be hard to group otherwise, like travel related documents from different vendors for an upcoming trip.
If you attempt to use Gmail as you used Outlook or Thunderbird or some other folder based system, you have no clue the level of organizational stress you are still carrying with each move. You need to start including more key words in the subject and body of your emails so those can become key to your indexing system.
FYI -- I NEVER APPLY FILTERS OR MOVE TO FOLDERS FROM THIS VIEW. The few times a week or month I move something to a folder, I go back to the inbox and then drag it to the folder of my choice. That just feels more natural and visual for me.
If you attempt to use Gmail as you used Outlook or Thunderbird or some other folder based system, you have no clue the level of organizational stress you are still carrying with each move. You need to start including more key words in the subject and body of your emails so those can become key to your indexing system.
FYI -- I NEVER APPLY FILTERS OR MOVE TO FOLDERS FROM THIS VIEW. The few times a week or month I move something to a folder, I go back to the inbox and then drag it to the folder of my choice. That just feels more natural and visual for me.
9) Reading an Email -- The More Menu...
Much like the Filters and Folders above, I NEVER do anything from the More Menu. The "filter messages like these" is a cool tool, but I typically just grab the from email address and put it in the search field and hit enter out of old habit.
10) Reading An Email -- Reply All
There is a setting in Gmail in which Reply becomes Reply All by default if more than one email address is relevant. I'd highly suggest changing that setting to default to "reply all". if not, you will invariably cut people out of your replies. If you want to start a partial conversation, I'd highly suggesting cutting and pasting the content into a new email string and starting a new string with partial email list.
The setting is covered in Setting up Gmail Section
The setting is covered in Setting up Gmail Section
11) Reading An Email -- Send and Archive
The Send and Archive button can be set to "show" on the Gear > Settings > General Tab.
I use this all the time. I view email conversations like a tennis match. Once I've returned the volley, the email generally does not need to be in my inbox. On a few occasions, I'll leave it in if I want a tickler to remind me the recipient hasn't responded in 24 hours or so.
I use this all the time. I view email conversations like a tennis match. Once I've returned the volley, the email generally does not need to be in my inbox. On a few occasions, I'll leave it in if I want a tickler to remind me the recipient hasn't responded in 24 hours or so.
12) Gmail -- Folders and Labels
A folder is really just a label filter in Gmail, so in that sense it is much different than Outlook and/or email of old. If there are two labels assigned to an email, it will show up in two folders.
As you can see below, I might have a total of 10 folders/labels I use and only about 4-5 of them are still very relevant... and I handle a lot of different business opportunities.
I keep labels I want to see on my main menu and I put all others under a label called "zzOther". The zz is just my way of putting it at the bottom of my primary list.
As you can see below, I might have a total of 10 folders/labels I use and only about 4-5 of them are still very relevant... and I handle a lot of different business opportunities.
I keep labels I want to see on my main menu and I put all others under a label called "zzOther". The zz is just my way of putting it at the bottom of my primary list.
13) The Notes Label...
In the image above, the "Notes" label is the third one down in the top box.
If you have set up your iphone to synch notes via Gmail, that is the folder where those notes will appear. That makes getting to that info and using it or editing it very easy.
An alternative to this is to simply send yourself an email with info.
If you have set up your iphone to synch notes via Gmail, that is the folder where those notes will appear. That makes getting to that info and using it or editing it very easy.
An alternative to this is to simply send yourself an email with info.
14) Summary...
If you get this far with using your Gmail Account, you will be a very efficient Gmail user. I've put some of what I consider to be Gmail Best Practices on another page in this website.