Oftentimes, we see individuals migrating from Outlook. These poeple tend to want to create folders for each type of mesage, so that they can quickly find what they’re looking for. For example, they’ll create a folder called “boss@mycompany.com” that will receive all messages that they receive from their boss. That way, when they require a message from their boss, they’ll be able to find it manually. This can get rather extreme, with hundreds of folder where there might only need to be 10.
In Gmail, folder management just isn’t necessary, due to the power search engine. All you need to figure out is how to search your emails the correct way. If you still want to create a folder for a certain contact, you can do so with labels. This post will show you how.
To Find An Email, Just Search!
For example, to find emails from “boss@mycompany.com”, enter:
from:boss@mycompany.com in the search box and you have all the emails you are looking for, sorted by date.
This search can be done using a partial match so you can do:
from:boss
OR
from:robert
as well.
Suppose you are looking for a certain file attachment your boss has sent you. To find just those emails with an attachment, use the following:
from:boss@mycompany.com has:attachment
What if you’ve just remembered that the email had a PDF attachment? You can search for emails from your boss with a PDF attachment:
from:boss@mycompany.com filename:pdf
You also remember that the email was sent yesterday or day before yesterday. Just search for emails that are newer than 4 days!
from:boss@mycompany.com filename:pdf newer_than:4d
See, you can find the email in minutes using search just by applying some smart techniques!
Grouping Emails By Using a Filter and a Label
If you still want something close to a group folder, here is the technique:
Start by searching for the contact. For example:
from:robert.langton
- Now, click on the small down arrow next to to search box. From the drop-down, click “create filter”.
- In the next page, select add label and create a label name
- If you want so, you can enable “apply this filter to existing messages'”option as well.
- Finish creating the filter.
- Now you will be able to see the label to your left. All the mails from that contact will appear under that label.
See The Demo Below:
