Is your GMail Inbox overloaded with messages? Have you tried using labels for your mail, but you find yourself buried in a cluttered Inbox anyway? Here is one way to keep that Inbox clean without missing mail!
By using labels, filters, and the Archive feature in GMail, you can keep your Inbox looking neat and keep your messages organized the way Outlook does! It's like creating folders and rules!
- find a message that you wish to apply this. For example, a message from your boss.
- click the checkbox to the LEFT of the message.
- click the drop-down menu named "More actions"
- choose "Filter messages like these". The "From:" should have your boss' email address filled in
- Click "Test Search" to make sure it only pulls messages from your boss
- Click "Next step"
- Check the "Skip Inbox" box
- Check the "Apply the label..." box, then in the drop-down select an existing label or create a new one. In GMail, "labels" can be used like folders in Outlook.
DO **NOT** create the filter yet!!
- Select the checkbox for "Also apply filter to XX messages"
- NOW, you can click the "Create Filter" button.
After a few moments (depending on how many messages this filter applies to), you will see a "Filter Created" message and then you will be returned to your Inbox.
Your boss' messages should be gone!! Oh no! Where'd they go!? Look on the left! See the label you just created? Click that, and you will see your boss' messages!
** Repeat the above steps for each type of messages you want to act like folders/rules. **
NOTE: You may have to play with some of the fields to get the results you want. For example, you may have to use the actual name of a listserv instead of the email address the messages come from. You can use any one or multiple fields in the filter creation section to narrow down the results.
Also note, I would only apply *ONE* label to any messages that I am putting through this procedure. I have no idea what happens if you try to archive with multiple labels. My gut tells me you would just have multiple ways to pull up the archived messages (like putting them into multiple folders), but I don't know that and I haven't tried it. Worst-case scenario is that if it doesn't work the way you want, you can always MANAGE FILTERS to edit or delete a filter you created.