Gmail is an outstanding email client with many features and shortcuts that most of us don’t even know exist. Today, we will cover some of these great Gmail tricks. Even if you consider yourself a Gmail expert, we are almost 100% confident you’ll find something new and exciting!

Tweaking Gmail’s New Layout

The new interface gives you a bit more control over the way your inbox looks, which means you can further customize Gmail to suit your preferences. Here are a few of the things you can do:

The Shift-Click

If you want to select several messages at once to move or delete, you don’t need to check every individual email box. Just check the topmost box of the first email you want to select then hold the “Shift” key down and check the last email you want to select. All the email in-between will also be selected.

Keyboard Shortcuts

You can navigate Gmail without even touching your mouse. To enable keyboard shortcuts click on the “General” tab in Gmail settings and then select the “Enable Keyboard Shortcuts.”

“K” moves up- use the “k” key to move your screen up while checking your Gmail.

“J” moves down – Use the “j” key to scroll down.

“o” opens your messages.

“s” allows you to star messages.

“!” lets you move a message to the spam folder

“e” saves a message

“#” deletes messages.

These are just a few of the keyboard shortcuts. You can see other keyboard shortcuts with a cheat sheet that appears by tapping the “Shift” and “+” or “/”.

Advanced Searches

Perform advanced searches in your inbox. For instances if you needed to find a message from Jason with a subject of “business app” then you would type the following: from: Jason subject: “business app” to find it. Below are a few more tips to help you search your email more efficiently:

• Click the down arrow in the “Show search options” in the search field.
• Search for names using “from:” followed by the name you are looking for.
• Search using “to” in front of the recipients name when you want to find email from a sender.
• Type “Subject” and then the subject term, when you want to find email with a particular subject.
• Search for a particular phrase within an email by adding quotation marks to the phrase when searching for it.
• Check the “Has attachment” box to list emails that only have attachments.

Labs

Go to Settings, click on the Labs tab, and be blown away.  There are a ton of useful feature, but my favorite is “Undo Send”.  It’s amazing. It gives you 5-30 seconds to undo sending any email you’re having second thoughts about.  I use it at least once a day!

3rd party add-ons

Finally, there are a million 3rd party plugins for Gmail. We highly recommend Rapportive and WriteThatName. And, of course, SaneBox works as well with Gmail as any other email service. 

We’ve only brushed the surface of Gmail tips and tricks, but implementing these will save you time and reduce the daily hassle you experience with your inbox. Have fun!

 

Sincerely, 

The SaneBox Team