the 1 GB road, with yahoo jumping in the bandwagon too. But gmail is a
gig ahead and counting, so no one will ever catch up. 2 GB and some
seems like more space than you will ever use, but there is much more
to gmail than just the ever expanding inbox size, most of them aren't
noticed because gmail, being in beta testing gives the illusion that
it is also primitive. For example, gmail HAS rich text formatting
(look just above your compose text area) with the unique feature of
indenting more and less. Here are some more cool things you can do
with your e-mail account.
Using filters to auto-forward
Gmail has really good filter options, which hardly take any time to
set up. Once you configure the usual from and to fields, and add a
label to add, you are ready to go. But gmail also came up with
'contains the words' and 'does not contain the words' filters (shortly
thereafter, yahoo filters also got the same capabilities). Now, if you
want to automatically forward all the forwards that you recieve, to
the friends on your usual forward list, select the create filter
option just above your inbox. Leave all the other fields blank except
the subject field and enter the words "fwd" there. Once this is done,
click on next step, check the "forward it to" option and enter the
e-mail addresses of the people you want to forward it to. This way,
all the forwards you get automatically get circulated. You might want
to add another filter with an "fw" in the subject field. Also, if you
tweak around a bit, you have the option to forward only mails with
attachments, or only mails without attachments.
And more importantly, you also have the option of directly trashing
all forwards.
Using labels to organize better
The labels feature is so good in gmail, that you will start needing a
similar feature in windows too. Instead of sorting the mail into
different folders, gmail gives you the flexible option of applying
labels to your mails, so each mail can have a number of labels, and
when you click on the list of all the labels you have used in the
sidebar, the particular mail shows up. Unlike yahoo, the number of
total labels or the number of labels per mail are not limited. For
example, a forward from coolxyz18@something.com can be labeled as both
"forwards" and "friends." If you want to take the trouble, you can
also create labels like "friends, non-forwards", "friends -
forwards"... you get the picture right?
Using the shortcut keys
First you need to activate these, because they are not activated by
default. This can be done in settings>general. Once done, go back to
the inbox, and try these things out. Once you get used to using
shortcuts, gmail will be a much faster experience. These are the most
frequently used shortcuts. While you are reading a conversation,
(messages are called conversations in gmail) press j immediately after
you finish reading, and the next conversation appears before you can
blink. Use k to work your way backwards through the mails. The c key
opens up the compose box, and pressing c along with any old e-mail
address will surprise you. Just try it. Shift and c to retain your
view of the inbox while composing in a new window. Just type gc and
wait for two seconds, and the contacts page will open up.
These shortcuts do not work if you are writing something in a text
field (like the to: field, or the text area for a message)
Anything else you can dream of
Yeah that's claiming a bit too much, but if you want gmail to do
something, and it can't, then you can always head over to
https://services.google.com/
feature. That's what beta testing is for.
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