Gmail Rules / Filters

You should create email message rules (filters) in Gmail (not in Outlook). Here's a good way to do it.

1. Select the email you want to filter, then click the "..." and filter messages.

2. It picks the from email usually, automatically. You can add more detail, such as a word in the subject line. Here we copy paste SIMU.  It is important that the words you want filtered are spelled correctly. Last step here:  Click on Create Filter.

3. Skip the inbox (always choose this). Apply the label--- which folder you want it to go into. Optional: apply to other existing emails

You are done.

You can create rule from scratch, but it's best to learn it this way first.

Vacation Responder

Vacation or out of office settings should be done via Gmail and NOT Outlook.

Log in to your email on a web browser at www.gmail.com

Click the gear icon
Settings
Then go to the bottom of the general tab.
Make changes
Save changes. Button at the bottom of the page

Done.

Templates or predefined text or whatever you want to call it.

Gmail gives you the ability to insert predefined text into a new email, forward or a reply email.


First you need to turn the feature on. In Gmail, go to the settings gear icon --> Advanced --> Templates and enable them.

To set up a template:

To use a template

Click the three dots, then choose which template to insert.

Edit/Modify Then Send

After you insert the template you can edit the email (if needed, e.g. you might change the date and count) Then add recipients and send it on its way

Keyboard Shortcuts

Action	Shortcut	Notes
Go to Inbox	g + i
Go to All mail	g + a	All mail is, well, all your mail (less spam and trash). Go here if you can't find a message in the regular places.
Go to Contacts	g + c
Go to Tasks	g + k
Go to Next Message	k	(down/older)
Go to Previous Message	j	(up/newer)
Delete	#	I do miss using the delete key, but can get used to this
Reply	r
Reply all	a
Forward	f
Reply or Reply All or Forward in a new window	Shift + r or a or f	Working in a bigger window is sometimes just necessary
Undo last action	z	Hey, i just tried this after deleting a message and it brought the message back
Mark as read	Shift + i
Mark as unread	Shift + u
Add conversation to Tasks	Shift + t	A todo list, that's how I use my tasks
Open a message in new windows	Shift + mouse click	OK, it is not really a true keyboard shortcut, but worth a mention

Drag and Drop or Drag and Drop

You can drag and drop files on top of an email message.  These can be PDFs, pictures, etc.  One trick I learned today is you can drag a picture in the body and hey, it shows in the body of the email. Or you can drag and drop a picture toward the bottom (near the paper clip), then the  picture will be an attachment. The first screen shot below, shows one picture in the body and one attached. Not that you'd ever do that, but I'm just showin'....

Gmail even displays a little message at the bottom (I highlighted in yellow).  

Google is Search, Gmail is Google, Search Your Email with Gmail/Google

Are you having issues searching your Outlook emails? Is your IT person too busy to fix your problem?

Try searching your email with Google within a browser window.  It is wicked fast and smart and always available.

https://mail.google.com      ---   Most likely you are already logged in

You can search right in the search box or if you want to get fancy with some details like FROM or SIZE....Click on the small arrow.

Now you have more tools to search.

Still want your Outlook email search to work? Ask your IT person to rebuild the windows index file. He will do it, I heard he's pretty nice.

CheatSheet

Newer items will show up at the top

• Format a table in an email. Unfortunately Gmail does not keep the "table format" if you copy paste from Excel. A quick work-around is to copy from Excel,  open Sheets, paste into a blank sheet, then copy from there into Gmail.  If you have Gmail, you have Sheets (Google's spreadsheet). If you need help getting to it, ask Steve.
  

• Edit an existing subject line  I like to be a good net-citizen and sometimes update subject lines. To do this, click on the arrow and choose "edit subject".
  
• Show/Hide Text Formatting  See the "A" in the screen show...Sometimes I get claustrophobic and want more space, it took me a minute to realize you can toggle the formatting bar to show or hide it.
  
  
• Preview Pane (like Outlook) Log into Gmail, click the gear icon, top right area, go to settings and go to labs. Enable Preview Pane and click the Save button at the bottom of the window.
  
  Then back in your email listing. Click the
  new "split" button next to the gear icon (top right area).
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• When you reply to yourself, the reply message will NOT go into your inbox, but it will be in the sent folder
   
• May 17: There is a label named "All Mail". This contains all mail (except spam and trash). FYI, you will find your replied email in here (but not in the inbox)