20 Essential Gmail Tips You Probably Don't Use (but Should!)

Posted 12/24/2009 at 10:00am | by Paul Lilly

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Remember when webmail used to be synonymous with AOL? Boy has the Internet grown up since then, and lucky for us, a little company called Google came along and changed not just how we surf the web, but also how we communicate with each other. We're of course referring to Gmail, Google's nearly six-year-old webmail service that only recently shed its beta tag.

For most of you, we're probably preaching to the choir and you already own at least one Gmail account, if not several. And with good reason, too. Google's now-infamous email service offers oodles of storage space (over 7GB and counting), excellent spam detection, built-in chat, awesome search capabilities, a ton of customization options, and a whole lot more. But even with all that it offers out of the box, are you making the most out your Gmail account?

That's where we come in. We show you everything you need to know to wield Gmail like a pro. Need to access Gmail offline? How about automating canned responses for quick-fire emails? Want to set up Gmail on your own domain? We'll walk you through all of these, plus a whole lot more essential tweaks and tips that most people are just too lazy to use.

Learn to Use Keyboard Shortcuts

You've heard the expression that you need to learn to crawl before you can walk, and when it comes to Gmail, you'll be ahead of the game if you learn how to use keyboard shortcuts before diving into more advanced options. To enable keyboard shortcuts, click on Settings and mark the 'Keyboard shortcuts on' radial button.

Now that you have this feature turned on, here's a sampling of what you can do with it:

• c: Compose a new message. Hold Shift +c to compose a message in a new window
• Tab+Enter: Send a message
• k: Move cursor to a more recent conversation
• j: Move cursor to the next oldest conversation
• n: Move cursor to the next message
• o or Enter: Opens your conversation
• x: Selects the current conversation
• e: Archives selected conversation
• !: Marks current conversation as spam
• r: Reply
• a: Reply to all
• g then i: Go to the Inbox
• g then a: Go to "All mail"
• g then k: Opens Tasks and switches the focus to it

There's a lot more shortcuts to learn, all of which you can reference here.

One shortcut that's not on the list, however, is a keyboard combo that opens up a simple version of Snake. But you'll first need to enable this one under Gmail Labs. Click on Settings>Labs. Scroll down until you see Old Snakey and mark the Enable radio button. Press the Saved Settings button all the way at the bottom, and then just mash the & key (Shift+7) to fire up this classic time waster!

Import Your Contacts from Outlook (and other Mail Apps)

Kudos to you if you can remember the email address for everyone in your Address Book. That gets pretty difficult when you start dealing with dozens of contacts, let alone hundreds or even thousands, and who wants to sit around and retype all that info? The good news is, in most cases you won't have to when making the switch to Gmail.

Like many email clients and services, Gmail supports the Comma Separated Values (CSV) file format. This makes it easy to transfer your Outlook contacts over to Gmail. In Outlook, click on File>Import and Export. Choose 'Export to a file' and press Next. Choose 'Comma Separated Values (Windows),' which should be the second entry down, as depicted above.

By default, Outlook seems to assume you want to export your mail and automatically scrolls down to your Inbox. But what we're after are all the email addresses, so scroll up and highlight Contacts, and then click on Next.

Choose a location for the file you're about to save and give it a name, like OutlookContacts. Click Next>Finish and wait a few seconds while Outlook composes the file.

Now that you have your CSV file, sign in to Gmail and click on Contacts. You should see three links at the top of the Contacts window: Import, Export, and Print. Click on Import>Browse and select your CSV file. Note that before mashing the Import button, you can choose to import your contacts to an existing group or create a new one by clicking the related checkbox. Once you're ready, press Import.

Use this same method for any service or client which allows you to export your contacts to a CSV file. If you have a Yahoo email account, for example, click on the Contacts tab and select Export from the Tools pull-down menu. Press the Export Now button next to Yahoo! CSV, type in the CAPTCHA code, and Yahoo will automatically begin exporting your addresses. Then it's just a matter of importing the file into Gmail as outlined above.

Sign Out Remotely (and Discover Who's Been Using Your Account)

It doesn't matter whether we're sitting at the library or fixing Uncle Pete's PC. If we're sitting in front of a computer, we're probably going to check our Gmail to see if we have any urgent messages. That's fine, but what if you forget to sign out? The next person that uses the PC will able to jump into your account and read all of your conversations. Even worse, that person could send out emails on your behalf and create all kinds of chaos. And all because you forgot to sign out.

Don't sweat it, Google has your back. Scroll down below your inbox and take note of the Details URL. Right next to it, Google tells you when the last account activity took place, and from which IP it originated from.

When you click on the Details link, a new window pops up with more detailed information about any recent activity that occurred on your account, including the IP address, date and time, and even the access type (browser, mobile, POP3, SMTP, and so forth).

In addition to your armchair investigation, this is also where you're able to sign out of your account remotely. Just click on the 'Sign out all other sessions' buttons and it will be like you never forgot to log off at all!