Kim Siever’s Blog

GMail Folders

By Kim Siever, 24 May 05

I love using GMail. It’s easy to use and is accessible from home and work. Plus it has more disk space than Hotmail and doesn’t use up room on my computer. I moved all of my mailing lists over to GMail.

One thing I noticed after moving all the mailing lists over was the absence of folders in GMail. I have become very attached to mail folders to organise my email in Outlook, and I was disappointed that this functionality was not available in GMail. That is until I found a workaround. Here’s the process I use.

  1. Create a new label (i.e. CSS-D) by clicking on “Edit labels” in the Labels panel or going to “Settings”
  2. In Settings, click on “Filters”
  3. Click on “Create a new filter”
  4. Type in mailing list prefix (i.e. [css-d]) in subject field and press “Next step”
  5. Make sure “Skip the Inbox” is checked and select the new label from the “Apply the label” dropdown
  6. Select “Create Filter”

Your Labels panel will now act as a folder list. This filter will prevent mailing list messages from showing up in the GMail Notifier. This would be a benefit to some and a detriment to others.

I’ve since become attached to labels and now prefer them to folders. One of the benefits is being able to store messages under multiple labels rather than being stuck with a single folder.

Either way, there you go. I hope you find this useful.

UPDATE (03 Jan 2006): This post was listed on digg.com. Digg it.


Link | Comments (51)

51 comments »

  1. Thanks this worked wonderfully just wondering how to create mailing lists now.

    Comment by Marc — 18 Oct 05 @ 6:03

  2. [...] GMail Mailing Lists and Groups Some of my readers are familiar with my post on GMail Folders that shows a workaround for the seemingly absent email folders that abound [...]

    Pingback by Hot Pepper Blog » GMail Mailing Lists and Groups — 20 Oct 05 @ 10:51

  3. GMail Mailing Lists and Groups

    There you go, Marc.

    Comment by Kim Siever — 20 Oct 05 @ 10:55

  4. i have forgotten my gmail id . i want to get it back . i have secondry email address ( wajid_zaman@hotmail.com ) . plz send informations about gmail account related to this secondry email id .

    Comment by Wajid — 26 Oct 05 @ 11:15

  5. Virtual Folders: Labels.

    Great concept and love it to an extent.

    My brother and I were just talking about how Google has been a pioneer in the advertisement category and everything they do they do it with a flare for innovation. He was telling me how Google Inc. is coming up with its own version of PayPal.

    Well great for the Google’s shareholders, however, I am not sure how it would impact everything. I mean, you guys actually don’t care what your customers are saying. You come up with your innovations, regardless if the end user appreciates it or not. Reckon that’s been your recipe of success.

    Yes I am being bashful as I have complaint about the fact that Google’s Virtual Folders are great but they are a bloody pain in the rear. Why? Cause it leaves the inbox extremely cluttered. One critical thing that the geniuses didn’t understand was that FOLDERs are crucial to a tidy inbox and it makes email accounts much more accessible. Reckon these guys actually don’t have filling cabinets, and even if they do they probably have never used Folders, rather “sticky notes”, for reference with their physical files and paperwork. In an electronic world Folders are place holders and also they are SLEEVES to hide and store emails or files. Imagine having VIRTUAL FOLDERS, aka LABELS, to identify and tag (not store) all the files on a computer… everything right there in C:// Drive rather than individual folders; that’s Gmail’s version of reality. Thank God Google Inc. did not write Windows!!!

    Regards,

    A terribly dissatisfied customer

    Lucky K Bhasin

    Comment by Lucky Bhasin — 7 Nov 05 @ 10:00

  6. When you create your filter for your label, make sure it’s archived. Then it leaves the Inbox. I receive hundreds of email every day and have only a handful of messages in my Inbox.

    Comment by Kim Siever — 7 Nov 05 @ 17:52

  7. I have been using Gmail for a few months now and not having folders has been driving me crazy. Thank you so much for the tip!

    Comment by Rosie — 11 Aug 06 @ 16:51

  8. Labels are much better than folders because it lets you have messages in more than one “folder” at the same time.

    Comment by Kim Siever — 11 Aug 06 @ 17:17

  9. This is brilliant, thanks for the tip!

    Comment by Ann — 30 Aug 06 @ 6:09

  10. Thank you! This is really helpful! I think that I’m beginning to like labels.

    Comment by Marcus — 30 Aug 06 @ 12:24

  11. Fantastic tip, a definite fix and once you start doing it, the labels work well as folders.

    Comment by Scubamaniac — 31 Aug 06 @ 19:34

  12. If you want to classify your mail manually, Label a specific mail, then archive it manually. Same as folders.

    Comment by Manual folder — 1 Sep 06 @ 14:35

  13. Labels will not work this way as you showed us. If your subject text is not known ahead of time (and many of mine are not) then you cannot move the msg into a label because it still says in the InBox and clutters it.

    Folders are needed and it was short sided of Google to design Gmail this way. Millions of users are used to having Folders; why on earth would you design an email client without them?

    Ralph
    http://www.pmissues.com

    Comment by rfresh — 6 Sep 06 @ 12:18

  14. In those cases, you can use the drop down menu to apply specific labels.

    Comment by Kim Siever — 6 Sep 06 @ 13:13

  15. Funny how all this talk of labels and such is old news for Opera M2 mail users. They had this concept a long time ago and it’s cool to see someone like Google embrace it.

    Comment by jason — 10 Sep 06 @ 17:40

  16. Technically, it’s old news for Gmail users as well since it’s been available for over 2.5 years now. :)

    Comment by Kim Siever — 10 Sep 06 @ 19:49

  17. Labels are good to have if it additional feature but without folders it really sucks! Google should consider giving an option of folders for those who want use folders.

    Comment by llBee — 19 Oct 06 @ 7:31

  18. Folders are a terrible way to organise mail. Labels are much more powerful (being able to “store” messages in multiple locations, for example). Folders are so 20th century.

    Comment by Kim Siever — 19 Oct 06 @ 7:36

  19. [...] I have been using delicious to keep track of links for a while and this was the second time i was ‘forced’ into tagging. the first time i was forced into using tagging was with the release of gmail. gmail was quite revolutionary in that instead of offering its users folders in which they could sort and store email messages, they had NO folders and were given ‘labels’, which were essentially just a different word for TAGS. There was a little bit of backlash, some irritation, and some praise when google released its gmail sans folders. one rebel, even ‘deciphered’ a way of still having folders… or so she thought… this is tagging still miss kim. I also use an online file storage application called esnips which incorporates tagging for files as well (and folders tooooo!)   [...]

    Pingback by Tag=Cataloging « LIS 757 — 24 Oct 06 @ 17:31

  20. [...] I have been using delicious to keep track of links for a while and this was the second time i was ‘forced’ into tagging. the first time i was forced into using tagging was with the release of gmail. gmail was quite revolutionary in that instead of offering its users folders in which they could sort and store email messages, they had NO folders and were given ‘labels’, which were essentially just a different word for TAGS. There was a little bit of backlash, some irritation, and some praise when google released its gmail sans folders. one rebel, even ‘deciphered’ a way of still having folders… or so she thought… this is tagging still miss kim. I also use an online file storage application called esnips which incorporates tagging for files as well (and folders tooooo!)   like i said in my last post, tagging is the new folders… hmmm that doesn’t sound particularly grammatically correct… but ya know… I am taking LIS 502 this semester and when we were learning Library of COngress Subject Headings, and all their confusion and rigidity assigning supplementary subject headings… for example,  a textbook on electricity could have an entire chapter or more devoted to magnetism… in subject headings, this becomes somewhat difficult to catalogue, and often times in the past, the book would have been catalogued by its primary subject heading ONLY, completely disregarding the chapter on magnetism    Kroski states in her article:  “The wisdom of crowds, the hive mind, and the collective intelligence are doing what heretofore only expert catalogers, information architects and website authors have done. They are categorizing and organizing the Internet and determining the user experience, and it’s working. ” By permitting tagging within the OPAC, we could capture these other subjects that are covered in works that are more often than not, disregarded entirely. imagine the fine-grain categorization that could be applied to each work… if you read a book on firetrucks, and they had a particularly indepth look at firehoses in chapter 2, you could tag the book with ‘firehoses’…. then anyone searching for ‘firehoses’ would come across your tag, and consequently, the book on firetrucks with the rich chapter on firehoses!! Posted by roldham Filed in Uncategorized [...]

    Pingback by Tag=Cataloging « LIS 757 — 24 Oct 06 @ 17:33

  21. [...] I have been using delicious to keep track of links for a while and this was the second time i was ‘forced’ into tagging. the first time i was forced into using tagging was with the release of gmail. gmail was quite revolutionary in that instead of offering its users folders in which they could sort and store email messages, they had NO folders and were given ‘labels’, which were essentially just a different word for TAGS. There was a little bit of backlash, some irritation, and some praise when google released its gmail sans folders. one rebel, even ‘deciphered’ a way of still having folders… or so she thought… this is tagging still miss kim. I also use an online file storage application called esnips which incorporates tagging for files as well (and folders tooooo!)   [...]

    Pingback by LIS 757 — 24 Oct 06 @ 17:34

  22. Thanx..it worked.

    Comment by Lorenz — 14 Dec 06 @ 3:30

  23. I’ve been reading all these comments with lots of interest and fully agree with Lucky K Bhasin.

    I’m also one of those users who keep their Inbox tidy by regularly classifying every incoming mail into an appropriate folder.

    Now, with Gmail it is possible to perform the classification by means of labels (and that’s also the way I’m using it) but there’s no way to keep the Inbox empty.

    This is maybe the missing feature that should be added to the interface. A choice the user could make to display only unlabeled conversations in the Inbox. That way, I think everybody would be satisfied, whether they need folders or not.

    Comment by Paco — 11 Jan 07 @ 6:58

  24. Once you’ve applied your label(s), check the box beside the email and press the Archive button. A nice, tidy inbox yet again.

    Comment by Kim Siever — 11 Jan 07 @ 8:55

  25. Who needs folders when you have the google search engine to search old emails. Archive all the messages that you’ve read to “unclutter” your inbox and then if you need one later, search for a few key words that the email was about and up it pops in milliseconds! Gone are the days of searching for needles in an email folder.

    Comment by Em — 16 Jan 07 @ 17:38

  26. I understand the archive and label concepts, but I still think they are illogical. (for the user).

    It takes me one step to click and drag an email to a folder. It takes like 12 steps for me to organize them according to gmail procedures. Isn’t the shortest distance between two points a straight line?

    Although I use my gmail account most frequently now, I hold on to my old hotmail account for orgnanization (and I never thought I’d be defending a Microsoft product!)

    Comment by Melissa — 21 Mar 07 @ 19:26

  27. 12 steps?

    1. Click on checkbox.
    2. select label from dropdown
    3. Press Archive button.

    The only way you need 12 steps is if you want to add it to nine folders, which Outlook/Hotmail cannot do.

    Comment by Kim Siever — 22 Mar 07 @ 5:45

  28. Question: If you set up the label in the manner described above, if you get a NEW email that has that label will the new email still appear in your INBOX? Thanks. Peggy

    Comment by Peggy — 16 Apr 07 @ 10:35

  29. As long as you don’t leave out step #5.

    Comment by Kim Siever — 16 Apr 07 @ 12:12

  30. Hang on a second!

    I can’t apply more than one label in step #5.

    Do you know a workaround for this?

    Comment by Tahir — 22 Apr 07 @ 14:00

  31. Oooops!

    I figured out how. You create another filter for the same subject/address/etc and you apply a different label in this filter.

    Comment by Tahir — 22 Apr 07 @ 14:02

  32. Hi,
    All of u, i have small enquiry about folders in gmail. as we used folders in yahoomail and rediffmail to make seperate mails from indbox like friends,family.. i want to know how to save mails from inbox and make seperate folders fot friends and family etc…thanks reply and help me

    Comment by abdul sami — 30 May 07 @ 8:06

  33. Read the post and comments, abdul, for directions.

    Comment by Kim Siever — 30 May 07 @ 15:46

  34. Thank you for this info about folders :)

    Comment by Kostadin — 19 Jul 07 @ 6:54

  35. One thing frustrating about making folders using labels is that they don’t behave like “real” folders if you access GMail using an e-mail client (Outlook Thunderbird) instead of the web.

    The only way to use POP3 with GMail is to use your GMail as a big giant inbox and download to your local system for off line “filing” of only the most pertinent mail (archiving all the rest on GMail).

    that’s my view anyway

    Comment by GMail-TBird user — 23 Jul 07 @ 15:03

  36. [...] think its called label… it works like folder… gmail folder __________________ Forever Jewelry || Precious [...]

    Pingback by Can we make mail folder ? - Google Community — 3 Sep 07 @ 8:06

  37. hey bro… thanks a million.. that worked wonderfully… now its easier and convenient.. thanks once again..

    Comment by muba — 4 Oct 07 @ 10:40

  38. My pleasure

    Comment by Kim Siever — 4 Oct 07 @ 12:39

  39. Thanks for this! I’ve been searching on how to do this forever. I hated having all my listserv conversations in my inbox, cluttering it up for me to see past them to my important customer emails! Now I can just click on the label for my mail groups and read them at my leisure :) Great job!

    Comment by beejereeno — 26 Oct 07 @ 11:15

  40. Glad you liked it, and thanks for commenting.

    Comment by Kim Siever — 26 Oct 07 @ 11:17

  41. Thanks for the tip!

    A latecomer to gmail.

    Comment by Chris — 2 Jan 08 @ 14:42

  42. Since Gmail refuses to let the user decide if they want to use folders or not, I am sticking with Yahoo for most of my stuff until they decide to let us have the freedom to do so.

    Comment by Ari — 20 Feb 08 @ 19:59

  43. That’s your prerogative, but why you’d want to abandon a flexible system like labels (that can function perfectly fine as folders) for an archaic archiving system is beyond me.

    Comment by Kim Siever — 20 Feb 08 @ 22:18

  44. Thank you so much! This solution is so simple and fast that it is beyond me how I didn’t think of it my self. I was tired of newsletter mails cluttering my inbox even though they were being filtered by labels.

    Comment by Kemal — 12 Mar 08 @ 6:57

  45. It works perfectly. Thanks…

    Comment by Saravanaa — 14 Aug 08 @ 0:10

  46. This was so perfect. I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to use Gmail for a business email.

    Comment by Jeff — 10 Sep 08 @ 23:38

  47. nice info!

    Comment by gadget_freak — 15 Apr 09 @ 13:02

  48. thanks for the info mate. Appreciate it

    Comment by amandeep — 19 May 09 @ 6:14

  49. My pleasure.

    Comment by Kim Siever — 19 May 09 @ 7:45

  50. hi
    thanks a lot that was rreally helpful

    Comment by sudarshan — 25 Aug 09 @ 4:52

  51. Great tip, saved me allot of sifting through mail

    Comment by beave — 23 Sep 09 @ 6:53

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