Top 20 Gmail hacks

There can be no two opinions that Google reigns supreme when it comes to searches and Gmail does the same in email arena. With the Gmail rolling out new features almost every week, things are getting better and better. Regarding this, we had come across an awesome formula: Gmail+labs =endless possibilities, that inspired us to compose the Top 10 Gmail Labs Applications. Well, those of you using Gmail as your main email are always in search of hacks that could turn you into a super-user. That took us an extensive  groundwork to present Top 20 Gmail hacks.

1. Find out who gives away your email address

There are certain sites that are most likely to spam you if you register with them.Like say the shopping sites, they are infamous for that dirty job. What could be the shortest way to see the site which is responsible for this? There’s an easy hack to get rid of these spams. Just create an alias email. To do that simply put + sign after the account name and add words.

For instance, if your username is averia@gmail and you entered a site onlinepurchases.com, change your username to averia+onlinepurchasescom@gmail.

If you search Gmail for averia+onlinepurchases@gmail you can see all massages that were sent to that email address. Click the show details link to seek the complete address. Eventually these mails can be filtered to the spam or even to the trash.

2. Missing out the dot

There are a lot of Gmail users and even me, who use dots to differentiate the username of the account. But, there are also those who often forget where they had exactly put the dot between the name. Now what most of you never paid heed to is that you can do without the dots when accessing your Gmail account. That implies, if you have an account name jeniffer.ani.ston@gmail you can access your account even without the dots by simply entering jenifferaniston@gmail and your password. Further you can also use this hack to filter the emails.

3. Using Gmail Offline

Now you can even access your email on your Google mail or Gmail account being offline. Although it does’t allow all the Gmail features, but comes handy when your internet connection is down due to some disturbences. In order to experience Gmail offline you need to do the following

- TO begin you’ll require a supported browser(firefox) and install the Google Gears on your system.
- Go to Labs under settings tab of Gmail account
- Enable Offline Gmail and save the changes
- A new Offline 0.1 link will appear on the the upper righthand corner of your account
- Click this link to start the offline set up process

4. Fetching message from another account

Suppose you have an old account or any other account and you want to retrieve the messages on that account in Gmail. For this you need to do what’s below

• Go to the Settings, then the Accounts tab
• Choose Add another mail account
• You will be prompted for the email address. Enter the email address in the given textbox. After you enter the email address a new page opens that requests your password and, the POP server address for that account. Enter the password and POP server address (These information are provided in your email provider’s documentation).
• Click on Add Account
• Next time you open your Account you will be able to read the messages from your old account.

5. Undo an email already send

This is one the recent developements in Gmail. Now you can undo the mail you have sent to a friend. We had the Undo method in our blog.

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6. Fast loading Gmail

Think of a situation where you are running out of time and you need to check in a vital information in your account. Adding to your woes you have a slow connection. That’s when you curse the slow Gmail loading. Well, you can get Gmail loaded 20% faster. There are two ways you can do it - loading the basic HTML and loading the mobile Gmail

i) Loading the basic HTML

For loading basic HTML while you are signing in into the Gmail account you would see that on the right bottom there’s a message saying  Loading standard View | Load Basic HTML (for slow connections). Click on the Load basic HTML.

To load Gmail 50% faster everytime you log in click on the Set basic HTML as default view.

ii) Mobile Gmail

This doesn’t necessarily need a Mobile phone to view Gmail. Type the following in your browser’s address bar
m.gmail.com without any https:// or www. This is a fast and simple way to access the Gmail account.

7. Sending EXE or DLL files via Gmail

Now Gmail blocks most of the executable filetypes as a part of virus protection. Suppose you need to send an EXE or DLL file urgently. For this you need to use the Dropsend. Remember you cannot send more than five files per month for free.

8. Creating a Google Calendar Event from a Message in Gmail

Suppose you get an email that with an important event to attend. The best way to remind you of that is to get the message on your calender.
For that you need follow this

• Open the email that contains the event
• In the right column look for the Add to calendar link and click it.

In case the Add to calendar link does not appear, Gmail has not recognized anything to schedule.

• You can enable it manually. To do it follow this
• Enter any missing details and guests
• Click Save Changes
• In case you have added new guests’ email addresses, decide whether you want to invite them by email.
• Close the event window

9. Attach files quickly

DragDropUpload is a handy firefox extension for Gmail. Using this you can quickly attach one or more files to your emails by dragging them over the Attach a file link.

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10. Auto-forward received Gmail

If you are using your Gmail account as main account and want to auto-forwarded some or all email to your other email accounts, here’s the hack. There are two options for this All or Selective.

For ALL forwarding

• To forward all the emails to another email account you need to do what follows
• Click on the Settings
• Click on the Forwarding tab
• Click on the Enable email forwarding option
• Enter the email to which you want to forward the emails
• Select any one of the actions below from the dropdown

-keep Gmail’s copy in the Inbox
-archive Gmail’s copy
-trash Gmail’s copy

After the steps are completed all the received emails will be forwarded to another email address. Action will be taken on the received emails according to your defined action.

For Selective forwarding

Using the Forward it to: emailaddress action you can forward the emails based on filter criteria. You may use the same or different email addresses.

11. Block a sender in Gmail

Do you have a nagging sender who is always dumping his antics in your inbox? Here’s how you can block the sender

• At the top of the Gmail mailbox you can find Create a filter link
• Type the desired email address under From
• To block all mail from a sender with name arthur@example.com  just type @example.com. In order to block more than one sender separate them with | symbol.
• Click Next Step
• Under the Choose action check the Delete it option
• Click Create Filter
• Check Also apply filter to __ conversations below to delete previously received messages.

12. Apply color code for labels

To differentiate the labels you need to click on the square next to a label name in the sidebar box of Label. Now pick the color from the pop -up swatch  and assign it to the label.

13. Mute a conversation

It often happens that you are subscribed to a mailing list and the current conversation which you are not interested in. Now, if you want to stop the spam without unsubscribing, use the Gmail mute function. To do this select a message in the thread and hit the m key to auto-archive all the incoming messages in the conversation. The thread will be muted. You can unmute the thread when you need.

For more

14. Create an RSS feed in Gmail

To create an RSS feed from your Gmail account you can use this syntax
https://username:password@gmail.google.com/gmail/feed/atom

Now sign in for a FeedBurner home account to host and distribute it.

15. Unblock Gmail

In certain places like in some schools or work places Gmail access may be blocked. Using the Unlock tool you can access the Gmail even if it is blocked.

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16. Managing Multiple addresses

Gmails allows you to set up several Gmail accounts with different email addresses for different tasks and receive all the emails from a single account. You can add any any POP compatible email account to your Gmail account. For instance you can have separate Gmail accounts for friends, family and work,  but all the messages from different account will be send to the same inbox.

17. Labels to Organize the emails

Your Gmail inbox must be loaded with heaps of emails. Gmail doesn’t allow you to creste folders to organize the emails but you can surely use the Lables. To do this select a post in the main window, and click on the More Actions drop down menu and choose the New Label.

18. GmailTo

This application allows your mailto links to open in Gmail

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19.  Gmail keyboard shortcuts

To get faster with Gmail you need to master the shortcut keys. With the shortcuts you can compose, mark as read, archive and much more just by pressing a few keys. Here’s the list of shortcuts you need to use

Gmail shortcuts

20. Customize Gmail

CustomizeGoolgle is a firefox add on using which you can do a numbers of modification to your Gmail account. This add on helps to removes ads,  hides the spam counter, quick contacts box, invite box and enables fixed font. It allows you to switch from http to https.

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