How to Organize Labels in Google Mail
How to Organize Labels in Google Mail
Labels are Google's version of folders. They do everything that folders do, except you can apply more than one label to a message. You can organize what and how labels appear in the mail sidebar in a variety of ways.
Show/Hide Labels
Google sets up "system labels," including "Important," "Drafts," "Starred," and more, so if there are ones that you won't use often or at all, you can choose to hide them from the sidebar. You can also hide custom labels.
- In Google Mail, click the gear-shaped "Settings" icon on the top right of the screen and click 鈥淪ee All Settings鈥 from the resulting menu.
- Click the "Labels" tab.
- Click "show" or "hide" next to each label to determine whether it will be shown in the sidebar of your mail screen.
Move Labels to/from the "More" Section
Another way to organize labels is by placing labels you don鈥檛 use often in the 鈥淢ore鈥 section of the label sidebar. To view the 鈥淢ore鈥 section, click 鈥淢ore鈥 immediately below your labels. To hide the 鈥淢ore鈥 section, click 鈥淟ess.鈥
- To move a label to the 鈥淢ore鈥 sidebar section, hover over the desired label and click and drag it to the word 鈥淢ore.鈥 If the 鈥淢ore鈥 section is open, drag the label anywhere beneath the word 鈥淟ess.鈥
- To move a label from the 鈥淢ore鈥 sidebar section, hover over the desired label and click and drag the label anywhere above the word 鈥淟ess.鈥
Order Labels
Google Mail does not allow you to simply drag labels to where you want them to be in the sidebar. But because Google Mail orders labels alphabetically and numerically, you can add either a letter or a number to the beginning of each label to make Google Mail order them as desired.
- Letters: Add a letter to the beginning of each label. Add 鈥淎鈥 to the label you want at the top, 鈥淏鈥 to the label you want directly below that, and so on. For example, change 鈥淲ork鈥 to 鈥淎-Work and "Home" to "B-Home."
- Numbers: Add a number to the beginning of each label. Add 鈥1鈥 to the label you want at the top, 鈥2鈥 to the label you want directly below that, and so on. For example, change "Work" to "1-Work" and "Home" to "2-Home."
Do not use both letters and numbers to organize labels in the sidebar by personal priority. Use only one or the other.