Image Source: Gmail
Gmail doesn’t need any introduction. Going through hundreds of emails a day without sweat is only possible with Gmail. When Google launched Buzz in earlier this year, it tried to take the easy route to the critical mass by placing the social media service inside Gmail. The 176 million or so users who opened their email accounts to find their contact lists compromised might not have been too pleased but they shouldn’t have been too surprised.
Gmail has always been packed with all sorts of extra goodies from video chat to SMS messaging, including many that few people are aware of. In previous posts, we told you How to Use Multiple Gmail Accounts from One Account and 4 Tips to Send .exe Files via Email. Here are five tips, tricks and techniques to help you get more out of Google’s free email service.
1. Never Forget an Attachment
“Oops, I forgot the attachment in my previous email. Here it is” — I’m sure you would’ve either sent an email with this message to somebody (or) received an email with this message from somebody. It happens to the best of us. When you are sending emails in a hurry you may forget to send attachments. It will look unprofessional when you are sending an important business related email and forget the attachment.
Attach before composing
It is good idea to attach the file before start typing the message. This way Gmail will be uploading the file when you are typing the email. When you are done with your email typing, the attachment is already uploaded and you can send the email immediately.
You can delete an attachment by de-selecting the check box in front of the file name.
Attaching multiple file names
You can attach multiple files in Gmail by selecting the multiple files in your file browser by holding shift or control key for contiguous or different files.
2. Use Gmail as a Hard Drive
When a company gives you gigabyte of free storage space, it seems a shame not to use them. When you know that anything you put in that storage space is going to be safer than in a bank, and certainly safer than in your own home-based storage bank, not using Gmail as a free storage service looks like a waste.
The best practice I’ve adopted for years now is to always email your most important files to your Gmail account. Label them as back-ups and you’ll be able to pull them down with relative ease should the worst happen. But that sort of backing up is always a little sporadic.
3. Last Login Details for Security Purpose
If you are suspecting somebody else is accessing and hacking into your Gmail account, Gmail provides ‘Last Account Activity’ feature that shows five recent activities in your Gmail account.
Click on ‘Details’ link in Last account activity line at the bottom of your Gmail page.
Recent activity information includes, Access Type (Browser or from some mobile device etc), IP address from which the access was made and Date/Time of access.
If your Gmail account is currently being accessed from another location, ‘Last Account Activity Detail’ will show the details of the other access in ‘Concurrent Session Information’ Table.
You can even sign-out of all the other sessions except the current session by clicking ‘Sign out all other sessions’.
4. Find Your Unread Messages
Want a quick and easy way to view all of your “Unread” messages? If you have assigned Labels and archived unread messages, finding them later can sometimes be challenging. Simply create a Gmail Label named “Unread”, and you will see all of your unread mail in that folder. Though there are other ways to display unread messages, the nice thing about this method is that it displays the number of unread messages right in the Label list.
5. Unsend an Email after you’ve Clicked ‘Send’ Button
Did I just send that message to Sam W.? Ouch…
It may not be too late yet. Gmail can hold back delivering emails for some seconds after you have clicked Send. You can “unsend” an email and recover from false recipients, spelling mistakes and maybe forgotten attachments.
To take back an email shortly after you have sent it in Gmail:
- Make sure Undo Send is enabled (see below how to do that).
- After having sent an email in Gmail:
- Click Cancel immediately,
- click Undo when it appears or
- Press z.
- The message will be saved in Drafts. Now you can make any desired changes to the message and then send it again.
Enable Undo Send in Gmail
To have Gmail hold back delivery of sent messages for a few seconds so you can take them back:
- Follow the Settings link in Gmail.
- Go to the Labs tab.
- Make sure Enable is selected for Undo Send.
- Click Save Changes.
Do you know some other useful Gmail tips and tricks? Please share them with us in the comments.
See Also:
June 20th, 2010 at 11:49 am
Great… This is just what I seem to have been searching for. Exactly how long did it take to make this? Thanks a load for this amazing knowledge.
October 27th, 2010 at 5:30 pm
[...] See Also:Top Gmail Tips and Tricks [...]
January 27th, 2011 at 5:53 am
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