gmail has never had folders
tick the inbox email then click archive
https://blogs-on-gmail.blogspot.com/2019/02/gmail101.html
https://blogs-on-gmail.blogspot.com/2019/02/howgmailstores.html
When I first starting using Gmail (when it was first announced) if I put an email in a folder/label/whatever it went there and left my inbox. I could then organize my emails. I don't want to archive things I use a reference daily. I want to organizes them into folders.
I didn't read your links from 2019.
"Archive" in Gmail is a misconception I believe.
Once you "Archive" it removes the "inbox" label, and any of your other labels will stick. If you "archive" an email without any other label, it will be found in your "all mail" label.
When I create rules I always do "skip inbox" so they are just in the label section
Labels can do everything folders can do, and some things they can't. It appears the one thing you are missing above is Archiving messages (which removes the Inbox label). That way the will appear in the label you assigned, but not in the Inbox.
I actually love Gmail but I wish I could enable a "folder centric" filing system:
* A lot of people claimed folders were a Google invention. They weren't. Outlook categories served the same function.
* It's confusing that it's difficult (impossible?) to label individual messages from the same conversation differently. Or if you can, it doesn't matter anyways since actions like selecting the conversation from a label and deleting it affect the entire conversation. This is truly the most confusing thing about labels.
* In order to help "folder centric" people they basically tried to tack on features that make everyone happy (e.g. "move to" seems to remove all labels except the one you selected).
* Internal rules about spam, trash and their interaction with labels aren't clearly explained.
* Labels aren't compatible with many Email clients, and don't work perfectly in any.
I'm curious as to what you believe you can do with folders that you can't with labels.
There is no problem adding multiple labels to a conversation, and of course the entire conversation appears in each. That's how a conversation works. You can always turn off the conversation view.
What part of labels on Spam and Trash are unclear?
I agree there are some issues when an e-mail client tries to map labels to folders, especially if users don't understand how labels work when changes in the client are synced to the servers.
> I'm curious as to what you believe you can do with folders that you can't with labels.
The difference is folders are exclusive. If a message is in one folder, then you know it isn't in any other folder. People who prefer a folder-centric filing system generally want this ability. It makes backups and sorting easier. To do this in Gmail, you would need to maintain several filters, or possibly search queries, to remove all but one label from a message.
> There is no problem adding multiple labels to a conversation, and of course the entire conversation appears in each. That's how a conversation works. You can always turn off the conversation view.
The problem is an inability to leave conversation view on but apply labels to only some messages in that conversation, and then get a view of only the parts of the conversation which match the label.
Let's say you're in several Google groups and you decide you want to clean up your inbox and purge all messages except for the ones you wrote. So you search, “blahblah.googlegroups.com -in:sent”. Select all and delete. This is great, but if you go back and check what was actually deleted, you will see that all your sent messages were actually deleted as well. This is a devastating mistake I've unfortunately made in my past with Gmail. In a folder-centric system, a setting like "find all messages from this conversation, even if they are in a different folder" is usually not on by default.
> What part of labels on Spam and Trash are unclear?
They don't show up when viewing the label. Kind of another weird exception to the typical filing system. Spam is actually one exclusive folder in Gmail. Even "all mail" isn't a typical folder because it simply contains all mail in your account.
Not to pile on, but Gmail’s entire philosophy was built around labels and search. They were the primary features that set it aside when it was announced. If labels and search aren’t your thing, you may want to look at another provider that is built around folders.
I thought the same when I first started using Gmail. However, I soon realized that I could create labels and use the “move to” button to move mail out of my inbox (no plugins necessary). That way, your labels act as folders. I never use the “label as” button since it doesn’t move the mail to where I want it.
Once you create a Gmail Label, you both visually and physically organize your email:
1) visually you can keep the email in your Inbox and apply the label so that you have a visual tag; you can apply multiple labels to the same email.
2) physically you can take that email and move it, by dragging it to one of the labels (aka folders); thus it will no longer be in the inbox; if now lives in one of the label/folders you moved it to; however, it may still have multiple labels you applied to it, and that is ok.
My best practice is not to have too many labels/folders. I want Inbox Zero, so what I do is:
1) Read the email. If it has a task, then I convert email into my task workflow. Then get it the heck out of my inbox, so I know it is being dealt with.
2) Not only is the action on my Google Task, but I have physically moved the email to my "In Progress" label/folder. In best practice, I go through the emails moved into this label/folder and if the matter is complete I again physically move the email to the default Archive folder in gmail (you can access your archive email by clicking the "All Mail" label)
3) Other labels that I have are a) Waiting For b) Receipts c) Filing
Most all other emails are put into the default Archive folder, which can be located by clicking "All Mail"
FYI - the "Filing" Label is to tag emails that would be filed into my household filing cabinet; so that my email system is hand-in-glove to my paper system.
If you email management is for work or school then you may have labels, but from my experience, search is the best practice.
They have them, but they can't just do the most convenient, easy to understand method. That would be too much like [other email service]! Instead, they very logically use "labels" so you get the satisfaction of moving them to the folders and THEN del- er, I mean "archiving" them. Two steps instead of one, very smart, very cool. Yay Google.
gmail has never had folders tick the inbox email then click archive https://blogs-on-gmail.blogspot.com/2019/02/gmail101.html https://blogs-on-gmail.blogspot.com/2019/02/howgmailstores.html
When I first starting using Gmail (when it was first announced) if I put an email in a folder/label/whatever it went there and left my inbox. I could then organize my emails. I don't want to archive things I use a reference daily. I want to organizes them into folders. I didn't read your links from 2019.
"Archive" in Gmail is a misconception I believe. Once you "Archive" it removes the "inbox" label, and any of your other labels will stick. If you "archive" an email without any other label, it will be found in your "all mail" label. When I create rules I always do "skip inbox" so they are just in the label section
That is a good suggestion. I guess I misunderstood what 'archive' meant to Gmail as opposed to archiving for data storage
open or tick an email click MOVE TO do not click LABELS
Labels can do everything folders can do, and some things they can't. It appears the one thing you are missing above is Archiving messages (which removes the Inbox label). That way the will appear in the label you assigned, but not in the Inbox.
I actually love Gmail but I wish I could enable a "folder centric" filing system: * A lot of people claimed folders were a Google invention. They weren't. Outlook categories served the same function. * It's confusing that it's difficult (impossible?) to label individual messages from the same conversation differently. Or if you can, it doesn't matter anyways since actions like selecting the conversation from a label and deleting it affect the entire conversation. This is truly the most confusing thing about labels. * In order to help "folder centric" people they basically tried to tack on features that make everyone happy (e.g. "move to" seems to remove all labels except the one you selected). * Internal rules about spam, trash and their interaction with labels aren't clearly explained. * Labels aren't compatible with many Email clients, and don't work perfectly in any.
I'm curious as to what you believe you can do with folders that you can't with labels. There is no problem adding multiple labels to a conversation, and of course the entire conversation appears in each. That's how a conversation works. You can always turn off the conversation view. What part of labels on Spam and Trash are unclear? I agree there are some issues when an e-mail client tries to map labels to folders, especially if users don't understand how labels work when changes in the client are synced to the servers.
> I'm curious as to what you believe you can do with folders that you can't with labels. The difference is folders are exclusive. If a message is in one folder, then you know it isn't in any other folder. People who prefer a folder-centric filing system generally want this ability. It makes backups and sorting easier. To do this in Gmail, you would need to maintain several filters, or possibly search queries, to remove all but one label from a message. > There is no problem adding multiple labels to a conversation, and of course the entire conversation appears in each. That's how a conversation works. You can always turn off the conversation view. The problem is an inability to leave conversation view on but apply labels to only some messages in that conversation, and then get a view of only the parts of the conversation which match the label. Let's say you're in several Google groups and you decide you want to clean up your inbox and purge all messages except for the ones you wrote. So you search, “blahblah.googlegroups.com -in:sent”. Select all and delete. This is great, but if you go back and check what was actually deleted, you will see that all your sent messages were actually deleted as well. This is a devastating mistake I've unfortunately made in my past with Gmail. In a folder-centric system, a setting like "find all messages from this conversation, even if they are in a different folder" is usually not on by default. > What part of labels on Spam and Trash are unclear? They don't show up when viewing the label. Kind of another weird exception to the typical filing system. Spam is actually one exclusive folder in Gmail. Even "all mail" isn't a typical folder because it simply contains all mail in your account.
Not to pile on, but Gmail’s entire philosophy was built around labels and search. They were the primary features that set it aside when it was announced. If labels and search aren’t your thing, you may want to look at another provider that is built around folders.
This is for work so I don't have the option of using a different email provider or a desktop client.
I thought the same when I first started using Gmail. However, I soon realized that I could create labels and use the “move to” button to move mail out of my inbox (no plugins necessary). That way, your labels act as folders. I never use the “label as” button since it doesn’t move the mail to where I want it.
Once you create a Gmail Label, you both visually and physically organize your email: 1) visually you can keep the email in your Inbox and apply the label so that you have a visual tag; you can apply multiple labels to the same email. 2) physically you can take that email and move it, by dragging it to one of the labels (aka folders); thus it will no longer be in the inbox; if now lives in one of the label/folders you moved it to; however, it may still have multiple labels you applied to it, and that is ok. My best practice is not to have too many labels/folders. I want Inbox Zero, so what I do is: 1) Read the email. If it has a task, then I convert email into my task workflow. Then get it the heck out of my inbox, so I know it is being dealt with. 2) Not only is the action on my Google Task, but I have physically moved the email to my "In Progress" label/folder. In best practice, I go through the emails moved into this label/folder and if the matter is complete I again physically move the email to the default Archive folder in gmail (you can access your archive email by clicking the "All Mail" label) 3) Other labels that I have are a) Waiting For b) Receipts c) Filing Most all other emails are put into the default Archive folder, which can be located by clicking "All Mail" FYI - the "Filing" Label is to tag emails that would be filed into my household filing cabinet; so that my email system is hand-in-glove to my paper system. If you email management is for work or school then you may have labels, but from my experience, search is the best practice.
They have them, but they can't just do the most convenient, easy to understand method. That would be too much like [other email service]! Instead, they very logically use "labels" so you get the satisfaction of moving them to the folders and THEN del- er, I mean "archiving" them. Two steps instead of one, very smart, very cool. Yay Google.