Gmail
Labels help you organize your messages into any categories -- work, family, to do, read later, jokes, recipes, any category you want. Labels do all the work that folders do, but with an added bonus: you can add more than one to a message.
Only you can see your labels, so whether you mark a message with "Best friend" or "Read later," the sender will never know.
Create a label
Here's how to create a label that you can add to any of your messages:- On the left side of the page, click More at the bottom of your labels list. (If you don't see "More," grab the gray dividing line with your cursor and drag it down to show more labels.)
- Click Create new label.
- Type the name of your new label and click Create.
You can also create a new label for a message in your Inbox by selecting the box next to the message, clicking the Label button above your message list, and then clicking Create new.
Apply your label
You can add a label to your messages in several ways:- When viewing your Inbox, select the checkbox next to those messages, click the Labels
button, and click the label you want. (Or check the boxes next to several labels and click Apply.)
- When viewing a message, click the Labels button to add a label to the message. You can also click and drag a label from the left side, and drop it on the message.
- When writing a new message, use that button to add a label before sending your message.
button, and click the label you want. (Or check the boxes next to several labels and click Apply.)
Organize your labels
How to edit or delete a label
How to change your label settings
, select Settings, then Labels. Here are a few examples:
Choose which labels appear in your list on the left: In the "Show in label list" column, click the "show" or "hide" link next to each label to choose whether it will be shown in the left panel of your Gmail pages. You can also set labels to appear only when they contain unread messages (otherwise, they will be hidden).
Choose which labels appear on your messages: In the "Show in message list" column, you can choose whether you'll see each label displayed next to its messages' subject lines. Click hide if you don't want to see that label name when you look at the messages it contains.
Delete labels: If you see a label that you don't want anymore, click remove in the "Remove label" column. (You'll have to confirm that you'd like to remove the label by clicking Delete.)
Create sub-labels: You can add a sub-label beneath a label to create a hierarchy. For example, if you have a label for your vacations, and want to create another specifically for a trip to Hawaii, you can nest the "Hawaii" label inside your "Vacations" label. Just add a slash to your label name to have it live inside another label: in this case, you'd name the Hawaii label "Vacations/Hawaii."
Note: If you have more than 500 labels, you may find that your Gmail experience is slower. We suggest removing the labels that you might not be using anymore (this action won't delete the messages that were assigned those labels).
Labels help you organize your messages into any categories -- work, family, to do, read later, jokes, recipes, any category you want. Labels do all the work that folders do, but with an added bonus: you can add more than one to a message.
Only you can see your labels, so whether you mark a message with "Best friend" or "Read later," the sender will never know.
Create a label- On the left side of the page, click More at the bottom of your labels list. (If you don't see "More," grab the gray dividing line with your cursor and drag it down to show more labels.)
- Click Create new label.
- Type the name of your new label and click Create.
You can also create a new label for a message in your Inbox by selecting the box next to the message, clicking the Label button above your message list, and then clicking Create new.
- When viewing your Inbox, select the checkbox next to those messages, click the Labels button, and click the label you want. (Or check the boxes next to several labels and click Apply.)
- When viewing a message, click the Labels button to add a label to the message. You can also click and drag a label from the left side, and drop it on the message.
- When writing a new message, use that button to add a label before sending your message.
, select Settings, then Labels. Here are a few examples:
Choose which labels appear in your list on the left: In the "Show in label list" column, click the "show" or "hide" link next to each label to choose whether it will be shown in the left panel of your Gmail pages. You can also set labels to appear only when they contain unread messages (otherwise, they will be hidden).
Choose which labels appear on your messages: In the "Show in message list" column, you can choose whether you'll see each label displayed next to its messages' subject lines. Click hide if you don't want to see that label name when you look at the messages it contains.
Delete labels: If you see a label that you don't want anymore, click remove in the "Remove label" column. (You'll have to confirm that you'd like to remove the label by clicking Delete.)
Create sub-labels: You can add a sub-label beneath a label to create a hierarchy. For example, if you have a label for your vacations, and want to create another specifically for a trip to Hawaii, you can nest the "Hawaii" label inside your "Vacations" label. Just add a slash to your label name to have it live inside another label: in this case, you'd name the Hawaii label "Vacations/Hawaii."
Note: If you have more than 500 labels, you may find that your Gmail experience is slower. We suggest removing the labels that you might not be using anymore (this action won't delete the messages that were assigned those labels).