How to create a folder in Gmail

Among the many practical tools Gmail offers, folders play a key role. They make it easier to organize our emails and categorize different messages. Let's see how to create a folder in Gmail and all the advantages we'll gain by using them correctly.

It's worth spending some time organizing our emails, not only to work better with them and have more efficient access to the information they contain, but also to get a clearer and cleaner view when we open our email screen.

Therefore, it will be necessary to create new folders, name them correctly, and, above all, use them properly . That is, save the emails we receive in the corresponding folder. If we are even slightly methodical, we will avoid falling back into the previous chaos.

Gmail labels

There's a difference between Gmail's folder organization system and those of other email clients. It's really just a matter of terminology: Gmail doesn't call them folders, but labels.

A folder (or label, in the case of Gmail) is a space dedicated to storing and organizing a specific type of information within a computer system. Gmail labels are a method for marking emails and grouping them by topic.

The labeling system proves to be much more practical than the folder system, as it allows us to assign multiple labels to the same email. The folders used by other email clients don't offer this flexibility. In those clients, to include a message in two folders, you would have to create multiple copies of the same message and then save them in each of the folders created for each subject. Ultimately, labels make the classification system more efficient and the search process faster.

Create Gmail folder (or Gmail label)

Once the difference between folders and labels has been clarified, as well as the advantages of one over the other, it's time to explain how to work with labels. However, since both terms are often used interchangeably, we will use the terms " creating a folder in Gmail" and "creating a label in Gmail" interchangeably here.

We can do it from any device, although the computer is probably what is used the most, especially when e-mail is used for professional purposes. These are the steps to follow:

First, access your email. On the home screen, go to the left-hand column, where you'll see a list of default labels (social, notifications, forums, promotions). Scroll down and select "More ." Then, as shown in the screenshot above, click on "New label . "

Next, a window will open where you enter the name of the new tag and the location where you want to assign it. "Nesting tags" is essentially another way of saying "creating sub-tags or subfolders." By using this option, the newly created tag is categorized within another, higher-level tag or category.

Next, we click on "Create" . Finally, with the label activated, all that remains is to select the emails we want to tag with it.

Finally, if we want to see all the emails assigned to a certain label, we have to go to the left column and search the list for the label in question (you may have to click on the “More” button to see it). We can also see the labels next to the subject of the email in the different trays.

Tricks to take advantage of Gmail labels

Here are some tips that will help us organize and manage labels in Gmail more efficiently:

colored labels

Assigning different colors to each label is a very visual and simple way to easily identify our emails . For example, many users use the color red to mark priority or urgent emails.

To add a certain color to a label, follow these steps:

1. We first hover over the left sidebar label.
2. Then we click on the three point icon displayed next to the tag name.
3. select "Label Color" in the menu and choose one of the colors from the list or choose the option "Add custom color".

Rename tags

If what we want to do is change the name of a label, the steps to follow are similar to those of the previous section:

1. We click on the three point icon next to the tag name in the left sidebar.
2. Then we select the option "Edit" and write a new name for your tag.
3. This name will automatically apply to all emails marked with that label.

nested tags

As mentioned earlier, Gmail allows you to establish a hierarchy within its label system using the "nesting" option. This lets you create labels and sub-labels at different levels. It's a very practical feature. Imagine a simple example: a parent label called "invoices" that can contain other nested labels corresponding to each month of the year, each client, and so on.

This is how to create sublabels or nested labels in Gmail:

1. Again we go to the label and click on the three point icon next to the tag name.
2. In the options that appear, we choose "Add sublabel".
3. In the box that appears, the option "Nest tag in". In the dropdown at the bottom you can choose other locations.

Automatically assign labels to new messages

This is a very practical feature that automates some of the work of organizing and classifying our emails. To take advantage of it, we use Gmail filters . The idea is to set up a filter so that emails that meet certain criteria are automatically assigned a specific label.

The steps are as follows:

1. We click on the icon Settings in Gmail (up to the right).
2. In the menu, we select "See all settings."
3. Let's go to the tab "Filters and blocked addresses", in which we click on the option "Create a new filter".
4. In the pop-up window you have to set filter criteria & AFTER assign the tag.
5. Finally, we click on "Apply filter".

Show and hide labels

The left sidebar in Gmail has enough space for 500 labels . Even if you don't need that many, it can sometimes be more convenient to only display the ones you need or use regularly, hiding the rest. Here's how:

Once again, we go to the three-dot icon on the label in the left sidebar. There, we check the "show/hide" box in the position we want, according to our preferences.

Remove tags

If we no longer need a specific tag, we can safely delete it, as the emails associated with it will not be deleted . However, deleting a tag will also remove all sub-tags nested within it.

To delete a label in Gmail, simply go back to the label's three-dot icon and select "Delete label" . It's that easy.