If Google is king, then Gmail is probably the best knight at the roundtable. Gmail has an inbox that can swallow a lifetime’s worth of emails. Over the past few years, I’ve swallowed just over a quarter of my inbox’s 7GB limit, and that’s because I usually archive most of my emails.
Gmail allows me to use email management features like labels and nested labels to keep all my emails organized. Even then, the inbox is a giant haystack, and if you have to find a needle in a haystack, you need something as powerful as the Gmail Search Driver. Keep an arsenal of them in your head to dig deep for long lost emails.
- 1 Easiest way to search Gmail
- 2 A list of operators
- 3 Search with exact keywords
- 4 Search for emails sent to a specific contact
- 5 Search by topic
- 6 Search in specific location
- 7 Search for emails marked with a specific status
- 8 File search
- 9 General search for attachments
- 10 Search chat messages
- 11 Use Quick Links to Save Your Search
Easiest way to search Gmail
The little link right next to the big search box at the top of your Gmail interface says – Show Search Options, giving you the fastest way to perform a specific search. Clicking on it will expand to show the following options:
The search options make your basic search a lot easier. You can filter all emails with attachments. You can search for emails with a specific text string. You can use time ranges by using the date and range from the drop-down list next to the Date in field. Also, to make it more targeted, you can use a combination of fields. For example, search for an email from a specific sender, on a certain date, and with an attachment.
A list of operators
You can take these Gmail search operators and use them manually in the search box to get the same results. For instance, you can retrieve emails from a specific sender using from:sender (where sender is the name of the sender). The search box also automatically suggests suitable operators as you start typing.
Here are the common operators you can use:
Search with exact keywords
Usage – “keyword”
Example – “punctuation”
Search for emails sent to a specific contact
Usage – to: name
Example – to:Guidingtech
Or to:[email protected]
Similarly, you can also search for duplicates cc and bcc.
bcc:name or cc:name
Search by topic
Usage – topic: keyword
Example – subject: software
Search in specific location
Usage – in: label name|inbox|trash|spam|everywhere
Example – in: spam
This returns emails stored in the spam folder. If you are not sure about the location, you can use anywhere.
Search for emails marked with a specific status
Usage – is: important
This returns emails marked as important.
File search
Usage – filename: filename. format or filename: format
Example – filename:resume.doc or filename:doc
General search for attachments
Usage – has:attachment
Example: from:Abhishek has:attachment
This returns emails from Abhishek with attachments.
Search chat messages
Usage – is: chat
Example – is: chat meeting
This returns chat messages with the word meeting in them.
You can master Gmail search by printing out the list of search operators provided on the Gmail support page.
Just like Google Search, all operators can be combined to make them more powerful and specific. For example, if you want to search for attachments within a specific label. You can construct a search query like – label:name label filename:extension
Building complex search operators can be time-consuming. That’s where you can use Quick Links to save your searches and use them when needed.
Use Quick Links to Save Your Search
Quick links are a very handy feature if you search often. It saves you from having to type search operators every time. Quicklinks are activated from Labs (click the Gear icon > Labs).
When you save your changes and return to the Gmail interface, you can see the Quick Links box on the left sidebar.
Enter your search query in the search box. After the results appear, click Add Quick Link in the Quick Link box.
Enter a more readable name in place of the default string and save your quick search. Clicking on a quick link brings up the search results and saves you from typing in the search.
Similarly, you can save multiple Quick Links and use them to organize your mailbox more efficiently.
Are you a Gmail search expert? Or are you the one who rummages through your inbox? Tell us about your Gmail search story.
Categories: How to
Source: thpttranhungdao.edu.vn/en/
