How To: Get Organized with Multiple Inboxes in Gmail

gmail_multipleinboxes_thumbmaybeIf you want to get a better grip on your Gmail inbox (whether it be to handle multiple email accounts or simply to organize messages better), you may find Gmail Labs’ Multiple Inboxes feature useful.  Multiple Inboxes splits your Gmail window into separate inboxes, allowing you to apply unique filters to each one.

Multiple Inboxes provides a great way to separate multiple email accounts, allowing you to keep your personal inbox clean without losing messages from your other accounts.

Using Multiple Inboxes

Step 1: Activate Multiple Inboxes in Gmail Labs.

gmail_multipleinboxes_labsenable

Step 2: By default, you will have multiple inboxes for starred messages and drafts only.  To change these or add new inboxes, click Settings (located in the top right) then click the Multiple inboxes tab.

gmail_multipleinboxes_multipleinboxtab

You can now specify up to four additional inboxes to be displayed in Gmail.  To choose which messages are displayed in an inbox, you can enter standard Gmail search queries in the ‘Search query’ box.

Here are a few examples of search queries:

  • To create an inbox that displays only messages with attachments, use the query:  has:attachment
  • To display only unread messages:  is:unread
  • To display messages from a specific sender:  from:SENDER’S_ADDRESS (replace with a real email address)
  • To display messages with a specific label:  label:YOUR_LABEL
  • If you’re using multiple accounts, you can display account-specific messages by using:  to:YOUR_ACCOUNT_ADDRESS
    • In my case, I wanted to sort all messages to @techerator email addresses.  To do this, I used the query  to:*@techerator.com (the * denotes a wildcard).

gmail_multipleinboxes_searchqueries

At the bottom of the settings page, you can configure how many messages per inbox are displayed (the default is 9) and where the multiple inboxes are displayed.

Step 3: (optional) Now that you have multiple inboxes configured, you may want to remove redundant messages from your primary inbox which can be achieved easily using Gmail’s filters.

Click the Create a filter link, located at the top of your Gmail inbox (to the right of the ‘Search the Web’ button).

gmail_multipleinboxes_createfilter

Configure the filter to be the same as the query (or queries) you used for your multiple inboxes.  In my case, I want all messages to @techerator.com addresses hidden from my main inbox and displayed in my multiple inboxes.  To do this, I entered *@techerator.com in the To: field.

If you want to see what the filter captures, click the ‘Test Search’ button.  When satisfied with your results, click the Next Step button.

gmail_multipleinboxes_filter

In the next screen, check the Skip the Inbox (Archive It) button and then click the Create Filter button.  If you want this action to be applied retroactively to current messages that meet your filter criteria, click the ‘Also apply filter to…’ box.  Messages that apply to your filter will no longer be displayed in your primary inbox, but will be displayed in your multiple inbox instead.

gmail_multipleinboxes_skipinboxMultiple Inboxes for Gmail provides a great solution to getting your inbox organized, and helps keep important messages from getting lost in the noise of your everyday correspondence.

Have a good email configuration?  Share it in the comments!  [Gmail Multiple Inboxes]


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11 responses to “How To: Get Organized with Multiple Inboxes in Gmail”

  1. Jonathan_Paul Avatar

    Great article. I love this feature and just finished setting it up. Also found out I didn't have POP access enabled on one of my gmail accounts, oops that's why I wasn' getting those, lol.

    jon

  2. Jonathan_Paul Avatar

    Great article. I love this feature and just finished setting it up. Also found out I didn't have POP access enabled on one of my gmail accounts, oops that's why I wasn' getting those, lol.

    jon

  3. Jacob_K Avatar

    nice work. just finished setting this up. nice to only have to check one email rather than 4.

  4. Jacob_K Avatar

    nice work. just finished setting this up. nice to only have to check one email rather than 4.

  5. Anthony Avatar
    Anthony

    can you use 'and'? like is:inbox && is:unread?

    1. Evan Wondrasek Avatar

      Gmail supports both 'and' and '&' as well as 'or' and '|'. Here's a full guide: http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answ

  6. Anthony Avatar
    Anthony

    can you use 'and'? like is:inbox && is:unread?

    1. Evan Wondrasek Avatar

      Gmail supports both 'and' and '&' as well as 'or' and '|'. Here's a full guide: http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answ

  7. […] able to import mail from several accounts into one Gmail account and keep them all organized with Multiple Inboxes.  [Check our our guides about […]

  8. […] get pretty cluttered with unread messages after being away from my computer for a day. Since I use multiple inboxes to split my Gmail inbox into several smaller inboxes, I can have unread messages all over the place […]

  9. […] the top.1+ Comments Loading… • Share     Anon UserThis should help you out !http://techerator.com/2009/0…Embed QuoteComment Loading… • Share • Embed • 4m ago  Add […]

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