HOW TO make Gmail Labels act like Hotmail Folders

If you apply a Label to an email in Gmail, it will appear under both the Inbox & the Label category chosen. This is unlike in Hotmail where an email can appear only under one Folder category.

To address this issue, Gmail introduced a "Move to" option that will place an email under a single Label or category. This option can help in maintaining a clutter-free, cleaner Gmail Inbox but requires manual intervention. A poster on the StackExchange Web Apps forum wanted to know how he can automatically filter emails on arrival so that they are placed under a single category as in Hotmail.

Here are the steps -
1. Click on the "Create a Filter" link that's next to search box in Gmail

2. As we want the filter to act upon ALL emails that are recieved, set the To: textbox to your own email address & click on the "Next Step" button

3. Choose the first option to Skip the Inbox alongwith "Apply the label:" option to move an incoming email to a specific label/category. This way every mail that you get will be automatically categorized, thereby simulating Hotmail Folders.

If you want to view all your emails uncategorized at any point of time,  click on the "All Mail" option in the left menu

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Hotmail tip - Move, Delete, Find emails originating from a specific sender with a single click

Did you know, a context menu will pop-up after two seconds if you place your mouse on any email within Hotmail

With just one click on the context menu, you can then ...

• reply to that email without explicitly opening it
• find all emails which have originated from the same email address as that of the selected email
• move all emails from the same sender to a specified folder
• delete all emails which have originated from the same email address at once

This a pretty neat & thoughtful shortcut!


If you right click on that email, it opens up a context menu that will let you perform operations on that email alone

Also see:
Hotmail lets you download attachments as a zip file
The One Click GMail Help Layer UI Pattern

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