Everyone has a Gmail account, but how many of them put it to good use? Here are a few tips for making most of your 7GB email account.



Create a filter: By creating a filter, you can manage you mails in a better, automated way. For example, if you want all mails from a particular person to be starred and labelled, click the "Create a new filter" link near the search box or in the Filters tab in Settings page. Now type the email address of the person in the "From" box and on the next page, choose a label and star option for the mails.

Hide spam count: Gmail has a powerful spam filter, but even the count of spams received can annoy some people. Why not delete all spams as soon as they come? Click on "Create a new filter" link next to the search box or in the Filters tabs in Settings page. Now in the "Have the words" option, type "in:spam". Choose next and then choose delete. If you just want to hide them, choose the "Mark as unread" option.



Aggregate multiple mail accounts: If you have multiple mail accounts with POP3 feature, you can send and receive mails from all accounts from any Gmail account.

First, activate POP3 download in all the mail accounts. If your other mail accounts are also with Gmail, you can do this by going to the "Forwarding and POP/IMAP" page in Settings. Now in the main Gmail account, go to "Accounts and Imports" tab in Settings page and add your other emails by clicking on the "Add POP3 email account" button and following the steps.

You will have to activate all of them by clicking on activation mails received in the respective accounts. Now you can send and receive mails from all your accounts from your primary Gmail account.



Access mails offline: If your Internet connection is not very reliable and you are using the Gmail website, you might be left without access to even your previously received mail. You can solve this problem in two ways: a) use an email client such a Thunderbird; b) activate offline access to mails by enabling the "Offline Mail" option in the Offline tab on the Gmail Settings page.

Use email client for Gmail: Using email client such as Thunderbird to access Gmail is more convenient and reliable if you are using it with IMAP. Unlike POP3 method which just fetches the mails from an account, IMAP is a two-way communication. It synchronizes your local mail client with the webmail. Also, IMAP allows you to access your inbox on the website (complete with its last settings) when you leave your laptop home or if its lost.

To use an email client with Gmail, first activate the IMAP access in your Gmail account. This option is available in the "Forwarding and POP/IMAP" tab in the settings page. Now, add the account in your email client. If you are using Thunderbird, setting up a Gmail account is a breeze, thanks to its pre-configured settings. For other email clients, you can follow the instructions on Gmail help website.

Backup your mails: How to create a backup of your Gmail account? Enable IMAP for your Gmail account that you want to backup and set up an account for this address on Thunderbird or other email client on your computer. (Follow above instructions.) If you use the email client for checking mail, your web interface will serve as the backup. In case you use the web interface, just remember to run the email client regularly so that it can download your mails and settings.

Dot or not: Gmail does not recognize dots in your email address or user name. So when you tell someone that your email address is my.name@gmail.com, you don't need to stress on the dot. Even if someone sends an email at myname@gmail.com or m.y.n.a.m.e@gmail.com, you will get it in your inbox. Similarly, you can log into your account even after omitting or adding dots.