Gmail Filters

Imagine that you’ve just arrived home from a relaxing two-week vacation. You log on to Gmail to see who tried to get in touch with you while you were away, and… yikes! Your inbox is totally flooded with new emails! You’ll probably have to go through each of them one-by-one now to see what should be done with them. Wouldn’t it have been so much easier if you could have just told Gmail what to do with any new emails that you received? Well, with the “Filters” feature, you can do exactly that!

How to Create a Filter in Gmail

1. Go to www.gmail.com and log in (if you haven’t already). When you get to your main “Inbox” page, click the settings button () in the top-right corner, and select Settings.
2. Click on Filters across the top menu to see a list of all of your filters. To create a new one, click Create a New Filter at the bottom of this list.
3. A new box will pop up that lets you pick conditions for your filter.
   From top to bottom, you can type in, select, or check boxes to filter your emails by:
   – who sent them to you
   – whom you sent them to
   – words in the subject line
   – words anywhere in the email
   – the absence of certain words anywhere in the email
   – whether or not they have an attachment
   – whether they take up more or less than a certain amount of memory space
4. When you are done adding conditions to your filter, click Create a Filter with this Search. Note that this option will be greyed out and unavailable until you enter information for at least one condition from the ones listed above. Also note that an email has to match ALL of the conditions for which you provided information in order for this filter to catch it.
5. You will be taken to a window with options on what Gmail should do with any emails that match all of the conditions in this filter.
   
   From top to bottom, you can automatically have your filtered emails:
   – archive themselves without taking up space in your inbox
   – appear in your inbox as if they’ve already been read
   – get a star marker
   – get a label (click the “Choose Label” menu to select one)
   – forward to a specific address (click “Add Forwarding Address” to set one up)
   – delete themselves
   – never be sent to your “Spam” folder
   – always be marked as important
   – never be marked as important
   – give themselves one of Gmail’s default categories
   You can also click the check box beside the Create Filter button to apply the selected actions to emails you’ve already sent or received that match your filter’s conditions.
6. When you have specified everything that you want Gmail to do with the emails that match all of the conditions in the filter, click Create Filter to put it all into place.

How to Edit a Filter in Gmail

Is a filter that you created not catching the right kinds of emails, or not doing what you want to be done with them? Don’t sweat it; you can easily change a filter’s settings so that it finds what you really want it to find and does what you really need it to do.

1. Click the settings button () in the top-right corner and select Settings.
2. Click Filters in the menu across the top to access your list of filters. Each filter listed will tell you two things: the conditions that it’s looking for in emails, and what it does to emails that match all of those conditions. Click Edit on the far right beside a filter to change its conditions or actions.
3. A new window will pop up that lists the conditions for your filter. Change what you want about the emails you want the filter applied to, and once you’re satisfied, click Continue.
4. The next window will again list what your filter can do (and is currently doing) to emails that match all of its conditions. Make any changes that you want, and then click Update Filter at the bottom of the window to finish editing your filter.

How to Remove a Filter in Gmail

Has it gotten to the point where a particular filter is more of a hassle than a help? No problem! You can quickly and easily get rid of any filters that you don’t need any more by following these simple steps.

1. Click the settings button () in the top-right corner and select Settings.
2. Click Filters in the menu across the top to access your list of filters. Click Delete on the far right beside any single filter to remove it.
3. You can also delete multiple filters at once by clicking on the check boxes beside each of them, and then clicking the Delete button at the bottom of the screen. You can even delete all of your current filters by clicking All beside “Select” and then clicking the Delete button at the bottom of the screen.

And that’s pretty much everything you need to know about using filters in Gmail!