Gmail Help

Labels do all the work folders do and give you an extra bonus: you can add more than one to a conversation. Once you've created a label, you can view all the messages with that label by searching, or by clicking the label name along the left side of any Gmail page.

You can easily create, edit, and delete existing labels. Here's how:

To create a label:

1. Click the Labels drop-down menu or if you have keyboard shortcuts enabled, type l. Or, just click Settings > Labels.
2. Select Create new.
3. Type the name of your new label and click Ok

Any selected messages will automatically be categorized under your new label. If you'd like to keep organized, you can remove a labeled conversation from your inbox by archiving it and view it later by clicking All Mail, or by clicking the label name along the left side of any Gmail page.

To apply a label to a message, you can select the checkbox next to the message(s) in question, and then select the label name from the Labels drop-down menu (or you can label a single message while you're reading it by using the drop-down menu or the keyboard shortcut L). You can also drag a message to a label's name to move that message to a label.

To edit a label name:

1. Click the down-arrow to the left of the label.
2. Select Rename.
3. Enter the new label name, and click OK.

All the messages categorized under your old label name will now be categorized under your new label.

Organizing and deleting labels

You can control which labels appear in your list on the left.

1. Click Settings > Labels
2. Click the show or hide link next to each label to choose whether it's listed. Or, if you see a label you don't need anymore, you can always click remove. (You'll have to confirm that you'd like to remove the label by clicking OK).

You can also show, hide, or delete one label at a time by clicking the down-arrow to the left of that label.

Use the Move to drop-down menu or the keyboard shortcut v if you want to apply a label to a message and move it to that label at the same time.