Tip: How to Create Gmail Filters

With the introduction of Google Buzz last week and the many emails it introduced, I’ve been actively creating more and more filters to keep my inbox clean. I thought it’d make a nice tip in case your inbox is flooded as well.

If you’re like me and signed up for newsletters, store ads, or other mailing lists, you may want to separate these emails from your more important ones. I personally think important emails should be sent to the inbox and maybe added to an additional label.

Other things from mailing lists can skip the inbox and be added under their own folder, or “label” as Google calls it.

Step 1: Creating a new label

So let’s create a label (folder) to store these emails in. In the example, I’m creating a label called “Ads” to store all of my store advertisements in. Other labels you can create for are Facebook, Twitter, and other social network notifications, Google Buzz, Work emails, etc.

1. On the top right, click on Settings.
2. Scroll down to the Labels section.
3. In the text box, enter the name for your label and click Create.

Step 2: Find sample email to filter

Now go to your email inbox and find an email you would like to filter out. In the example, I picked a clothing store ad. On the top right of this email, you will see the option to “reply.” Click on the arrow next to it to see all the options available. In the drop-down menu, click on “Filter messages like this.”

Step 3: Setup Filters

Once you click on “Filter messages like this,” it’ll bring you to the Filter page with the From field already filled out. Click on Next Step.

HINT: You can also filter your Google Buzz emails/notifications by putting label:buzz in the Has the words: field. Create a label for these emails before filtering. I put them in a label called GBuzz. More info about Google Buzz filters here.

Step 4: Create Filter

Here is where all the options for the filters are. Let’s have these types of message skip the inbox and filter into the label “ads.”

1. Select “Skip the Inbox” so the message would not appear in your main inbox.
2. Select the appropriate label from the drop down menu. In this case, it’s “Ads.”
3. If you want apply the filter to what’s in your inbox already, checkmark the last option.
4. Click on Create Filter.

I hope this tip will help you keep your Gmail inbox more manageable. As you can see from my inbox counter, I still have a lot more filters to add!