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Don't Be Scared of Your Email - Controlling Your Inbox - Part One - Styling Your GMail

Part One - Styling your Inbox - How Do You Want It to Look


With GMail, you have a few different option on how you want your inbox to display. For starters, there five options that you can choose from. The default option, creates tabs for your email and begins the process of sorting the email for you. The next option, Importance First, using artificial intelligence to sort your mail based on your previous history. If a message is deemed important, it will be placed on the top. If not, it will be sorted to the bottom.

The next option is unread first. This option, sorts your mail by if you have read the mail or not. If you have, it goes to the bottom. If you have not, it will be sorted to the top. This is one way to be sure that you do not miss important emails. Google also offers you an opportunity to mark emails as important. Using the star system, Google offers that as a way to sort your mail. While this is nice, it does rely upon your actions to work. Finally, priority inbox is the final option. Priority inbox creates markers, again based on AI and previous actions, to try and prioritize your inbox.

While each option has benefits and drawbacks, I wanted to build a chart that shows you below some of the pros and cons, at least in my mind, of each type of inbox.


Pros
Cons
Default
  • Separates into categories
  • Does not notify if not in main inbox
  • Combines priority and category inboxes
  • Does not notify if in other category
  • Not perfect with some emails slipping through
Important First
  • Separates by important messages and not important messages
  • Allows you to focus on what is important
  • Not perfect and misses
  • Depends on previous actions with an email sender or group
Unread First
  • Helpful to see what you have not read
  • Allows you to work through emails in one convenient spot
  • Does not allow you to you to have the categories
  • Forces all mail that is unread on top of important emails
Starred First
  • You set the importance via your actions
  • It allows you to use gmail as a to-do list
  • Depends on your actions

Priority Inbox
  • Sets priority based on previous action
  • Helps you to see the most important emails first
  • Separates email more clearly than important first
  • Not perfect
  • Depends heavily on your previous actions
Understanding the Layout of Your Inbox
GMail has created some pretty neat features within your inbox. Check the layout of the features below.

Buttons in GMail

Selecting Your Inbox

To select your inbox, follow the helpful steps below.

  1. Go To Settings

Navigate to Settings

  1. In your settings, select Inbox across the top bar of links.

Changing the Style of Your Inbox



  1. From the Settings Menu, Locate and Select Your Desired View

Selecting Your Inbox Design

  1. Save your Changes and Exit to your New Inbox

Save your Changes
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