If you’re like me and absolutely can’t live without your gmail account then read on to discover 5 simple scripted solutions to make gmail a faster more useful product. From adding icons in the inbox to power user macros this list will speed you up and make you more zen in your daily emailing tasks.
This list will require that you have Firefox & the Greasemonkey extension installed.
1. Do you get email with a lot of attachments? Ever wanted to see at a glance what those attachments are right from your inbox? All you need to do is install this little script http://userstyles.org/styles/5545 and suddenly you’ll have a clearly recognizable icon for each different attachment type.
2. Print from gmail often and don’t want to waste color ink (at $8,000 a gallon it can get pretty bad) This script will solve the problem by hiding the gmail logo: http://userstyles.org/styles/2909
3. Have a massive screen with a huge number of emails? With the row highlighting script you can see exactly which email is currently highlighted, all you need is this script: http://userstyles.org/styles/4725
4. Power user time: Macros. If you’re an email power user, mobile warrior or any other buzzwordy user you’ll eventually stop using the mouse for everything and want keyboard shortcuts to make your life easier, faster and just plain sexier (your mileage may vary on that last one, but one can hope yes?) with the Gmail Macros script: http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/14189
Case sensitive keys (overrides any gmail shortcuts using that key):
- ‘g’ –> ‘go to label’
- ‘l’ –> ‘apply label’
- ‘L’ –> ‘remove label’
- ‘N’ –> ‘create and apply label’
- ‘e’ –> ‘always archive’
- ‘E’ –> ‘Mark as read and archive’
- ‘f’ –> ‘focus: loads all inbox/unread/starred messages in the current label’
- ‘i’ –> ‘move selected messages to inbox’
- ‘T’ –> ‘Mark as read and move to trash’
- ‘t’ –> ‘trash’
- ‘r’ –> ‘Mark as read’
- ‘R’ –> ‘Mark as unread’
- ‘X’ –> ‘Select’
- ‘+a’ –> all
- ‘+n’ –> none
- ‘+s’ –> starred
- ‘+S’ –> unstarred
- ‘+u’ –> unread
- ‘O’ –> ‘Open all conversations in the current thread
- ‘,’ –> ‘Mark as read, all unread’
- ‘U’ –> ‘Update current conversation’
5. Filtering assistant. If you’re anything like me you’re a big fan of organizing that massive amount of email automatically so you don’t have to wade through 500 messages every morning. While there’s always been a filtering assistant this little script moves it into the email itself and makes things a lot cleaner feeling. http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/7997
All in all 5 easy simple ways to make your gmail experience quite a bit faster, better and more productive. Feel free to post your gmail time savers and usage optimization tips below, I’m always on the lookout for new improved tools for my tasks.
For those of you not familiar with Gmail I can’t imagine a service without all of the following:
- Better spam filtering than any other service I’ve encountered
- True instant search (for those not in the know it’s almost exactly like Spotlight on OS X)
- Conversation based email (much easier to follow the thread of a conversation than emails in order of receipt.
- A truly clean fast interface for mail on the go. Mobile mail is a anything but a chore with gmail.
- Over 6gb of storage (and always growing, in fact when I got my account it was only 2.5gb)
- New features just launched include:
- An optimized iPhone interface
- Group chat via the integrated google chat app.
- AOL Instant Messenger support right in the main gmail interface
- Plus dozens more features
Related Posts
Great post, Chris! As a recent Gmail convert I appreciate benefiting from the lessons you’ve already learned. ;)
Great post, Chris! As a recent Gmail convert I appreciate benefiting from the lessons you’ve already learned. ;)
This is great stuff. I love me some Gmail, now I’ll love it even more.
I get a lot of tips from Lifehacker, you can read them here:
http://lifehacker.com/tag/gmail/
I find them very helpful! This post is almost a year old, but I aspire to this level of gmail-fu:
http://lifehacker.com/software/gmail/hack-attac...
Check it out. I hope these work for you too Justin (:
I feel really dumb for not checking lifehacker before posting this. That’s the sort of thing they regularly post. They’ve got a link for a firefox addon that rolls some of these into one app. Handy, will have to give it a try.
This is great stuff. I love me some Gmail, now I’ll love it even more.
I get a lot of tips from Lifehacker, you can read them here:
http://lifehacker.com/tag/gmail/
I find them very helpful! This post is almost a year old, but I aspire to this level of gmail-fu:
http://lifehacker.com/software/gmail/hack-attack-supercharge-your-gmail-252737.php
Check it out. I hope these work for you too Justin (:
I feel really dumb for not checking lifehacker before posting this. That’s the sort of thing they regularly post. They’ve got a link for a firefox addon that rolls some of these into one app. Handy, will have to give it a try.
Thanks Chris – good thoughts. I’d never played with scripts before, so that was a path I enjoyed taking.
Although you just headed to the hospital to have a baby, and you’re not likely to care about anything else for the next couple of months, I was wondering if you have anything along the lines of this post for Thunderbird.
Congratulations!
Thanks Chris – good thoughts. I’d never played with scripts before, so that was a path I enjoyed taking.
Although you just headed to the hospital to have a baby, and you’re not likely to care about anything else for the next couple of months, I was wondering if you have anything along the lines of this post for Thunderbird.
Congratulations!
Have no fear, expect a Thunderbird customization post sometime this week.
Great stuff! Thanks!
Great stuff! Thanks!
Have no fear, expect a Thunderbird customization post sometime this week.