Last week we looked at Gmail’s General Settings. As a result of your emails, today we move on to Gmail Labels.
You get to Labels the same way you got to General Settings last week. You must first be logged into your Gmail account (gmail.com). Then look to the upper right corner and hover the little "gear" icon. It should say "Settings". If not, keep hovering until you find it. Now click it, then "Settings." Finally, click on the second tab, "Labels."
I think Gmail received a lot of grief because of calling them labels instead of folders because when they first created them no one understood…except for us geeks. My guess is that in recent times Google has added, "Folders" to their icons at the top of the screen where you can "put" an email to calm everyone down.
The difference between folders in Gmail and other apps is that if you label it from your inbox, it will also have an "Inbox" label and stay in your inbox. However, when you move it to a folder, it is removed from your inbox. But guess what, if you move it back from the "folder" you still need to remove the label…too confusing for me, so I suggest playing in Gmail and using the one you like the best.
The only thing I don’t like about Labels (which is my own learning situation) is that if you delete an email with a label of Jokes and it is also marked with the Family label it is deleted from everywhere, not just from that label. You should remove the label to get it "out of the folder" by selecting the email, clicking the label icon and unchecking the label you want to remove.
