There are many people who are still using Outlook for receiving and sending emails. However, most of them are also thinking about switching to Gmail, which comes with more features and options than Outlook. Today we will teach you how to move from Outlook to Gmail and how to organize your emails in order to increase productivity.

Gmail: Organization

If you’ve been an Outlook fan, then you will surely want to create the same “labels” (called folders in Outlook) in Gmail. In fact, you will notice that the “label” icon in Gmail looks like a folder. Keep in mind that these “folders” actually function like categories, but they are very useful when you are trying to find the emails from a specific client.

Next to the folder icon, you will also notice a tag icon, which you can use to apply labels to messages. Also, you can use colored stars in order to help you organize your inbox. To access them you will need to click on the “Settings” button (a gear icon) that’s located in the upper right corner of the email screen and select Settings. Once the settings page opens, you will have to look for the stars section to determine which stars (or other symbols) are active. You can activate the colored stars and other icons by just dragging them to the “In Use” section.

Once you drag the icons that you want to use in the “In Use” section, head to the bottom of the page and click on the “Save Changes” button. Now, whenever you want to use a specific icon on an email just left click on the “Star” located on the left of the email until the icon you want to use appears.

Gmail: How To Filter Rules

Rules are one of the best features that Outlook email service has. Well, don’t worry because Gmail comes with filters, which allows you to easily organize your emails. They are not that robust, but you can use them to Archive emails, mark them as read, star them, label them, delete them or even forward them.

By using the filter rules you will be able to easily clean up a big amount of emails without wasting too much time.

Gmail: Custom views

We have to mention that Gmail is not a fancy webmail service, but it is a professional one. It will not take long until you will learn to use labels in order to filter and find what you need as you did in Outlook. You also have the ability to change how the emails are grouped by selecting Comfortable, Cozy or Compact from the Settings menu. We agree that Google should focus more on these types of settings, but for now that’s all it is offering in terms of how emails are grouped.

Conclusion

In the past few years the two webmail services have focused more on security than on features. However, it seems that Outlook has more data loss features than Gmail. This is the reason why you should always review the service level agreement of your webmail service in order to make sure that you understand what security features it is offering, how exactly they are implemented and if they are compliant with your needs.

We suggest you to keep reviewing the service level agreement of Gmail a few times per year in order to make sure that the changes are not affecting you or the company that you are working for.

Have you ditched Outlook for Gmail? Tell us your thoughts about the Gmail service and what features/options would you like to see being added to it!