Nested Labels in Gmail

When I switched from Entourage to Gmail and had to give up my SubFolders, I was quite heartbroken. I found a work around and would create my subfolders so they looked this way:

“Alicia Rittenhouse – Monthly Subscriptions”

“Alicia Rittenhouse” was the main folder and “Monthly Subscriptions” was the subfolder.

It worked but now Google has came out with Nested Labels using their Google Labs. In order to use this you have to do a couple things. First, we need to enable your Google Labs within your Gmail account if you have not already done so. It really is simple.

Copy and paste https://mail.google.com/mail/?labs=1#settings in your address box when you’re logged into Gmail to enable it manually.

Once it is enabled you want to click on the “Labs” Tab and then scroll down through all the other cool Labs features to the “Nested Labels”.  Enable it and you are  ready to roll with that.

Now to make the real magic happen.  Do you already have a label you would like to make nested or need to make a new one?  Go to Manage Labels.  In there you can change the names of the labels you already have or you can create new. When you are creating your label you want to add an “/” to make the subfolder.

So if I want a Main folder that is Alicia Rittenhouse with a subfolder of Monthly Subscriptions, I will type it like below.

“Alicia Rittenhouse/Monthly Subscriptions”

Sidenote — You can make subfolders of subfolders but you are on a 40 Character maximum length.

There are many options to enhance your Gmail Inbox with Labs.  Now that you have them enabled, go play around!

Be sure to comment letting me know what your favorite Gmail Labs Option and why you love it!  Who know maybe you might inspire my next blog post!