Using tags to classify messages and contacts (Back to Top)

Tags are your personal classification system for mail messages, contacts, tasks, and appointments. Using tags is an aid to finding those items. For example, you might have one tag for Immediate Turnaround and another for Medium Priority. The mail messages that are tagged can be in different folders. You can search for a tag and all messages with that tag are displayed, no matter which folder they are in.

You can create as many tags as you want.
You can apply multiple tags to the same mail message and contacts.

Creating new tag definitions

You can access the New Tag feature in any of the following ways:

From toolbar, click the down arrow next to New and choose Tag.
Select Tag from the toolbar.
Right-click an item in a list view and choose Tag Conversation.
Right-click on Tags or a tag in the Overview pane and choose New Tag.

When the New Tag dialog appears. Enter a name and click OK. Tag names can have any character except the following

: (colon)

/ (forward slash)

" (double quotes)

The new tag is listed under Tags in the Overview pane and can be applied to any mail messages or contacts.

Assigning Tags to messages and other items (Back to Top)

Tagging is similar to flagging, except that you can create and apply multiple tags to a single item in order to classify it under several categories simultaneously. After creating a tag, you can apply it to conversations, messages, or contacts.

To tag an item using drag and drop:

Drag and drop the tag from the left-hand Overview pane onto the item on the Content pane.

To apply a tag to an item using menus:

Right-click the item from the Content pane.
Choose Tag Message (or Tag Conversation or Tag Contact, etc.).
Choose the tag name from the list that appears. Only tags not already applied to the selected item are listed.

To create a new tag and apply it to an item:

Right-click the item from the list and choose the Tag menu option that appears.
Choose New Tag.
Enter a name for the tag and click OK.

To remove a tag from an item:

Right-click the item from the list and choose the Tag menu option that appears.
Choose Remove Tag. If the item has multiple tags, you can choose to remove one or all tags.

To apply/remove a tag to multiple items at once:

Select all the items to be tagged using Control-Click or Shift-Click.
Right-click over any one of the selected items and choose the Tag menu option that appears.
Choose the tag to add or remove.

To find tagged messages quickly:

Click a tag in the Overview pane.

Alternatively, you can search for tags. In the Search field enter the query as tag: <"tag name"> and click Search. A query of tag:Purple would show all items that had a tag named Purple applied.

Deleting tags (Back to Top)

To delete a tag, right-click the tag name on the Overview Pane and click Delete. Deleting a tag also removes the tag from any item that had that tag. The items themselves are not deleted.

Flagging an email message (Back to Top)

The flag icon in the message list is a yes/no indicator that denotes whether the mail message has been flagged. This can be used to indicate an action-needed item or to otherwise distinguish the message or conversation from a large number of other items of lesser importance.

To turn the flag on or off, click once directly over the flag icon for the message or conversation.

Using folders (Back to Top)

Folders can be used to store your mail messages. You can move items from one folder to another by dragging and dropping or by clicking Move from the right-click button on the mouse You can move items from one folder to another by checking the message or contact and then select the folder from the Move to... list.

Two types of folder exist:

System folders. System folders cannot be moved, renamed, or deleted. Examples include your Inbox, Sent, and Trash folders.
User-defined folders. You can create folders to organize your mail. Folders you create are displayed in the Folders list in the Overview pane. Top level folder names must be unique. The name cannot be the same as any other top-level folder in your mail, calendar, or address book folders.

Renaming folders (Back to Top)

You can rename user-defined folders by right-clicking on the folder and choosing Rename Folder. Folder names can have any character except : (colon), / (forward slash), or " (double quotes).

Deleting folders (Back to Top)

You can delete custom folders. You cannot delete system folders.

When you delete a folder, its contents are moved to the Trash. You can recover contents from the Trash by dragging and dropping them to another folder.

The Trash folder is purged on a regular basis, so items in the Trash do not stay there forever.

To delete a folder:

If there are messages in the folder that you want to save, move them to another folder.
Either drag the folder to the Trash or right-click the folder and choose Delete.

Creating custom folders (Back to Top)

In addition to the pre-defined system folders such as Inbox, Sent, and Trash, you can create custom folders. Custom folders can be created inside other folders, including the system folders.

You cannot create two folders with the same name within the same parent folder. For example, you cannot have two folders named "Shopping" under your Inbox folder, but you could have one folder named "Shopping" under your Inbox folder, and another one with the same name under the Sent folder.

To create a new folder:

From the toolbar, click the arrow on the New button ( ) and select Folder, or right-click in the Overview pane in the folders list and select New Folder. A Create New Folder dialog opens.
Type a folder name.
Select where to place the new folder. Click Folders to have the folder at the top level or choose a location from the list of existing folders. Your new folder is placed within the selected folder.
Click OK.

To create a folder tied to an RSS or ATOM feed, check Subscribe to RSS/ATOM feed, then enter a URL.

Armstrong

Using Tags and Folders to Organize Email