Gmail: 90 Tools And Tips To Make You A Gmail Pro

Martin Brinkmann
Feb 9, 2009
Updated • Nov 23, 2017
Email, Gmail
|
170

Gmail (Google Mail) is without doubt one of the most popular online email services. What makes it so interesting is the functionality that it provides out of the box, but also the service's extensibility.

The following article lists all the tools and tips needed to make you a Gmail pro. It lists the best Firefox and Chrome extensions, Greasemonkey scripts, desktop tools as well as how to articles and other tips that will increase the functionality of Gmail immensely, improve or modify the service in other ways.

Firefox add-ons

These add-ons are compatible with Firefox 57 and newer:

Gmail Notifier (restartless) -- Supports multiple accounts, and will notify users about new emails. Alternative: X-notifier.

Gmail Show Time -- Shows the full date and time in email listings and the details header on Gmail.

Simple Gmail Notes -- Adds an option to Gmail to add notes to email threads.

The following add-ons are compatible with older versions of Firefox, but most are not compatible with Firefox 57 or newer.

Better Gmail – Compilation of some of the best Greasemonkey scripts for Gmail compiled as a Firefox add-on.

Cookie Swap – Manage multiple Gmail accounts at once with this Firefox add-on.

DragDropUpload – Drop files into attachment boxes easily.

Email This – Emails the current title, highlighted text and link of the active page using email applications like Gmail.

Email Yourself – Use this Firefox add-on to email information about the current webpage to yourself.

GContactSync – Synchronizes the contacts between Gmail and Thundebird.

Gmail Ad Blocker – Removes the ads that are shown in the Gmail interface to make more room for your messages.

Gmail Agenda – Integrates Google Calendar into Gmail.

Gmail Checker – Checks for new emails automatically in Firefox.

Gmail Contact Book – Easily pick contacts when writing mails in Gmail.

Gmail Manager – Manage multiple Gmail accounts and display new mail notifications.

Gmail Notifier – Will monitor a single or multiple Gmail accounts from within Firefox. Displays information such as unread email messages in the status bar.

Gmail Redesigned – A complete new CSS stylesheet for Gmail that changes the look and feel of the website.

Gmail S/Mime – Makes it possible to send and receive signed and encrypted emails in Gmail.

Gmail Signatures – Automatically inserts HTML signatures in Gmail messages based on the address the emails get send from.

Gmail Skins – Change the color of the skin of the Gmail website.

GTD Inbox – Increase the productivity and manageability of Gmail with this Getting Things Done add-on.

Integrated Gmail – Makes it possible to display other Google services like Google Calendar or Reader directly in Gmail.

Chrome extensions

Boomerang for Gmail -- Adds a number of tools to Gmail including a send later tool, response tracker, and more.

Checker Plus for Gmail -- A mail checker for email that displays new messages and notifies you about them.

Dropbox for Gmail -- Integrates Dropbox in Gmail to quickly attach Dropbox files to messages

Send form Gmail (by Google) -- Makes Gmail the default email application, and adds a button to compose mails quickly from Chrome's toolbar.

Bookmarklets:

gCompose – Will display the new mail dialog when pressing the bookmarklet’s button.

Gmail Search Bookmarks – Save searches with this bookmarklet.

Gmail This – Button to email the current page using Gmail.

Multiple Gmail Signatures – Create and use multiple signatures in Gmail.

Greasemonkey:

Always Show CC Field – Will always display the CC and BCC fields in Gmail.

Attachment Reminder – reminds you of an attachment based on words used in the email.

Gmail + Reader Integrator – Integrates Gmail and Google Reader.

Gmail Attachment Icons – Adds bigger and better attachment icons to Gmail

Gmail Emoticons – Adds emoticons to Gmail.

Gmail Filter Assistant – Ads an advanced filter management module to Gmail.

Gmail Macros – Adds extra keyboard shortcuts and macros.

Gmail Persistent Search – Save and access previous searches in Gmail.

Gmail Preview Bubbles – Preview a message without opening it.

Gmail Right-Click – Adds a right-click menu to Gmail to navigate the website faster and more comfortably.

Gmail Spam Count Hide – Hides the spam count in Gmail.

Gmail Super Clean – Provides a cleaner interface for Gmail.

Gmail To – Forces all mailto links to use Gmail.

Gmail Unread Message Count In Favicon – Display the unread message count of your Gmail account in the Gmail favicon.

Google Account Multi-Login – log into multiple accounts at the same time.

One Click Conversations For Gmail – Access conversations with one click.

Desktop Applications:

Blogsigs – For Webmasters: Add the title of your latest blog post in your email signature.

Gdisk (MAC) – Turns the Gmail account into a portable hard drive on the computer.

Gmail Assistant – A notifier for multiple Gmail accounts with many options.

Gmail Backup – Explains how to backup all mails of a Gmail account locally.

Gmail FS (Linux) – Add Gmail as a hard drive in the Linux operating system.

Gmail Mobile – Mobile application for Gmail.

Gmail Todo – Quickly Add ToDo’s to the Gmail account.

GMDesk – Run Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs and Google Maps as standalone applications.

Google Email Uploader – Upload emails to Gmail.

Google Mailbox Loader – Import mailboxes into Gmail.

GPhotospace – Use Gmail as a online storage space for your photos.

screenshot

GSN SMS Notifier – Send SMS when new mail arrives.

GTray – Display notifications of new email messages in the system tray.

KCheckGmail (Linux) – System Tray application for Linux KDE.

Mailstore Home – Backup Your email using this email backup software.

You’ve got Gmail (Trillian) – Adds new mail notifications to Trillian.

Tips:

11 Power Tips For Gmail – A collection of 11 tips for Google Mail.

Add Gmail Tasks To Your Firefox Sidebar – Explains how to add Gmail tasks to the Firefox Sidebar.

Edit Gmail Contacts From Chat List – It is far easier and faster to edit the Gmail contacts from the chat list.

Force Gmail to Always use Secure Connection – Forces Gmail to always use a https connection.

How To Read Mail Without Touching Your Mouse – It is possible to use Gmail without using the mouse at all.

Mark All Unread Mail As Read – Explains how to mark all unread mail in Gmail as read.

Ten Gmail Labs Features You Should Enable – A list of ten experimental features that can be activated in Gmail.

Top 10 Gmail Tips And Hacks – Ten excellent Gmail tips.

Watch Videos right in Gmail Chat – Watch videos that have been posted in Gmail chat in the same window.

What To Do If You Cannot Access Your Gmail Account – A collection of tips that explain what a user can do if he cannot access Gmail anymore.

How To:

Access Gmail From Thunderbird – How to configure Thunderbird to work with Gmail

Access Your Gmail Inbox With Python – How to access the inbox with a python script.

Analyze Mail Usage With Mail Trends – How to analyze mail usage over time.

Archive Mail On The iPhone – Explains how to backup mails on the iPhone.

Attach and Send Any File Type with Gmail – How to send blocked file types with Gmail.

Backup Gmail In Linux – A four step guide on how to backup Gmail in Linux.

Build Advanced Gmail Filters – How to create and use advanced Gmail filters.

Compose Gmail Messages With Launchy – Using the launcher Launchy to compose Gmail messages.

Create A Feed For Unread Gmail Messages – Use RSS Feeds For Unread Messages.

Export And Backup Emails From Outlook To Gmail – How to export email messages from Microsoft Outlook To Gmail.

Fast PDF Viewing in Gmail – How to view PDFs right in the browser.

How To Setup Gmail In External Mail Clients Properly – Explains how to setup Gmail in external mail applications like Mozilla Thunderbird or Microsoft Outlook.

Import Contacts From Hotmail – How to import Hotmail contacts into Gmail.

Import Emails Into Gmail – How to import desktop emails into Gmail.

Manage All Email Accounts With Gmail – Guide for users with multiple email accounts.

Set Gmail As The Default Mail Client – How to set Gmail as the default mail client in Firefox 3.

Send SMS Text Messages – How To send SMS messages with Gmail.

Use Gmail As A Drive In Windows – Configure Gmail to Appear as a normal drive letter in Windows.

Use IMAP in Gmail – Explains how to use Gmail over IMAP.

Work With Attachments – Work with attachments in Gmail.

Misc:

Gmail Mobile - Access Gmail from a mobile phone.

Gmail Productivity Tips – Three productivity tips for Gmail.

Gmail Shortcut List – List of Gmail Shortcuts.

Gmail Shortcuts – How to use shortcuts for Gmail shortcuts.

Gmail Stickers – Get some Gmail stickers for your computer keyboard from Google for the price of a return stamp.

gmail_stickers

How To Make a Physical Gmail Notifier – Create a new gadget that will tell you if new mail has arrived in the Gmail inbox.

Summary
Gmail: 90 Tools And Tips To Make You A Gmail Pro
Article Name
Gmail: 90 Tools And Tips To Make You A Gmail Pro
Description
The guide lists 90 different tools, tips and resources to improve Google's email service Gmail in a variety of ways.
Author
Publisher
Ghacks Technology News
Logo
Advertisement

Tutorials & Tips


Previous Post: «
Next Post: «

Comments

  1. JMGG said on January 19, 2012 at 8:25 am
    Reply

    You said that Outlook isn’t your main email client, so which is your main one?

    1. BalaC said on January 19, 2012 at 9:42 am
      Reply

      I think its thunderbird

    2. Martin Brinkmann said on January 19, 2012 at 10:15 am
      Reply

      It is Mozilla Thunderbird.

  2. Salaam said on September 24, 2012 at 9:52 pm
    Reply

    Awesome! This actually solved my problem… what a stupid bug.

  3. Claud said on December 19, 2012 at 2:08 am
    Reply

    If this is the same bug that I’ve encountered, there may be another fix: (1) hover over open Outlook item in Taskbar, cursor up to hover over Outlook window item, and right-click; (2) this should give you Restore / Move / Size / Minimize / Maximize — choose Move or Size; (3) use your cursor keys, going arbitrarily N/S/E/W, to try to move or size the Outlook window back into view. Basically, the app behaves as though it were open in a 0x0 window, or at a location that’s offscreen, and this will frequently work to resize and/or move the window. Don’t forget to close while resized/moved, so that Outlook remembers the size/position for next time.

    1. Lynda said on February 12, 2013 at 3:37 pm
      Reply

      THANK YOU Claude!!! I could get the main window to launch but could not get any other message window to show on the desktop. You are my hero!!!!

    2. Chad said on November 20, 2018 at 4:24 pm
      Reply

      Solved my issue! 6 years later and this is still problem…

    3. Ivan X said on January 21, 2021 at 4:50 pm
      Reply

      Fantastic. Thank you. Size did the trick.

  4. Andrew said on October 26, 2013 at 7:06 am
    Reply

    This solved my Outlook problem, too. Thank you. :)

  5. Charles said on December 7, 2013 at 7:23 pm
    Reply

    Thank you so much, this started happening to me today and was causing big problems. You are a life saver, I hope I can help you in some way some day.

  6. garth said on November 7, 2014 at 7:13 pm
    Reply

    You are a god – thank you!

  7. Faisal said on February 9, 2015 at 10:09 am
    Reply

    thanks a lot…. work like charm.. :-)

  8. Simon said on March 24, 2015 at 11:36 pm
    Reply

    Yah…thanks Claude. I’ve been having the same problem and tried all the suggestions…your solution was the answer. It had resized itself to a 0/0 box. Cheers

  9. Olu said on April 14, 2015 at 1:35 pm
    Reply

    Excellent post. This had me baffled even trying to accurately describe the problem. This fixed it for me.
    Thank you

  10. Coenig said on July 23, 2015 at 7:36 am
    Reply

    Thanks a lot for the article. Don’t know why it happenend, don’t know how it got fixed, but it was really annoying and now it works :-)

  11. Fali said on January 20, 2016 at 4:19 pm
    Reply

    Thanks a lot. I was facing this issue from past 3 week. I tried everything but no resolution. The issue was happening intermittently and mainly when I was changing the display of screen ( as i use 2 monitors). The only option i had was to do system restore. But thanks to you.

    1. MIki said on January 10, 2019 at 11:54 am
      Reply

      I’ve been tried to sole this problem for 12hours. Your comment about changing the display of screen helped me a lot!! Thanks!!

  12. Christina said on January 20, 2016 at 6:14 pm
    Reply

    Thank you…don’t know why this happened but your instructions helped me fix it. Running Windows 10 and office pro 2007

  13. Oz said on July 22, 2016 at 3:20 pm
    Reply

    Great tip! Thanks!

  14. Tracy said on September 1, 2016 at 4:48 pm
    Reply

    Worked for me, too – thank you!!!

  15. shawn said on September 9, 2016 at 10:25 am
    Reply

    It’s Worked for me, too
    thank you very much!

  16. Jari said on October 31, 2016 at 11:53 am
    Reply

    I had a similar issue with Outlook 2013 on Windows 10 and this helped me to fix it. Thank you very much!

  17. Michel H said on November 30, 2016 at 11:08 pm
    Reply

    Thank you so much. Solved!
    Considering you published this in 2012, incredible not been debugged by Microsoft.
    Thank you again. M

  18. Ziad Bitar said on January 9, 2017 at 2:00 am
    Reply

    This problem was faced by only one user logging to TS 2008 r2 using outlook 2010.The issue was resolved.

    Thanks.

  19. Anonymous said on February 15, 2017 at 5:24 pm
    Reply

    Great tip. Thank you!!!! If it helps, I had to use the Control Key and the arrow keys at the same time to bring my window back into view. Worked like a charm.

  20. Rochelle said on March 6, 2017 at 11:59 am
    Reply

    Thank you, this worked !!!!

  21. anom1234 said on May 20, 2018 at 11:20 pm
    Reply

    Man, you are a fucking god. Thanks a lot, what an annoying bug!!

  22. JC said on October 12, 2020 at 2:14 pm
    Reply

    Awesome, this post solved the issue. Many thanks!

Leave a Reply

Check the box to consent to your data being stored in line with the guidelines set out in our privacy policy

We love comments and welcome thoughtful and civilized discussion. Rudeness and personal attacks will not be tolerated. Please stay on-topic.
Please note that your comment may not appear immediately after you post it.