Gmail has a lot of useful features buried in menus most people never open. This guide covers the ones that make the biggest difference: composing in plaintext, setting up signatures, automating with filters, and navigating faster with keyboard shortcuts and search operators.

Composing in plaintext

Plaintext mode strips all formatting from your emails. No fonts, no colors, no embedded images. Just text. This is useful when formatting keeps breaking (especially in corporate environments), when you want better deliverability for cold outreach, or when the recipient's email client mangles HTML.

1. Open Gmail and click Compose to start a new email
2. In the compose window, click the three-dot menu at the bottom-right (next to the trash icon)
3. Click Plain text mode to toggle it on
4. A checkmark appears next to it when active

Gmail remembers this setting per-draft, not globally. You need to toggle it each time you want a plaintext email. If you find yourself using plaintext often, it becomes muscle memory fast.

Any formatting you already typed (bold, lists, links) gets stripped when you switch to plaintext. Switch before you start typing.

Creating email signatures

Signatures auto-append to your outgoing emails so you don't have to type your name, title, and contact info every time.

1. Click the gear icon in the top-right and select See all settings
2. Scroll down in the General tab until you find Signature
3. Click Create new and give it a name (like "Work" or "Personal")
4. Type your signature in the editor. You can format text, add images, and add links
5. To add a clickable link, select the text you want to link, then press Cmd + K (Mac) or Ctrl + K (Windows) and paste the URL
6. Under Signature defaults, choose which signature to use for new emails and replies/forwards
7. Scroll to the bottom and click Save Changes

You can create multiple signatures for different purposes. Switch between them in the compose window by clicking the pen icon in the formatting toolbar and selecting a different signature.

A common gotcha: if your signature looks fine in the editor but the link doesn't work when received, make sure you used Cmd/Ctrl + K to insert it as a hyperlink rather than just pasting the raw URL in the signature text.

Filters and labels

Filters automatically sort, label, archive, or forward emails based on rules you set. Labels are Gmail's version of folders, except an email can have multiple labels.

Create a label:

1. In the left sidebar, scroll down and click More, then Create new label
2. Name it and click Create

Create a filter:

1. Click the gear icon and select See all settings
2. Go to the Filters and Blocked Addresses tab
3. Click Create a new filter
4. Fill in the criteria (from, to, subject, has words, size, etc.)
5. Click Create filter
6. Choose what happens to matching emails: apply a label, skip the inbox (archive), mark as read, star it, forward it, or delete it
7. Check Also apply filter to matching conversations if you want it to retroactively process existing emails
8. Click Create filter

Quick filter shortcut: Click the search filters icon (small downward triangle) inside the search bar, fill in your criteria, then click Create filter at the bottom of the dropdown. This skips the settings page entirely.

Common filter setups:

• Auto-label newsletters so they skip your inbox but are still accessible
• Auto-star emails from your boss or key clients
• Forward specific emails to a team alias
• Auto-delete notifications from services you don't care about

Keyboard shortcuts

Gmail's keyboard shortcuts are turned off by default. You need to enable them first.

1. Click the gear icon and select See all settings
2. In the General tab, scroll to Keyboard shortcuts
3. Select Keyboard shortcuts on
4. Scroll to the bottom and click Save Changes

Once enabled, press Shift + ? from anywhere in Gmail to see the full shortcut overlay.

Composing and replying:

• c – compose a new email
• d – compose in a new tab
• r – reply
• a – reply all
• f – forward

Navigation:

• / – jump to search
• g then i – go to inbox
• g then s – go to starred
• g then t – go to sent
• g then d – go to drafts
• j – move to older conversation
• k – move to newer conversation
• o or Enter – open conversation
• u – back to the conversation list

Actions:

• e – archive
• # – delete
• ! – report spam
• s – toggle star
• Shift + i – mark as read
• Shift + u – mark as unread
• m – mute conversation
• x – select conversation
• z – undo last action

Selection:

• * then a – select all conversations
• * then n – deselect all
• * then r – select read
• * then u – select unread

Search operators

Gmail's search is powerful once you know the operators. Type these directly in the search bar.

By sender or recipient:

• from:[email protected] – emails from a specific person
• to:[email protected] – emails sent to a specific address

By content:

• subject:invoice – search only in subject lines
• has:attachment – emails with any attachment
• filename:pdf – emails with a specific file type attached

By date:

• before:2025/06/01 – emails before a date
• after:2025/01/01 – emails after a date
• older_than:7d – emails older than 7 days (also works with m for months and y for years)
• newer_than:2d – emails from the last 2 days

By status:

• is:unread – unread emails
• is:starred – starred emails
• is:important – emails marked important
• in:trash – search the trash
• in:spam – search spam

By label:

• label:work – emails with a specific label
• -label:work – emails without that label

Combine operators for precise searches:

• from:jane has:attachment after:2025/01/01 – attachments from Jane this year
• subject:meeting is:unread – unread emails with "meeting" in the subject
• to:me -label:newsletters – emails sent directly to you, excluding newsletters

Wrap phrases in quotes for exact matching: subject:"project update".