Managing Your Email

Today, when I was looking for a new email feature on Gmail, I came across two new filters: “send canned response” and “never send it to spam”.  It is the first one that made me realize that I can now set up automatic email responses for specific email addresses. This means I can set up a “thank you” auto-responder email which is sent out as soon as email hits our inbox, managing your email.

Managing Your Email

Let’s say for example that you want to work for us here at TapSuccess (and why wouldn’t you want to?). As the owner, I go through approximately 7-10 applications a day, so that can stack up after a while. It’s good to not keep people guessing, so we set up a “thank you, we’ll get back to you soon” auto-responder email which is sent out as soon as their email hits our inbox.

Managing Your Email on Google

If you want to have what Google calls a “Canned response” from a particular address, you first need to set up that address in Gmail. This can also be a new Gmail account.

In managing your email, you first have to switch the feature on. Go to the “Gear” in the upper right hand corner and scroll down to “Settings”, then find “Filter” tab at the top of the page and then “Create a new filter.”

This opens a pop-up window with several fields – “From,” “To,” “Subject,” “Has the words,” “Doesn’t have,” and a Checkbox for “Has attachment.” For our purposes, all we need is the “To” field. Enter your email address in this field. Make sure the other fields are BLANK.

Final Steps to Manage Your Email

When you enter an email address in this field, “Create filter with this search” link appears. Click this link, which will take you to another pop-up page. (We’re almost done.) The last and final screen asks you to “choose an action.” Click the checkbox “Send canned response:” and then Choose the canned response from the (surprise) “Choose canned response” drop-down menu. You can check other options as desired, and then click “Create filter” at the bottom of the page. (For example, I also check the checkbox “Mark as read” for my application.) Remember to save your settings for managing your email before leaving the window.

Now go back to Gmail and test your settings. The “Canned responses” link should be just under the Subject field, next to the “Attach a file” link. This is where you could use this feature to choose from different responses, for example, in a job application setting.

Compose a new message for managing your email and send it to yourself. Log out of this account, if necessary, and log into the account where you sent your test message. Open the test message and reply to it. Then check your inbox again. The auto response should be there. If not, go back and check your settings.

That is it. Now every time someone sends or replies to that email address, they will get an auto-responder message (or “canned response” as Gmail likes to call them). You can do the same too for your blog, your company, your club, your school and much more. If your inbox is overflowing and people are complaining that your email response times suck, then set up an auto-responder message to at least confirm that “you have received their message and that you’ll get back to them as soon as possible.”

OK, the email is impersonal and it’s bland – but hey it’s a response! You won’t even know the email has gone out as it’s all done in the background.
One last thing. Managing your email is part of Google Labs’ work, which means it is experimental. It can change, get moved, or even disappear at Google’s whim. Should you need to escape Google Labs, use this. If (when) a Labs feature breaks, and you’re having trouble loading your inbox, there’s an escape hatch.

Use this link: https://mail.google.com/mail/?labs=0.