Getting Comfortable with Gmail - Preview Pane

If you are a new user to Gmail and you miss certain features of your old email client, it can be difficult.  But for the most part, Gmail has a feature for most everything, so you don't have to worry.  

One features many of our teachers miss is the Preview Pane.  If you miss this feature, you are in luck.  You will need to click on the Gear icon at the top right and choose Settings.  Once there, go to the LABS menu.  From here, you can choose the Preview Pane lab by clicking Enable.  Make sure to Save Changes.

Once you have enabled this lab, you will see that at the top right of Gmail you will now have a "Toggle Split Pane Mode" button, allowing you to have a Vertical or Horizontal Preview Pane for your Inbox.  

You can also configure your inbox to "Pre-Sort" incoming mail into Primary, Social, Promotions, Updates, or Forums so that you can keep a handle on the flood of mail coming in.  This allows you to keep everything in its place.  

Beyond this, if you still need tips on keeping your email  under check, you can also use Labels.  Rather than assigning email into folders, Gmail allows you to apply labels to your incoming mail so it can easily be found later.  But not just one label.  Whereas with other email clients, a message can only be filed away in one folder, you can apply up to 5000 labels to one email message.  So you no longer have to worry if you have an email that applies to multiple topics.  Watch this video to learn more.