Gmail Tips and Tricks

From a Google invite-only venture in 2004, "Gmail" has since become one of the top three most popular, free webmail providers in the world (alongside Hotmail and Yahoo Mail).
Tip: if you don't yet have your own Google account and email address, please see our "Create Gmail Account" tutorial, all on a single, bookmark-able page filled with other tips!
Because the "Gmail" name couldn't legally be used in all countries, "Google Mail" is another name for the same service: email addresses ending in @gmail.com or @googlemail.com are both valid, and those in @google.com belong to Google employees (more info).
Tip: if you have an account with Google, you actually already have a Gmail account! (Just add "@gmail.com" to the end of your username - test it out with our "Gmail Sign in" tutorial.)
Initially targeting geeks / power users, Gmail has quickly become mainstream, in part following Google's efforts at making it more intuitive (including a big redesign in late 2011).
Once you get over the learning curve of using labels instead of email folders, you may fall in love with that approach, which (in pure Google tradition) emphasizes message "findability".
Here's the full listing of tutorials: read through it for a great overview, or refresh your
memory. For in-depth info, just click on the corresponding link!
Sign in to Gmail, with safety tips for the automatic login option.
Sign out of Gmail to prevent others from accessing your account (accidentally or on purpose).
Change password with a few clicks: will affect your Google account and YouTube.
Emails from same sender can quickly be filtered with a search box operator.
Keyboard shortcuts can be turned on or off, or fully customized with an experimental extension.
Add an email signature to every message you send from the "web browser" version of Gmail.
A "vacation responder", aka "out-of-office auto-reply", lets you notify contacts that you are away.
Change theme to brighten your mood with different colors, or make emails and labels easier to see.
Change your name showing to recipients you email from the web browser version of Gmail.

Email AOL Mail Gmail Hotmail Yahoo Mail MS Office Excel 2010 OneNote 2010 Outlook 2010 Word 2010 OS & Devices Kindle Fire Windows 7 Web Dev C# and .NET JavaScript jQuery