Googlemail as a filtered email (and file) backup
polycounter lvl 18
I've just blogged this (http://www.rsart.co.uk/2006/11/26/googlemail-as-a-filtered-email-and-file-backup/), but since I think a few will find it useful, and none of you miserable buggers read RSArt, I'll C&P it to here.
Do you use Gmail/Googlemail?
I do, and I don't. Since I have webhosting, I use an email address that is linked to my site (for the most part). But I use Googlemail for a few online sites like Amazon, and I'm shifting a few more to it. I also use it as a dumping ground for all my automatic searches - http://www.google.com/alerts.
Where I really use Googlemail is for backing up and archiving emails that I want to be able to access anytime, anyplace, anywhere.
The simplest way to do this is just to forward those emails from Mail to my Googlemail account, but Googlemail has a few secrets up its sleeve that makes things even better when those forwarded emails actually get to my Google inbox: +addresses, labels and filters.
Labels are easy to understand - they are just descriptive tags that you apply to an email message (you can apply more than one to a message). I've created labels for Friends, Art, Photos, Holiday, Backup etc. These make it easy to search and find specific groups of email.
Next up we have filters. A filter is just a rule in Googlemail that tells it how to deal with specfic emails. Google explains it thusly:
Gmail's filters allow you to manage the flow of incoming messages. Using filters, you can automatically label, archive, delete, star, or forward your mail, based on any combination of keywords, sender, recipients, and more.
Finally, the +address. A +address is simple: a + sign followed by a keyword that goes just after the name on your email address and before the @ symbol, such as myname+backup@googlemail.com, or myname+holiday@googlemail.com. These are not stored by googlemail, they are simply keywords that you put into your address. Think of it as an external tag.
So what do we do with all this? I've set up a label in Gmail called Backup. I forward any emails from Mail or Outlook that I want to backup to myname+backup@googlemail.com (theres the +address), and I've set up a filter to tell Gmail how to process it - any email that is sent to myname+backup@googlemail.com gets automatically archived, bypassing my inbox and gets labelled as 'Backup'.
Emails from friends that I need to be able to read at any time from any computer? Those get forwarded to myname+friends@googlemail.com, get labelled as 'Friends' and get the Star icon applied to them. My photos? myname+photo@googlemail.com.
As a final note, I've set up folders in my email client (Mail.app) to store the emails locally in a logically manner - I drag Friends mails to the Friends folder, hotel and flight information to my holiday folder etc. If I was really clever I'd set up a rule in Mail.app to automatically forward those emails to Gmail.
Do you use Gmail/Googlemail?
I do, and I don't. Since I have webhosting, I use an email address that is linked to my site (for the most part). But I use Googlemail for a few online sites like Amazon, and I'm shifting a few more to it. I also use it as a dumping ground for all my automatic searches - http://www.google.com/alerts.
Where I really use Googlemail is for backing up and archiving emails that I want to be able to access anytime, anyplace, anywhere.
The simplest way to do this is just to forward those emails from Mail to my Googlemail account, but Googlemail has a few secrets up its sleeve that makes things even better when those forwarded emails actually get to my Google inbox: +addresses, labels and filters.
Labels are easy to understand - they are just descriptive tags that you apply to an email message (you can apply more than one to a message). I've created labels for Friends, Art, Photos, Holiday, Backup etc. These make it easy to search and find specific groups of email.
Next up we have filters. A filter is just a rule in Googlemail that tells it how to deal with specfic emails. Google explains it thusly:
Gmail's filters allow you to manage the flow of incoming messages. Using filters, you can automatically label, archive, delete, star, or forward your mail, based on any combination of keywords, sender, recipients, and more.
Finally, the +address. A +address is simple: a + sign followed by a keyword that goes just after the name on your email address and before the @ symbol, such as myname+backup@googlemail.com, or myname+holiday@googlemail.com. These are not stored by googlemail, they are simply keywords that you put into your address. Think of it as an external tag.
So what do we do with all this? I've set up a label in Gmail called Backup. I forward any emails from Mail or Outlook that I want to backup to myname+backup@googlemail.com (theres the +address), and I've set up a filter to tell Gmail how to process it - any email that is sent to myname+backup@googlemail.com gets automatically archived, bypassing my inbox and gets labelled as 'Backup'.
Emails from friends that I need to be able to read at any time from any computer? Those get forwarded to myname+friends@googlemail.com, get labelled as 'Friends' and get the Star icon applied to them. My photos? myname+photo@googlemail.com.
As a final note, I've set up folders in my email client (Mail.app) to store the emails locally in a logically manner - I drag Friends mails to the Friends folder, hotel and flight information to my holiday folder etc. If I was really clever I'd set up a rule in Mail.app to automatically forward those emails to Gmail.
Replies
(waits for flood of spam)