Switch from Microsoft Outlook to Gmail

Organize & archive email


In Gmail, use labels and filters to organize your email. You can also star, snooze, archive, and delete messages to keep your inbox clear.

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Note: The instructions in this guide are primarily web only. Get switching information for mobile devices.

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Group email by topic

  • In Outlook: Use folders, rules, and categories.
  • In Gmail: Use labels and search filters (Gmail doesn't use folders). You can drag messages into labels, similar to the way you drag items into folders. You can apply multiple labels to a message, and find messages by clicking any of their labels in the left panel.

Learn how

Create a filter

  1. Open Gmail.
  2. In the search box at the top, click Show search options photos tune .
  3. Enter your search criteria. If you want to check that your search worked correctly, see what emails show up by clicking Search. 
  4. At the bottom of the search window, click Create filter.
  5. Choose what you'd like the filter to do.
  6. Click Create filter.

Note: When you create a filter to forward messages, only new messages will be affected. ​In addition, when someone replies to a message that you've filtered, the reply will only be filtered if it meets the same search criteria. 

Learn more about filters

 Create a label

  1. On your computer, go to Gmail.
  2. On the left, scroll down, then click More.
  3. Click Create new label.
  4. Name your label.
  5. Click Create.

Label messages in your inbox

  1. On your computer, go to Gmail.
  2. Select the messages.
  3. At the top, click Labels.
  4. Select a label, or create a new one.

Learn more at the Gmail Help Center

Mark email you send as important

  • In Outlook: Select the high importance marker. Importance markers don't appear in messages sent to Gmail accounts.
  • In Gmail: Highlight the message's importance in the subject field.

Learn how
  1. Open Gmail.
  2. Click Compose.
  3. Add recipients.
  4. In the Subject field, add a descriptor, such as:
    • [URGENT]
    • [REPLY BY DEC 1]
    • [APPROVAL NEEDED]
      Note: You can paste in a red exclamation mark before the descriptor to mark email you send as important.
  5. Compose your message and click Send.

Mark email you receive for follow up

  • In Outlook: Use flags to track important messages you receive.
  • In Gmail: Star, snooze, or mark messages you receive as important.

Learn how

Star an email to make it stand out

  1. On your computer, open Gmail.
  2. From your inbox, go to the left of the message, then click Star . If the message is open, click More and then Add Star.
  3. If you have multiple stars, keep clicking the Star icon until you see the one that you want to use.

View email you've starred

  1. On your computer, open Gmail.
  2. On the left side of the page, click Starred. You may need to click More first.

Tip: To find starred messages, you can also use search operators in Gmail.

  • To find all starred messages, enter is:starred.
  • To find messages with a specific star, enter has: followed by the star's name. The names are based on your current star options in use:
    • has:yellow-star
    • has:orange-star
    • has:red-star
    • has:purple-star
    • has:blue-star
    • has:green-star
    • has:red-exclamation mark
    • has:orange-guillemet
    • has:yellow-exclamation mark
    • has:green-tick
    • has:blue-info
    • has:purple-question

Snooze an email until later

  1. On your computer, go to Gmail.
  2. Point to the email.
  3. On the right, click Snooze .
  4. Choose a later day and time to receive the email.

Tip: To snooze multiple messages:

  1. Select the messages.
  2. At the top, click Snooze .
    • If you can't find 'Snooze', click More and then Snooze.

 Learn more at the Gmail Help Center

Save attachments 

  • In Outlook: Save attachments to your computer.
  • In Gmail: Upload attachments to Google Drive.

Learn how

Save attachments

Important: You can't add certain attachments to Google Drive. Learn about files that you can store in Drive.

  1. On your computer, go to Gmail.
  2. Open a message.
  3. At the bottom of the message, hover over the attachment.
  4. Click Add to Drive .

Learn more at the Gmail Help Center

Get rid of unimportant email 

Hide unimportant threads

Sometimes you might receive an email and decide you don't want to see any more messages in the conversation. You can mute the conversation to have replies automatically skip the inbox and go directly to the archive.

  • In Outlook: Ignore conversations.
  • In Gmail: Mute conversations.

Learn how

Mute email threads

  1. On your computer, go to Gmail.
  2. Open or select the conversation.
  3. At the top, click More Moreand then Mute.

Tip: To mute more quickly, learn how to turn on keyboard shortcuts.

Learn more at the Gmail Help Center

Get rid of spam

  • In Outlook: Mark as email junk and choose settings for junk email.
  • In Gmail: Report messages as spam, move messages to the spam folder, and block senders.

Learn how

Report spam

  1. On your computer, open Gmail.
  2. Select one or more emails.
  3. Click Report spam .

Block senders 

  1. On your computer, open Gmail.
  2. Open the message from the sender.
  3. At the top right, click More More.
  4. Click Block '{sender}' or Unblock '{sender}'.

Learn more at the Gmail Help Center

Archive email

  • In Outlook: Set up rules to periodically move messages from your inbox to the Outlook Archive file.
  • In Gmail: Archive messages, or set up filters to automatically move messages to the archive. No need to schedule rules to run at regular intervals. After you archive messages, you can still find them under the label, All Mail.

Learn how

 Archive email

  1. On your computer, open Gmail.
  2. Open the message that you want to archive.
  3. At the top, click Archive .

Tips:

Find archived email

Important: When you search in Gmail, your results include archived messages. Learn more about search in Gmail.

  1. On your computer, open Gmail.
  2. On the left, click More.
  3. Click All mail.
Note: If you don’t see All Mail or Trash, scroll to the bottom of the left sidebar and click More.

Delete email

  • In Outlook: Move messages to the deleted items folder and use mailbox cleanup.
  • In Gmail: Move messages to the trash. Trashed messages are automatically deleted after 30 days.

Learn how
  1. On your computer, go to Gmail.
  2. On the left of each message that you want to delete, tick the box.
  3. At the top, click Delete .
Note: If you don’t see All Mail or Trash, scroll to the bottom of the left sidebar and click More.

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