Today I was learning how to become a Gmail Ninja and I came across a nice addition to Gmail. You can have multiple email address sent to the same address just by adding a plus sign (+). For example, if my email is GmailNinja@gmail.com, I can create:

All of the above will be delivered to GmailNinja@gmail.com.

Why is this important you say? You can then set up filters based on the incoming email address. When you get dozens or hundreds of emails a day this can be a big time saver.

[Source Gmail]

This morning I noticed that you can apply custom colors to labels in Gmail. I have used labels in the past, but the labels didn’t really stand out which reduced their usefulness.  With custom labels you can easily differentiate all the emails in your Inbox (work emails in one color, mailing list emails in another color, etc.)

Here’s how to use the custom colors. First, create labels and filers.

 When you click the arrow, you get a popup window like this one:

The color choices were a little too dark for my taste.  When I tried them, it was hard to see the text next to them because of the contrast.  You can click on Add custom color and choose a background and text color.

Now all your labels look just the way that you want them.

Happy labeling 🙂