Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
•
Important:
Gmail has yet another label, Important, that acts as a sort of re-
verse spam filter—it's a way of automatically highlighting messages that Gmail
thinks are especially important, so they'll stand out in a crowded Inbox. Import-
ant messages can appear first in your Inbox on the Gmail Web site, and can be
identified with a special marker icon. (To determine how Gmail treats “import-
ant” messages, log in to your Gmail account, choose Settings from the gear
pop-up menu at the top of the page, and click Inbox.) Although Mail can display
an Important mailbox under your Gmail account that contains all the messages
labeled as Important, it doesn't show the special markers or put important mes-
sages at the top of your Inbox.
•
Priority Inbox:
If you activate Gmail's Priority Inbox feature, you can con-
figure your Inbox to prioritize the display of incoming messages you consider
most worthy of your immediate attention (such as Important, Unread, and/or
Starred)—and to display only a limited number in each category. To turn this
feature on, log in to your Gmail account, choose Settings from the gear pop-
up menu at the top of the page, click Inbox, and choose Priority Inbox from the
Inbox Type pop-up menu. In the Inbox Sections area, choose which items to
show and in what order, and click Save Changes. (To turn off Priority Inbox, re-
peat these steps, but choose Classic—or any other option—from the Inbox Type
pop-up menu.) Mail doesn't display a Priority Inbox, so regardless of your set-
tings here, Mail displays all messages in your Gmail Inbox, just as before.
•
Categories:
If you choose the default Inbox type (as opposed to Priority Inbox
or some other arrangement that shows a certain type of message first), Gmail on
the Web displays a series of labels called Categories that show you all the mes-
sages Gmail perceives as being Social, Promotions, Updates, or Forums. These
labels serve useful purposes on the Gmail Web site, but they don't appear in
Mail.
Gmail vs. Other IMAP Providers
Now let's turn the situation around and look at how Mail handles Gmail as compared to other
IMAP providers. If you're used to a conventional IMAP account, you'll notice that Gmail be-
haves
almost
the same in Mail, with the following exceptions (all of which I've mentioned
elsewhere in this topic):
• As of 10.9.2, you can reorder most top-level mailboxes in your Gmail account,
although not Gmail-only special mailboxes such as Important and Chats.
• Archiving Gmail messages removes the Inbox label, such that they'll appear in
All Mail on the Gmail Web site rather than having an Archive label. With other
IMAP providers, arching a message moves it to the Archive mailbox.
