Recently we presented the use of an email address suffix to automatically add labels to your inbound emails. However, given the limitations, it’s generally better to set up filters instead.

The second way to automatically sort inbound mail is by using filters. It’s simple enough to set up from the mail Gmail screen. First, click the “create filter” link just beside the search buttons at the top of the message view.

Then key in the keywords or email address you want to identify those mailing list messages with. It’s either you define the “To” address (since mailing lists usually send the emails to a generic email address). Or, you can specify the prefix usually inserted at the subject line (commonly in [] brackets).

The advantage of using the recipient address is that only emails sent to the e-group are automatically labelled (and those sent only to your email address, meanwhile are not). If you use the subject prefix, meanwhile, all messages with that subject prefix will be considered, including any private messages with that subject (for instance, a fellow mailing list member sends you a private email).

It still depends on your preference. Be sure to input only either the recipient email address or the subject prefix. Otherwise, your criteria might be too restricting.

The third step is defining a label to attach to the inbound messages you want to sort. If you want the messages to be instantly archived (i.e., it will not appear iin the Inbox view), then check “Skip inbox.”

If you don’t have a suitable label yet, choose “New Label” under the dropdown list, and key in the name of the label you wish to use.

Lastly, you can also apply the newly created filter to the existing messages in your mailbox that satisfy the requirements. Check the “Also apply filter to xxx conversations” box.