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mardi 3 mai 2011

Request for a new search parameter: has:label

A "has:label" search parameter. Useful for checking mail with any kind of label. I would personally use it for archiving old mails and being sure none passed through (as long as the Enforced status I asked for is not implemented).

Alos discussed here

An "enforced status" checkbox for IMAP unsubscription

Summary

  • An "enforced status" checkbox for IMAP unsubscription.
  • Similar in function to Enforced in GPO or !important in CSS).
  • An old mail in both
    • an enforced unsubscribed IMAP mailbox and
    • an regular subscribed mailbox
    will not be downloaded, since enforced unsubscribe overrides "regular" susbscribe.

Scenario:

The easy part


I access Gmail with IMAP from a desktop client and the local database is getting huge (think this). In order to make it slimmer, I decide to backup old mails.

To do this, I use a filter to grap all old emails (before:2007/04/01) and affect them a label (archives) and apply the selection to existing mails (Apply the filter to x conversations below). I then activate theAdvanced IMAP feature in Labs then I uncheck the subscribe button for the archives label.

Still with me?

Now, all my old mails are in one folder/label (archives). Since I unsubscribed from this label, I should not see it locally (If I still want to access an old mail, I go to the web interface).

The tough part


Except that… These old mails have labels of their own, like grandma, birthdays and so on. And I don't want to unsubscribe from birthdays. I just want old mails out. If a mail is labelled both birthday and archives, it will be downloaded, by virtue of belonging to birthday, even if it also belongs to archives!

Proposal


With an enforce checkbox for every mailbox (once Advanced IMAP feature is on), Maild which belong to both a subscribed and an unsubscribed mailbox will be downloaded or not depending on the enforced status (of course, at least one of the mailbox must have an enforced status and at least one must not have it).

That way, I will still get new mails about birthdays on my desktop client, but I won't receive the old mail about birthday!

Please tell me if it is hard to understand.

Also discussed here and here.

lundi 2 mai 2011

Quick notes with subadresses and filters

Gmail permits subadresses (a.k.a. "plus adresses" - RFC 5233).

By combining this and an adequate filter, I found any easy way to send myself not without having them lying around.

Here's the way:
  1. Create a label "Notes". Give it beige color (like Post-it) with the color 243,231,179
  2. Create a filter:
    1. "to:(xxxxx+notes@gmail.com)" xxxxx is your gmail address
    2. apply label "Notes"
At first, you'll have to type xxxxx+notes. If you are like me, you will soon only have to type notes and Gmail will understand.

Great time (and memory) saver!