How to tag email messages in Gmail (a work around)

For a long time now I wanted a way to be able to tag and edit email I have already received from Gmail. 

Sometimes someone sends you an email about something but doesn't explicitly say a keyword you would think of if trying to search for it later. 

Sometimes you get more information on the subject later and would like to be able to add it in.

So I decided to do this myself, thanks to Gmail's conversation view, it is possible.

Step 1:

Go to Contacts

Add a new contact called "tag" and make the email address yourusername+tag@gmail.com.

This will still go to your inbox.

Next we want to add a filter for this email address.

Go to Settings, Filters, Create a new filter...

Now in the To: box type in this tag email address, yourusername+tag@gmail.com

Click Next Step, select 'skip the inbox' and 'mark as read'

Click Create Filter

Now anytime someone sends you an email that you want to add keywords to, or notes for yourself to review later, you can.

Forward the message to "tag",  in the body of the message type whatever you like, and press send.

This email will be added to the original message in conversation view, and will be searchable to find the original message later.

Let me give you an example of when this could be useful.  You were at a dinner party and you told the group you need a new cleaning person. Tom said he has a great cleaning person named Monica, and he would email you her contact information the next day.

When the email arrives all it says is Monica 416-555-6933, if you were to archive this message as is, you would have to remember her name, something you may not remember in a couple weeks when you're looking for it again.

Now you can forward this message to "tag"  and in the body write words like "cleaning person cleaner maid tom suggestion recommendation" etc.

You get the drift, you want to be able to make every email that comes in searchable by you.

You have to ask yourself what you would naturally try to search to find this message and make sure those keywords are attached to the conversation.

Give it a try, let me know what you think.

Creating Multiple Signatures in Gmail

Do you have multiple accounts all connected to one Gmail account.

I found it annoying to have to write a different signature depending on the email address I wanted to send from.

Here's a fix

Go to the green beaker in the top right corner of the screen. This is called "labs"

Go down to where is says "Canned Responses" click 'enable'

Now go to "Compose Mail", you should see a field below the subject line that says "Canned responses".

Type your signature you would like for lets say your business account in the email text field. Make sure to leave at least one line between your signature and the first line of the email.
If you like the way Gmail natively adds "--" before your signature, remember to add it yourself.

Now click the "Canned responses" and under "save" click "new canned response..."

Name the canned response something like business signature.

Now when you go to compose an email, you can write your letter. then press canned responses, insert, business signature and it will automatically be added to your message.

Give it a try...