Gmail - How To Make Gmail Look More Like Outlook

Gmail has a lot of wonderful features and customizations but many of us have used Microsoft Outlook for many years (decades!) and for some people that it is difficult to change.

If you want to use Gmail for all its advantages but you miss the look and layout of Outlook there is a way for you to change Gmail to a split view.

How To Create A Hyperlink - Link to a URL or Google Document

There is a better way to share your documents and files by email than by sending an attachment. The better way is to put your documents and files in the cloud and just share them with a link. The 'cloud' could be Google Drive, Dropbox, Microsoft OneDrive and others.

Thank goodness we have cloud computing these days to make it easier and better for everyone. BUT, it’s hard to break old habits, and you need to have a good concept, or mental model, of what is different.

So here are a few things to think about.

If you send a document (Word or Excel files) as a FILE attachment, then your people will have a copy that will never change. If you ever update the document you will have to send the updated version to them again. And there are multiple copies everywhere. If you send an attachment to 10 people there are 11 copies of it (including yours).

BUT, if you send the document as a LINK to your Google Docs document (or Dropbox or whatever) then they will always go to your shared file and see the most current version. There is only one and it is always updated.

Gmail - My recommended basic settings

Many people use Gmail and never change anything, and possibly wonder what is the big deal about Gmail. Why is it so popular when it looks and feels like every other email program? 

My series on Gmail will try to show you how to get the most of out your Gmail account. You can be as simple or complex as you want. My general instructional style is to 'crawl, walk, then run' so just start with the basics. 



The basic Gmail interface is pretty plain. Here are a few of my recommended settings to improve things a little. 

To start, find the settings button in the upper right corner. For Gmail it is the little gear icon. When the drop-down menu appears click on 'settings'. Then a whole new page will open. 

Across the top you will see many different tabs, or pages, of settings: General, Labels, Inbox, etc. Let's focus on just the General tab first. 

I won't go into each setting on this page, just the basic ones to get you started. 

Looking down the list the first setting I would change is the "conversation view," which by default is off. If you change this to 'on' then multiple emails with the same subject will be shown as one email line instead of many separate emails. This reduces confusion and allows you to follow an email discussion much easier. 

The next setting I would change is "keyboard shortcuts": change it to 'on'. This doesn't change the appearance in any way but allows you to use certain keyboard keystrokes for faster and easier actions. For example, shift-C opens a new email in a separate pop-up window. Pressing G then I refreshes and resets the Inbox view. There are more but that will be in a future post. 

Next, change the "Button Labels" to 'text.'  This changes the icons at the top to text, which is much easier to read. 

You can add a picture if you want. Kinda nice if you want to take the time, but totally optional. 

The signature is also optional but I like to sign my name to most emails so I just add a blank line or two and then put my first name. You can get quite fancy with signatures, adding formatting text and even icons or graphics. If you do add a signature ensure you also check the little box at the bottom: "Insert this signature before quoted text in replies and remove the "--" line that precedes it." If you don't check that box then your signature will appear below any quoted reply text, which can be confusing to people if it is long. 

Next, turn the "Personal level indicators" to 'off.' These are little arrow icons in the Inbox. They are of little value and only serve to clutter the appearance, IMHO. I like as clean and simple a view as I can get, so these have to go. 

That's it for this page. Now the most important part is to make sure you click on the tiny little 'save' button at the very bottom. It is so small it's like they are trying to hide it. 

But we are not quite done yet! Click on the settings again (the little gear icon) and then 'Settings.' When the settings page opens click on the "Inbox" tab at the top (third from the left). 

Again, I like to keep my inbox display as clean and simple as I can, so scroll down and "Importance Markers" and click on 'No Markers." Now click on save changes again. 

Now you will notice that 2 columns of icons are gone, leaving a simpler display. You will still see the column of stars but they can be useful and I will mention them in a future post. 

After

Before

There is one last setting that is optional but may be important for some people. If you are used to using Microsoft Outlook you may want your email display to look more like that. You can experiment with this and see if you like it. Once again, click on the settings icon and select "Settings." Then look to the right side and click on the "Labs" tab. 

There are many interesting things to look at here but you want to scroll down and find the "Preview Pane" and enable that. Again, scroll all the way down and click on the 'Save' button. 

Now you will see a new icon in the upper right corner, just to the left of the settings gear icon. If you hover your cursor over it a pop-up will display "Toggle Split Pane Mode." Click on it and select "vertical split" and the display will change. Now click on any email and you will see it open in the right pane - just like Outlook. To turn it off just click again and select "no split." 

So those are the basic settings that I like in setting up my Gmail account. There are many more functions and changes but I will cover them in the future. 

Hope you find this useful!