Using the Handy Gmail Quick Links Labs Feature
/Gmail has a handy feature called Quick Links that can help you streamline your Inbox processing activities.
Gmail is a very popular Email service, with many useful, built-in features.
Gmail also has a set of extended features, called “Labs” that provide a number of helpful extra features and options.
In a prior post, I reviewed one of the Labs features called “Canned Response”, which allows you to create and use pre-defined replies that you can use when responding to Emails.
For this post, I am going to focus on a handy Gmail Labs feature called “Quick Links”.
What does Gmail Quick Links do?
Gmail Quick Links adds a small box in Gmail that displays a list of "Links” to almost any Gmail feature, option, or message.
You can use Quick Links for multiple purposes:
Saving frequent searches
Links to individual messages
Specific Labels
A Settings Page Tab
Basically, everything you do within Gmail can be saved as a “Quick Link”.
This is because Gmail creates a unique “URL” for each action you perform in Gmail. And that is what you are actually “Saving” as a “Quick Link”.
The only key thing you can not do with Quick Links is to set it to the "URL" of an external website (which would be a nice enhancement!)
How to Enable Gmail Quick Links:
Select the “Gear” icon in the top-right of Gmail.
Select “Settings”
Select the “Labs” Tab.
Scroll down until you see the “Quick Links” section (the labs are listed in alphabetical order).
Select to “Enable” this feature.
Make sure to scroll down and select “Save Changes” at the very bottom of the “Labs” screen.
Now, you should be returned to your Gmail Inbox, and the Quick Links feature will now be activated.
Where to Find Quick Links:
Your Quick Links display in the lower-left corner of your Gmail window, near your “chat” window (if you use it).
If it is not displaying, you may need to enable the “Gadgets” button at the very bottom of the screen by selecting the “...” button in the bottom left of your Gmail screen.
Ok.. so now it is set-up, and you know where to find it.
How to Use Gmail Quick Links:
The Purpose of Gmail Quick Links is to provide a quick and easy way to reference a specific message, label, saved search, or even Settings Page that you want to be able to quickly reference.
To add a specific Gmail message as a Quick Link:
Open the Gmail message.
Select “Add Quick Link” once the message is open in the “Quick Links box".
Make sure to provide a useful name for your Quick Link and not use the messy-looking, default name.
So make sure to change this:
To This:
Select “OK”.
That’s it! It is now added as a Quick Link!
Next time you want to access that specific message, just select the respective Quick Link!
Adjusting your Quick Links:
You can use the “-” and “+” button to the right of “Quick Links” to either display or hide your full list of Quick Links.
If you ever want to Delete a Quick Link, just select the “x” to the right of it’s name.
You can also adjust the horizontal line in the Quick Links box to adjust the height of the Quick Links box. Just drag it either "up" or "Down" to adjust where your Quick Links box is displayed.
And you can even hide the Quick Links feature entirely by selecting the Gadgets “...” button again.
Remember, you can use a Quick Link for nearly anything that is displayed in Gmail.
This includes Emails, Search Results, Tags, or even a Settings page.