If you have used Gmail from Google for any length of time, you realize how powerful being able to search all your email is in less than a second. Many people don't even organize their email at all and just let the Google-brain help you search all email you have ever received or sent. Most people's mailboxes as a result look like a hodge podge of read, unread, drafts and even notes to themselves. Searching Gmail by keywords works, but there are a lot better ways to pinpoint a specific set of emails or just even one email with handy search operators. Just like searching Google, your Gmail can be searched with a variety of operators.
Here are our favourites:
Searching for an email from someone by name or email
from: <name>
or
from: <email address>
Searching for an email that was cc'd or bcc'd to someone
cc: <name>
or
bcc: <email address>
Searching for a message with a word, but not another word
dinner -movie
or
"I want this sentence" -notthisword
Searching for a message with an attachment
has:attachment
Searching for a message with an attachment with a certain filetype or name
filename:pdf
or
filename:myfile.txt
Searching for a message that is unread, snoozed
is:starred
or
is:read is:starred
Searching for a message sent before or after a date
after:2018/01/10
or
before:2010/06/07
or
after:2017/01/01 before:2017/12/31
Searching for a messages of a certain size (in bytes of MB), useful for removing large emails!
size:1000000
or
larger:10M
or
smaller:1M
You can also combine these operators together to form a very powerful way to pinpoint your search. Armed with search operators you are an advanced Gmail ninja!
