Definitions
- Conversation: A Google conversation is one email or a series of emails with the same subject, presented as a single view.
- Conversation view: A view simply means an open email.
- Thread: The industry term for a conversation. When a series of common emails are presented in one view.
Why Gmail Uses Conversations
Time management
A
conversation allows an individual to focus on one particular topic at a
time. The individual sees the complete conversation. In a traditional
e-mail program you would view e-mail messages individually as they
arrive in the inbox. Thus your attention becomes fragmented across
multiple topics, making the entire process take longer and receive less
than your full attention.
See all of the facts first
The
threaded view displays the entirety of a conversation and allows you to
see all of the facts and understand the context before responding. This
is particularly helpful when a conversation has been ongoing before you
enter into it.
In other email programs, it is common
for an individual to come back from a meeting and begin reading and
immediately start responding to email, only to find out an issue has
been handled by another person, or has gone in a different direction.
Conversation view helps avoid embarrassment and allows you become more
efficient.
To raise the most recent conversation to the top
Because
a conversation is seen as a whole, it allows the most recent
conversation to reside at the top of the "stack," instead of displaying
only the most recent email. This allows you to deal more effectively
with a topic that is happening right now instead of fishing through a
pile of new email. It is designed to more efficiently handle a mailbox
that receives hundreds of emails (or more) per day.
The ability to ignore conversations
Not
every email you receive applies to you. Previously, you had to mark
each individual message as read or deleted. Now you can click on it
once and take care of the entire conversation. Even if the conversation
continues into the future you have options on how you want to handle
it. You can archive it and tell it to remain in the archive or you can
re-engage with the conversation and will show you what has not yet been
read. "Muting Conversations" below goes into the detail of how to do this.
Techniques for handling a threaded conversation
Learn to open and close messages in a conversation
A
conversation can be thought of in the context of a deck of "cards". The
first time you open a conversation, all of the "cards" (emails) will be
open and ready for you to read. This may be 1 card, or 40 (or more).
Upon subsequent visits to a conversation, the cards you have read will
be closed; only new parts of the conversation will display as open. You
do have the ability to open and close cards at will.
Closed cards will appear with the name of the individual in the upper
left. Clicking on their name will either open or close the card. If it
is an extended conversation, the names will sink in. Simply clicking on
the gray top will expand all of the names. The names are color coded
and will appear as the display name of the sender. If you do not like
the display name the sender has chosen, you can rename it in your
Contacts and Gmail will subsequently respect your preference. You also
have the ability to expand or collapse all cards.
Understand how delete works
There
are 2 delete options. The Delete button at the top and bottom of the
screen will delete the entire conversation. The pull down list on each
card will allow you to delete the selected card only. This can be
helpful in eliminating useless contributions to the conversation.
Mor information can be found on Google's website at: http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=7401
Show quoted text
To
save on screen space, Gmail will hide “quoted text.” This quoted text
is actually the information displayed on the preceding conversation
cards. Thus the conversation is actually working to de-clutter and
organize information. If you click on the link – "- Show quoted text -"
– Gmail will reveal all of the email. This is particularly helpful if
evaluating replies to individuals within the conversation.
Pay attention to who you are replying to
The
default is "Reply-to sender," though this can be changed to "Reply-to
all." In the reply the screen will show you exactly what is being
included in the message and exactly who it is going to. This gives you
total control. We've heard concerns that the thread alters this in some
way. In fact, it works just like GroupWise did!
Use Stars
Stars
can be a powerful tool when dealing with threaded conversations. A Star
can mean whatever you would like. Some people use a Star on a
conversation card to indicate a person has been replied to. Others use
a Star to indicate they need to reply to a person. Yet others will use
it to flag key data. The use of Superstars (multicolored stars) allows
you to do all three; Superstars can be activated through Google Labs.
Use mass mailing tools where appropriate
Threads
can be more difficult when dealing with an email sent to thousands of
students, and multiple recipients attempt to respond. Generally a
regular email program is not the correct tool for this usage. We have
options and will have further discussions on this in other areas.
Forwarding the entire thread
In
addition to forwarding individual messages, you can also forward an
entire conversation thread. To do this, simply open the thread you want
to forward and select the "Forward All" option to the right of the
message. This will open a new message window, with all of the content
of the thread copied into the message body. From this point you can
send it as you would any other email message.
Muting conversations
There
may be times you have been part of a Gmail conversation, but no longer
want additional messages regarding the conversation to show up in your
inbox. You can mute the conversation to keep all future additions out
of your inbox. Highlight a conversation in Gmail by clicking the
checkbox to the left of it and select "Mute" from the more actions
menu. Afterward, archive the conversation (and, if you don't want to
archive the conversation you can always highlight it and select "Mark
as read").
Conversation thread details
There are a number of factors involved on when a conversation will thread together:
- It includes date, content, whom it was sent by and the subject line.
- Up
to 100 messages can be in a single conversation thread before Gmail
will be begin a new conversation thread with the rest of the messages.
This will continue to repeat in 100 message intervals for any one
conversation.
- Very long messages messages may be clipped by Gmail with a link to the entire message at the bottom.