A way to quickly add labels to your messages in Gmail without having to install anything is through keyboard shortcuts.
When one or more messages are selected in your Inbox, you can press the L key, which will automatically open up your list of labels. If you type the first few letters of the label you want and then press Enter or Return (whichever it's called on your computer), the label that matches those letters will be added to all selected messages.
This is a very quick method, as you only need to type the first few unique characters of the label name. For example, if you have three labels starting with "b" -- belugas, business, and bunnies, you would only have to type:
- b and Enter to add the Beluga label
- bu and Enter to add the Bunnies label (it's ordered alphabetically)
- bus and Enter to add the Business label
So, to add a label to all selected messages, you could potentially do it by barely lifting a finger with three quick keystrokes:
- L to bring up the label function,
- m to add the label "mybusiness" (or you could add a number to the beginning like "1 mybusiness" if you have a bunch of other m-labels)
- Enter
Or you could just press m and then use your arrow keys to navigate through the list from there, if you wanted to be less efficient. :)
NOTE: To use this method, make sure your keyboard shortcuts are turned on. To do this:
- In Gmail, click on the Gear in the top-right corner
- Select "Mail settings"
- In the "General" section, select the "Keyboard shortcuts on" option (near the top of the list)
- Click "Save changes" at the bottom of the page
Tips:
If you want to use your keyboard to navigate through your inbox and select messages for adding label (instead of using your mouse to click the box on each message you want selected):
- press j to move down the list of messages, and k to move up the list
- once navigating through your inbox, you can select/check-off a message by pressing x
- for more keyboard shortcuts, press ? while in your inbox for a menu of all the commands