Addition to "Inbox"

For incoming mails that we want to take away from Inbox without any action/response yet.

• inbox2: Use number 2 in sense of "secondary inbox" or "inbox too".
• inbox0: Use number 0 (zero) in sense of "leave no action" or "old/obsolete, expired".

Originally, only "inbox2" was defined for both purposed.  Here it is split so that inbox2 can be used for lower priority or "read later", whereas inbox0 is to be skipped.  Comparing with GMail's Priority Inbox function which indicates prioritized mails within inbox, "inbox2" label separates low-priority mails from inbox.  In addition, the label may be set as "show if unread" and/or prefixed with '.' to place it to upper part of label list.

Tags for FYI & Forwarding

1. ".fyi2-fwd2"
• FYI normally means "for your information".  But we may extend to "interest" and "inspiration" as well.
• FWD is abbreviation of "forward", as traditionally seen from AV-device's panel.  Also "F-FWD" was considered because by nature we usually do fast-forwarding (i.e., don't think much and just forward)
2. "+2" can be symbolized label of "fyi2-fwd2".
• It means "adding (sharing) to others too" in comparison with term "+1" in social networking language that means "add me as another one vote/voice/count": i.e., "me too".
• "+2 xxx" (where xxx denotes additional sub-keyword) to optionally specify some keyword if we want to implement several topic groups.  Then this label can be said "add to xxx too".

Follow-up, In-progress

=?

Use as alternative abbreviation to ".follow".  It comes from arithmetic home-work: ex. "12 + (34 - 56) × 78 ÷ 9 = ?"; i.e., to check (follow up) result of the problem.
Also see "=" definition.

?%

i.e., what-is/how-much (?) progress (% completion) now?
This term is good replacement to "=?" especially in case to avoid any existing "=..." label(s).

Similar-possible labels

• "w/p" = work in process/progress
• "this week" : easily understood but not compact.

[>...] labels

"For" or "To"

• >pub or >* : for public, to publicize.
• >? or >&? : for discussion, meeting topic.
• Shorter than ".meeting".
• >&? emphasizes more at colleagues (refer "&+").

GMail-label syntax

Search can do type-ahead look up words in label when they are separated by blank or dash.
Most symbol characters are denoted by dash (-) in search expression.

Nested Labels in GMail

New in Labs: Nested Labels and Message Sneak Peek - Official Gmail Blog:
Thursday, April 08, 2010 | 5:27 PM

Labels are more flexible than folders because a given email can have several labels but can't be in several folders at the same time. A highly requested feature for labels, though, comes from the world of folders: the ability to organize labels hierarchically.

If you think this might be useful to you, go to the Gmail Labs tab under Settings, look for 'Nested Labels,' enable it and click 'Save.' You'll then need to name your label with slashes (/) to make it the child of another. For example, let's say you wanted to create a simple hierarchy with a 'Home' label, and inside it a 'Family' and a 'Vacation' label. Just create three labels with the following names:

Home
Home/Family
Home/Vacation

You can then create 'Home/Family/Kids,' 'Home/Pets,' etc., to get something like the screenshot on the left. If you had the parent label 'Home' before you don't have to create it from scratch.

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Note:

1. Labels need to be created one by one from parent to child.  For example above: it is to create "Home" and then "Home/Family": i.e., cannot create "Home/Family" directly without having "Home" before, otherwise we'll get non-hierchical "Home/Family" as a single label.
2. The label "/" is not effected (so far).

delete

• delete2 = Would delete too: if necessary.
• [delete!] = Delete instantly/automatically via filter.  Enclosing in bracket "[...]" helps avoiding this label while spelling to look up in 'Move to' and 'Labels' commands (i.e., we'd prefer "delete2" than "delete!" in such manual operation).

OoO/Away

Out-of-Office and/or Away
Also: Out-of-Operation, Out-of-Order

Applicable to:
- Absence notification
- Attending external exhibition/seminar/training
- Travel notification (even among company's sites)
- Working elsewhere or any notification that we are away from regular workplace

[@ ...] label

For keeping emails "from" or "belonging to" certain source.
There is a blank between '@' and source name to support typing look-up in Move or Label command.  So it becomes dash in search expression: "label:@-...".

Examples

• users  =  user's incidents & requests
• helpdesk/support  =  helpdesk/support team's references
• corporate, vendors, management
• org.etc = miscellaneous from various departments

Also another label using same symbol: "@?" = somethings or some other things (depending on individual strategy) from Internet.  The symbol reflects Internet email-address notation (name@somewhere.com).

.run, .taken

The word "run" is a classic computing term. This is because using "done/end" is not practical in GMail: an already done/end mail can be later replied and then returned to Inbox (and not done/end yet) again. Note that "run" is also the past-participle of same "run": i.e., no matter it is returned/restarted, it was run anyway.

.taken = Alternative to ".run" in case to distinguish that: [1] the mail is handled by someone else, or [2] the mail is corresponded elsewhere (e.g., forwarded/quoted in another subject).

Dot '.' prefix is suggested to place them at beginning of GMail label list.


[Revise from: http://catable.blogspot.com/2009/10/my-tags.html]

Symbols as label shorthands

Using symbol can help shortening length of label list in GMail's subject display.  One awareness of choosing a symbol is that it must be specifiable in search input-field: i.e., not becoming "-" or "%xx" in search formula (need verifying).

Label	Description / Usage
!?	For incoming problem/issue. However this is neither for question ([?] star) nor user incident ("@ users").
!!	Important
^	Caret: for filter: from:(bosses), as alternative to star marking.  This symbol indicates "above".
/	Slash: OK, done.
\	Backslash: moved and/or filed somewhere else: i.e., different thread/subject or outside GMail.
=	Equal sign: the mail has been assigned to (or handled by) someone else.  In most programming languages, "a = b" is recognised as assigning (copying value of) b to a -- or "substituting".
++	Selected active/ongoing conversation thread.  Any GMail subject can become thread.  But this is useful when we want to find back certain threads which should be updated regularly, such as periodic reporting, news updating.
--	Demoted: supposed to be processed somewhere or by someone else.  This can be complement to \ and =; whereas those labels imply known destination, this label doesn't define destination — just "anyway but not by myself".
0!	Zero: "No", skipped, missed, incompleted, failed, none to action/progress, too late.  Previously, 'X' was under consideration, but it seems ambiguous between no/cancel and yes/checked.  However, '0' can also look like 'O' for OK/ongoing, so better add '!'.

Remarks

• Slash/Backslash: These symbols are used in marking completion in checklist -- source of idea here.
• / and = are same usage as ".run" and ".taken", more explanation here.  However, \ may be considerably addition to ".taken" to differentiates between handled-by/assigned-to someone (=) vs moved/filed elsewhere (\).
• In April'10, GMail released lab feature "Nested Labels" which uses slash to create sub-label.  However, "/" label seems not effected from this implementation.
• Idea of ++ and -- is from C programming language.  They are "increment" and "decrement" operators respectively.