Show or hide labels (Please select Organize your labels)

Labels help you organize your messages into any categories -- work, family, to do, read later, jokes, recipes, any category you want. Labels do all the work that folders do, but with an added bonus: you can add more than one to a message.

Only you can see your labels, so whether you mark a message with "Best friend" or "Read later," the sender will never know.

Create a label

Here's how to create a label that you can add to any of your messages:

1. On the left side of the page, click More at the bottom of your labels list. (If you don't see "More," grab the gray dividing line with your cursor and drag it down to show more labels.)
2. Click Create new label.
3. Type the name of your new label and click Create.

You can also create a new label for a message in your Inbox by selecting the box next to the message, clicking the Label button above your message list, and then clicking Create new.

Apply your label

You can add a label to your messages in several ways:

• When viewing your Inbox, select the checkbox next to those messages, click the Labels  button, and click the label you want. (Or check the boxes next to several labels and click Apply.)
• When viewing a message, click the Labels button to add a label to the message. You can also click and drag a label from the left side, and drop it on the message.
• When writing a new message, use that button to add a label before sending your message.

Organize your labels

How to edit or delete a label

 

Create sub-labels:

You can add a sub-label beneath a label to create a hierarchy. For example, if you have a label for your vacations, and want to create another specifically for a trip to Hawaii, you can nest the "Hawaii" label inside your "Vacations" label. When creating a new label, you can make it a sub-label underneath another label that's already in your account by checking the box next to 'Nest label under' and selecting which label you'd like to nest it under. You can also create sub-labels by hovering your cursor over an existing label on the left side of your Gmail page, clicking the down-arrow that appears next to that label, and selecting 'Add sublabel.'

How to change your label settings

Reference Using Labels