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How to Select and Highlight All Email Messages in Gmail Inbox

Keeping your Gmail inbox organized can be a challenge, especially when you have hundreds or thousands of emails. Being able to select and highlight multiple emails at once makes it easier to manage your inbox. Here’s how to select and highlight all messages in your Gmail inbox.

Selecting All Emails in Your Gmail Inbox

Here are the steps to select all emails in your Gmail inbox:

On Desktop

  1. Open Gmail and click on the inbox folder on the left sidebar
  2. Click on the Select button at the top above your emails
  3. A dropdown menu will appear. Click on All to select all emails currently displayed on that page
  4. To select all emails in the inbox including those not displayed, click on Select all conversations in Inbox above the emails
  5. All emails in your inbox are now selected. The number of selected emails will be displayed

On Mobile App

Unfortunately, the Gmail mobile app does not have an option to select all emails in the inbox. Here are some workarounds:

  • Open the inbox and manually select emails one by one
  • Use the search function to filter emails, then select those filtered emails
  • Access Gmail on the mobile browser instead of the app to use the desktop functions

Highlighting Selected Emails

Once you have selected multiple emails, you can highlight them in different colors to visually distinguish them:

Using Browser Extensions

There are Chrome and Firefox extensions like Highlight Emails in Gmail that allow highlighting of selected Gmail emails in various colors.

To use:

  1. Install the extension
  2. Select the emails you want to highlight
  3. Click on the extension icon in your browser
  4. Choose a highlight color to apply to the selected emails

Using Labels

Gmail has a labeling system that can be used to categorize selected emails:

  1. Select the emails you want to highlight
  2. Click on the Label button at the top
  3. Choose an existing label or create a new one
  4. The selected emails will now display that label, effectively highlighting them

Some creative label ideas:

  • Red Label – for urgent emails
  • Yellow Label – for emails needing follow up
  • Green Label – for completed tasks
  • Blue Label – for emails from certain senders

Actions You Can Take on Selected Emails

Once you’ve selected multiple emails in Gmail, here are some actions you can take to manage them better:

  • Archive – Clears up the inbox by removing selected emails from view while still keeping them accessible
  • Delete – Permanently deletes selected emails so they are no longer accessible
  • Mark as Read/Unread – Marks all selected emails as read or unread in bulk
  • Add Star – Highlights important emails by starring them
  • Mute – Stops notifications for selected email conversations
  • Report Spam – Quickly report multiple spam emails instead of one by one
  • Labels – Categorize selected emails using labels as described above
  • Move to folder – Moves selected emails out of the inbox into a custom folder

Tips for a Organized Inbox

Here are some additional tips to keep your Gmail inbox fast and organized:

  • Use search filters – Quickly select emails based on sender, date, attachments etc. using search operators like from:, has:attachments, newer_than: etc.
  • Adjust inbox density – Show more emails per page to select more at once. Go to Settings > Density: Comfortable > Set to Compact
  • Create inbox tabs – Automatically filter emails into categories like Primary, Social, Promotions using inbox tabs
  • Set up email filters – Automatically archive, delete or label incoming emails based on sender, content etc. to keep inbox clean
  • Use keyboard shortcuts – Keyboard shortcuts like c to compose, r to reply, e to archive selected emails speeds up email management
  • Install extensions – Useful extensions like Checker Plus for Gmail can enhance productivity

Implementing even a few of these tips will significantly cut down the time you spend organizing your emails so you can focus on more important tasks. Hope you found these steps helpful for selecting, highlighting and managing your Gmail inbox!

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