Gmail – How to Un-archive All Conversations and Emails

Obviously there are no rules about this, but a sensible way to use Gmail features would be:

• Leave email in the inbox if it still requires action (some kind of reply or action on your part)
• Archive email once it no longer requires action on your part
• Use the star to flag important messages
• Use labels to categorize messages
• Delete messages you will not need in the future

In this way, the inbox is thought of as your to-do list. Anything in your inbox is something you need to deal with. "Dealing with it" could be replying, researching for more information about something, categorizing for later reference, etc. As you go through your messages, you deal with them then archive them once you've taken the necessary action.

If you need to find an old message you've already "dealt with", you can either search for it (the preferred way), or you can look through the starred messages or through your labels.

Labels and stars are for categorization. The "inbox" label performs the same function as a physical inbox sitting on your desk: It's a list of things you need to do. You don't store things in your inbox, you deal with them then route them wherever they need to go.

Responding to :

The client uses Outlook, so they do not report Spam to Gmail

.

Gmail's spam filters work the same for a person using the web interface or a client like Outlook. I mean, the spam filters will tag a message as spam / non-spam before sorting it into the appropriate folder.

From this page, moving a message to the [Gmail]/Spam folder performs the same action as clicking the REPORT SPAM button - so there is in fact a method to report spam via an email client.