There’s a lot to like about Gmail. It’s free, it’s easy to use, and – unlike the other free email services – it really does eliminate the spam problem. One of the things I like most about Gmail is its easy email forwarding option.

If you do a lot online, you probably have a few different email addresses to manage your various online activities. There’s your personal email address, plus one for business, and maybe a third to hold online shopping receipts or communications from your blog. With the other free email services I’ve tried, such as Yahoo! Mail and Hotmail, setting up email forwarding can be annoying at best – and that’s if it works. With Gmail, on the other hand, setting up email forwarding will only take you a few seconds. Even if you’re still holding on to an email account with a different provider, you can easily forward your Gmail email account’s messages there.

Log into your Gmail account. Beside the search bar at the top of the screen, you should see a link that reads “Create a filter”.

Decide which messages you’d like to filter. Do you want to only receive forwarded messages from your boss? You’d put his name or email address in the “From” field. Let’s say you want to forward all the emails that come to your Gmail account. The really simple way to do this is to just enter “me” in the “To” field.

On the next screen, you’ll see the option to forward the emails within your filter. You’ll need to notify Gmail of the email address you want to forward emails to first, by clicking “Manage your forwarding addresses.” Use the drop menu on the next page to add a new forwarding address.

Before Gmail can start forwarding your emails, they’ll need to verify that the other email address belongs to you by sending you a verification code. If the email address you want to forward emails to is with another provider, simply log into it and retrieve the verification code. If the other email address is also via Gmail, you’ll need to temporarily sign out of the account you’re forwarding from in order to retrieve the code.

Once the verification code is accepted, log back into the Gmail account you’re forwarding from. Follow the steps to get back to where it asks for your forwarding address, and make sure the address you verified is in the field. Check the box beside the forwarding listing, then click “Create Filter” below. Gmail will now forward all specified emails to your other address.

By default, Gmail will save a copy of every email that comes into your account, even if it’s forwarded elsewhere. This will help you keep an archive copy of emails, letting you “free up” your other inbox as necessary. You can also automatically delete the emails as they come in by changing a filter setting. Click on “Create a Filter”, then “Show current filters.” Select the “Forwarding and POP/IMAP” tab, and adjust the setting on the forwarding line.

Jillian McCoy is best friends with the internet. Visit her website or find her on Twitter.

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