Using Mailplane to Manage Multiple Gmail Accounts

[This is a guest post by Meagan Timney, a postdoctoral fellow at the Electronic Textual Cultures Laboratory at the University of Victoria. Previously at ProfHacker, Meagan wrote about Nurturing the Mind-Body Connection. You can email her at mbtimney.etcl@gmail.com or follow her @mbtimney.]

[Editor's note: Mailplane is a commercial application only available for Mac users. We now to return you to your regularly scheduled productivity post.]

I have a daily identity crisis. From the time I wake up until the time I go to bed, I have to manage, simultaneously, at least three (and probably more like five or six) separate people in my brain. The three most dominant, for me, are the athlete, the scholar, and the teacher. Among these identities alone, I have five Gmail accounts (one to filter emails from my local Crossfit Gym, my coach, training partners, race organizers, etc., one for all of my mailing lists, one “anonymous” account for my various web registrations / inevitable junk mail, and two for work and teaching related emails. Clearly, I like to compartmentalize. It’s a Virgo thing.

At the beginning of this year, I was getting very frustrated with constantly having to log in and out of my many different Gmail accounts. I’d often have to check my work account Google calendar, but would also need to check my personal email account for some small tidbit of information like a phone number, an address, or a postal tracking number. Sure, I could use multiple browsers, but that started to get confusing. I can’t even begin to describe my delight when I discovered Mailplane, which has since served as a solution to the problem of having to manage my multiple email identities.

The folks at ProfHacker have already offered some very useful tips on how to clean out your inbox and prioritize your mail. But if you’re a Mac user, Mailplane may just be just the app you’re looking for to pull it all together. It is not free, but the price is reasonable ($17.45 US at the Educational Discount Rate).

For me, having my emails in a separate app, instead of a browser, has reduced confusion and efficientized my workflow. It also means that when I’m working on “Inbox: 0″, I don’t get pulled into the wormhole of distraction.

Below, I’ve listed some of the useful features of the program. This is not an exhaustive list, and it is as much about my own workflow as the app itself, but it should give you an idea about Mailplane’s general functionality.

The interface is simple and clean, and looks very similar to Gmail as you see it in your browser.

One difference is the handy “Accounts” bar that lets you choose which Gmail account you want to view. Mailplane supports keychain storage and automatic login, so switching back and forth is as easy as double-clicking the desired email address.

Mailplane also supports Growl notification, which I find quite useful for deciding whether or not I have to click through to my inbox when a new email arrives.

The taskbar dropdown menu provides an overview of all of your current accounts. You can also choose to turn off notification by clicking on “Do Not Disturb,” which is useful when you need to work sans distraction.

One of my favourite features is the support for keyboard shortcuts, especially for adding and removing labels. All you have to do is select the message(s) for which you wish to apply a label, and hit command-L. A window appears that is populated with the labels you currently use. Just start typing the name of the label and autofill does the rest. If the label doesn’t exist, you will be given the choice to create it. For example, in the screenshot below, I had thought about adding the label “Omeka” to the selected email, but Mailplane had a better suggestion.

Mailplane also has great support for attachments and downloads. The download manager allows you to view all recent documents and “reveal” them in the finder. I find this particularly useful when I’m downloading articles to read or student assignments to grade.

The preferences pane gives you a fair amount of power over how you want Mailplane to function, including options for mail notifications, downloads, Google Talk, images, message composition and display, formatted signatures, and account management.

Mailplane offers many more features including Address Book integration, a media browser, Offline Google, and CRM/Helpdesk Integration. For more info, take a look at the Mailplane website.

And if you’re not a Mac user, that’s okay, you can still take Brian Croxall’s advice for Signing into Multiple Accounts.

What about you? Do you use Mailplane? If not, what questions do you have? If you do, what tips can you offer? Let us know in the comments!