Keep Your Place in a Long Gmail Thread

We've all seen e-mail threads that seem to go on for days. Everyone in the office has something to say, and if you're unlucky enough to arrive late to the party, it can take 20 minutes to read the whole thing. If you don't have time to read the entire e-mail conversation at once, good luck -- because there's no way to mark where you left off. The next time you open your inbox, you'll spend another five minutes just figuring out what you've already read.

Until now, that is. Gmail has added a cool new feature that lets you mark exactly where in an e-mail thread you need to pick up next time. You just have to know how to find it.

Mark Unread From Here is a new addition to Gmail Labs -- click the Labs icon next to Settings at the top of your Gmail browser window, and scroll to near the bottom. After you turn it on and save your changes, you can start using it right away.

Suppose you're reading a long thread with a bunch of replies. When you read a stopping point, click the Reply drop-down menu for the message you want to read next. Then click Mark unread from here.

The next time you open Gmail, you'll find the thread is bold -- the usual indication that it's unread. But when you open the e-mail, you'll find that it opens directly to that last message you marked as unread. It's a huge time saver and a real convenience. It's painless to set up, so there's no reason not to try it.