Gmail has recently undergone a number of changes–all of which are for the better. These additions are long overdue and add features to the venerable email service that many users will immediately want to employ.

Although not every feature is a deal maker or breaker, there are some that make using Gmail a bit easier. One feature allows you to collapse the left navigation to give you more room for what you need to do, which is manage your email. This is a real boon to anyone who uses Gmail on a smaller screen and needs as much space for productivity as possible. You won’t find this feature on the mobile app. It’s desktop Gmail only, and once you use it you won’t go back.

SEE: Internet and Email usage policy (Tech Pro Research)

How to you use this new feature? The first thing you must do is enable the new version of Gmail. To do that click the gear icon near the top right and select Try The New Gmail. This will reload Gmail with all of the new features. To collapse the left sidebar, click the three horizontal lines in the upper left corner. Once the sidebar is hidden, you can make it momentarily appear simply by hovering your cursor over any area of the collapsed section. Select what you want from the sidebar, and it will automatically hide itself. If you want to disable the auto-hide feature, simply click the three horizontal lines again and the sidebar will remain expanded.

If you’re looking for as much real estate as possible in Gmail, the Google developers just gave you exactly what you want. Happy Gmailing!

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