Gmail's new compose and reply experience You can now write messages in a cleaner, simpler experience that puts the focus on your message itself, not all the features around it. Here are some of the highlights: Fast: Compose messages right from your inbox. Simple: Redesigned with a clean, streamlined look. Powerful: Check emails as you're typing, minimize drafts for later, and even compose two messages at once. Using Gmail with Google Apps? Find a switch guide, video, and FAQ for business users, at our Google Apps learning center. Details of the compose window Instead of taking up your entire Gmail window, clicking Compose now opens a smaller window at the bottom of your screen. Here are some of the features that you'll see: Recipients: Click this text field to type email addresses. You can also click thecc or Bcc links to add a new set of recipients. Drag and drop recipients from one field to another, or click the "x" to remove them from your message. Hover over the recipient to see details about them, or double-click on them to edit their address. Text formatting: Click this icon to add formatting like font size, bold, underline, and bullets. Or, use our new formatting keyboard shortcuts. Hover over each button to learn the keyboard shortcut you can use for that option. Alignment and indentation options are now collapsed under the alignment icon. Attachments: Click the Attachment icon to attach files to your message. Hovering over the Attachment icon will also open the insert options menu. Insert options: Hover over the plus icon to embed photos, links, emoticons, and Google Calendar events. This menu will also open when hovering over the Attachment icon. Discard: Click the trash can icon to delete your draft. More options: Click this menu to see other tools such as spell check, plain text format, print, adding labels, and including original attachments. Window size: The writing pane grows as your message gets longer. If you want the window to be bigger, click the middle icon at the top right of the pane to open the message in a new window. Use the other icons to minimize or close the window (which will also save your draft). Saving: Gmail automatically saves your drafts while you re writing, so we've removed the "Save now" button (but you can verify that it s saved if you see the word, "Saved" next to the Discard button). Your draft will also be automatically saved when you close the compose window. Send mail as: If you use Gmail to send mail from another address (like your work address), click the address in the "From" field to choose a different address. If you don't see the "From" field, first click into the "Recipients" field at the top of the compose window.
Changes when replying or forwarding You ll also see some differences when replying to or forwarding messages. Most of the changes are similar to those that you'll see when composing a brand new message. Here are a few additional changes: Recipients: To change who your message should be sent to, click into the recipient field when you re replying. Type of response: Click the arrow next to the recipient s name to choose whether your message is a reply, reply all, or forward. Subject: To change the subject of your message, click the arrow next to the recipient s name and click Edit subject. Pop out reply: To write your reply in a compose window, click the arrow next to the recipient s name and click Pop out reply. Respond inline: If you want to see the previous message within your reply, scroll down until you see the "Show trimmed content" icon and click it. Try it out! Once you click the Compose button, click the "new compose experience" link right next to the Labels button at the top of the message. Until the change is fully launched, you'll be able to choose whether you use the new or current experience. If you change your mind, you can switch back to the old experience at any time. Here's how: 1. Click Compose 2. At the bottom corner of the message pane, click the More menu icon next to the Discard button. 3. Select "Temporarily switch back to old compose." Add attachments To attach a file to a message you're composing, follow the steps below: 1. In Gmail, click the Compose button. 2. Click the paperclip icon at the bottom of the compose window. 3. Browse through your files and click the name of the file you'd like to attach. 4. Click Open.
To attach multiple files, hold the Ctrl (PC) or (Mac) key while selecting your files. Selecting multiple files at once is not possible using Internet Explorer 9. Tip: Drag and drop attachments directly into the compose window. If you drag and drop a single image, it will be added as an inline image rather than as an attachment. Remove attachments If you'd like to remove a file you've attached to a message, click the x to the right of the file name at the bottom of the message. More insert options Hover over the + icon to insert files from Google Drive and embed photos, links, emoticons, and Google Calendar events. Attachment size limit You can send messages up to 25 megabytes (MB) in size. If you d like to send attachments that are larger than this, you can insert from Google Drive instead. You may not be able to send larger attachments to contacts who use other email services with smaller attachment limits. If your attachment is too large to be sent to your contacts, you can also insert using Google Drive to get larger files to them. (You can also invite them to Gmail). As a security measure to prevent potential viruses, Gmail doesn't allow you to send or receive executable files (such as files ending in.exe). Searching for contacts To search for a contact: 1. Click Gmail at the top-left corner of your Gmail page, then choose Contacts. 2. Enter the name, email address, or any other contact details of the person you're searching for in the contacts search box. Keep these tips in mind when searching for contacts: You can use prefixes. You can search by a person's first and/or last name. You'll see matching results as you type You can search for contacts by phone number, or notes you've entered about them. You can search by domain or username. For example, searching for 'gmail.com' will return all contacts with a Gmail address. You can see all of the details about your contacts by printing them. Here's how:
1. Click Gmail at the top-left corner of your Gmail page, then choosecontacts. 2. Click the More drop-down menu and select Print... 3. Select the details you'd like to display. 4. Click Print. A new browser window or tab will open with the details you've chosen. 5. Perform a search in your browser ('Ctrl + F' on a PC or 'Command + F' on a Mac) for the contact information you're looking for. Signatures A signature is a bit of text (such as your contact information or a favorite quote) that is automatically inserted at the bottom of every message you send. Here's a sample signature: Signatures are separated from the rest of your message by two dashes. To see a signature in Gmail, click the Show trimmed content button at the bottom of the message. How to create a signature 1. Click the gear icon in the upper right, then select Settings. 2. Enter your new signature text in the box at the bottom of the page next to thesignature option. To add an image to your signature, click the "Insert image" icon. 3. Click Save Changes. Multiple signatures If you send mail "from" multiple addresses in Gmail, you can set a different signature for each address in the General tab of your settings. Choose the second radio button in the "Signature:" section, use the drop-down menu to choose the appropriate address and set the signature you want. Known issues Extra characters are added: If you notice extra characters (such as * or >) being added to your signature after you send mail, it's because some versions of Gmail don't support rich text and we've converted some of your formatting. For example, when you send from Gmail using Safari on iphone, any text you bolded in your signature will be marked with asterisks (i.e., example will show as *example*).
Maximum characters allowed: For rich text signatures, the maximum amount of characters you can use is 10,000 (including HTML markup). Can only set plain text signature: If you're editing your signature and only have an option to create a plain text signature, this is due to your current compose message settings. Click Compose to create a new message, then click the down arrow next to the "Discard draft" trash icon in the lower right. Deselect the option to send mail in plain text.