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Introducing the new compose in Gmail

gmailblog.blogspot.co.uk

101–110 of 202 posts

Re: Introducing the new compose in Gmail

#101
Ugh. Gmail continues to roll out new features and arbitrary tweaks, yet the bugs impeding normal tasks continues to grow. I've said it before: can I just have gmail beta back?

(The main ones for me are the compose window never actually loading, or new messages in a thread not displaying (both requiring a refresh). Meanwhile, the chat hover has changed layout twice. Seriously?)

Re: Introducing the new compose in Gmail

#102
post #100
post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seriously? Chrome, Firefox, Safari... etc... Time to upgrade and stop blaming the web for advancing.

Advancing? Most 'scripting is taking a pound of flesh from the user experience, in return for little to no actual gain.

scripting? I have no idea what you're referring to, but using a browser capable of rendering the web properly is a requirement these days. That's why they have mostly gone to an automatic update model, the web is fluid and changes rapidly, to keep up you need to be running a modern browser.

Re: Introducing the new compose in Gmail

#103

That looks great! It feels to me though that google is still playing serious catch-up to it's main competitors (yahoo & microsoft) in the email arena who both have great web-mail solutions that don't get the accolades they deserve. Now all I need is full folder support and I'm happy!

Maybe Y!, but ermm, Microsoft has a great web-mail product? Are you referring to something other than Hotmail? Because ads aside (bills have to get paid), I find Hotmail to be infuriatingly bad with its UI. Multiple lines of text-only toolbars (hard to find what I want), one text box to search the web and another to search mail (and I always get the web one when searching mail), and just too much non-mail crap on the…

I'm referring to outlook.com on the microsoft side. You can read more about it here: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000087239639044422690457756...

Re: Introducing the new compose in Gmail

#104
post #76
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and you'll get an actual window that you can move and resize. I'd do this all the time if it gave you a new tab rather than a new window. Who uses new browser windows these days?

That currently works as well. You can open Compose in a new tab with Control-click for Win/Linux or Cmd-click for Mac. I rarely see the appeal of tabs, so generally use windows. They are great as temporary bookmarks, but not for working with multiple sources in parallel. I'm confused that this is not more common, other than that more and more sites break it. Similar to the "new" Google compose window, and unlike tabs…

> the main advantage is that you can see both source and compose at once without needed to switch back and forth.

Until you click back on the Reference window and your Compose window suddenly disappears into the z-order void of your windows manager. I find it much easier to flip between two tabs than two windows, especially with Chrome's excellent tab strip UX. I'm not interested in having to constantly move/resize windows to see both pages at once.

(A decent focus-follows-mouse (no autoraise) solution for OS X would be nice as well!)

Re: Introducing the new compose in Gmail

#105
post #76
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and you'll get an actual window that you can move and resize. I'd do this all the time if it gave you a new tab rather than a new window. Who uses new browser windows these days?

That currently works as well. You can open Compose in a new tab with Control-click for Win/Linux or Cmd-click for Mac. I rarely see the appeal of tabs, so generally use windows. They are great as temporary bookmarks, but not for working with multiple sources in parallel. I'm confused that this is not more common, other than that more and more sites break it. Similar to the "new" Google compose window, and unlike tabs…

You can open Compose in a new tab with Control-click for Win/Linux or Cmd-click for Mac.

You can also click on the Compose button normally, then click on the "In new window" icon, in the upper right hand corner.

Most web browsers then offer the ability to drag that new window back into your main browser window which turns it into a tab.

Kind of a hassle, but it does work, and someone might find this information useful...

Re: Introducing the new compose in Gmail

#106
post #35
post #32

Saving a draft, opening the old email, and then reopening your draft wastes valuable minutes. The new compose pops up in a window, just like chats (only larger). Minutes? I do sometimes wonder where the day goes... Alternatively, Shift-click on compose (or press capital C to with keyboard shortcuts on), and you'll get an actual window that you can move and resize. With the chat mini-windows I frequently wish that I c…

Also CTRL+SHIFT click compose opens a new email in a new tab (at least on Chrome on my computer).

Critically, though, middle-clicking the Compose button doesn't work (Chrome, OS X).

Re: Introducing the new compose in Gmail

#107

I hate being the guy who sidetracks a thread off the bat by complaining about something unrelated, but... Whatever blogspot theme Google uses for this blog is just god awful (oh, I see, this is it: http://gmailblog.blogspot.co.uk/p/as-you-may-have-noticed-gm... ), and I swear it gets worse every time I view a post there. To wit: When I load the page I see the orange "loading" gears. Then that sliiiiides up to reveal…

I must admit, I am not a fan of the default blogspot theme. I miss their old blog theme that worked fast and well with or without JavaScript enabled.

Re: Introducing the new compose in Gmail

#108

Is this really a step forward? It feels a little bit like a step backwards -- more like classic email clients and less like Gmail.

What feels the most like classic email clients is the way they abstract recipients by placing the contact's name into a box and no longer display the email address next to it. The pretty box is fine, but I hated seeing contacts on an email in something like Outlook and not being able to quickly confirm which address was used for that contact, so perhaps it'd be better if they had these recipients in a scrollable list…

Seems like a good idea for a Gmail Lab down the line.

Re: Introducing the new compose in Gmail

#109
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think the average user can really deal with multiple windows efficiently.

I hate hate HATE new windows. It reminds me of IE or MS outlook manage this particular problem. I like this idea of a smaller chat like window, it's really blurring the line between chat and email once again. (Like google did when they started chaining emails together. Remember when that wasn't even a thing! I do, cuz I was amazed when google started doing it.) I think google really gets me when it comes to how I lik…

If I'm reading the wikipedia article correctly, Mutt was threading email in 1995.

Re: Introducing the new compose in Gmail

#110

I hate being the guy who sidetracks a thread off the bat by complaining about something unrelated, but... Whatever blogspot theme Google uses for this blog is just god awful (oh, I see, this is it: http://gmailblog.blogspot.co.uk/p/as-you-may-have-noticed-gm... ), and I swear it gets worse every time I view a post there. To wit: When I load the page I see the orange "loading" gears. Then that sliiiiides up to reveal…

Laughably bogus (almost entirely unreadable) on a former flagship Android phone that is just barely out of contract, too.
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