Wow, I can’t believe how many folks commented on my late-Friday night post about desired features for Gmail. whether you want to propose something for Gmail, that thread is the better place to do it. But looking through the comments, I saw a few requests that can already be done today. Considering that real Gmail users didn’t know about these options, I’m going to shout them capability tips.

1. Wayne Schulz said “I want to be able to paste images into the e mail.” Wayne, it’s not quite the same as pasting images into emails, but one thing that makes image attachments easier is the dragdropupload Firefox extension. You know how you can go “Attach a file” and soon after you’ll see the familiar “enter a file location or Browse..” design seem? With dragdropupload, you can drag any file (e.g. from your Desktop) and drop it in that text box. It’s a great extension that makes it much faster to include attachments or upload files, and I use it all the moment.
2. Jason Bartholme asked about “A sort that would allow for my unread messages to be at the top.” Jason, trying doing a search for label:unread label:inbox . That should show only unread messages that are currently in your inbox. By the way, did you like how I shared a search with you? That was a tip from the Gmail blog. There are other cool labels you can use as well.
3. Julian says
   

   I would like to have a feature for inserting prepared text blocks, so I dont have to write some things by and by again.

   Julian, whether you use Firefox, check out the Signature firefox extension to insert text macros. That might work for you.

4. Daniel asked
   

   Crazy feature: I’d like to be able to have an easy way to migrate my entire Google explanation to a different gmail address, considering I can’t find a step-by-step guide or anything to help me switch emails without losing various things.

   According to this post you can enable POP on your old explanation (look under Settings, thereupon “Forwarding and POP/IMAP”), next import the emails (also using POP) into the new detail. I think you could use Gmail’s Mail Fetcher utility to do that. To configure Mail Fetcher on the newer detail, visit on Gmail’s Settings link, thereupon “Accounts” and thereupon “Add another mail history.” Google Operating System (an unofficial blog that discusses Google often) has a couple relevant posts with a walkthough of using Gmail’s Mail Fetcher and a write-up on how to back up your Google account.

5. Sankarananad asked a related question:
   

   I would love to integrate my google apps explanation with my default gmail explanation. Although right now google allows to associate newsletter address there is no way to integrate or link two google accounts (say one @gmail.com and another yourdomain.com powered by google apps).

   Right now the only solution is to forward mails from one box to another! whether google makes integration possible we can use a singled-out inbox to check mails from all those mail address

   I’m not as familiar with the interaction of regular Gmail versus Gmail on Google Apps. This post described a scary-looking way that might work. whether there’s a better way, perhaps someone will stop by and let me know?

6. Search Engines Web asked:
   

   The ability to open Word, Excel, PowerPoint and PDF without going to another page and using another software

   S.E.W, that post from Lifehacker mentions that Gmail can offer HTML view or Google Doc options for Word and Excel.

7. Easton Ellsworth mentioned
   

   I’d love to be able to resize the newsletter composition box on the default page - so instead of having to visit the icon to open the whole draft in a new resizable window, I’d be able to go and drag to assemble the draft box bigger (especially vertically).

   Easton, check out the Resizeable text area extension for Firefox. It lets you visit on the border of any design textarea and drag the border so the textarea expands. I haven’t checked how it works on the latest version of Gmail though.

8. 1001 noisy cameras said “I think the ability to open emails in new windows would be great - it would help those users who are always multi-tasking.” whether you’re looking at an mail look at the top-right of the page and visit on “New window” to open that newsletter in a separate e mail.
9. Diego asked
   

   I don’t know whether that would be possible, but how about, when clicking on the compose link (or reply etc) whether I hold some key as I go on Compose, it opens the new mail in its own window? Same thing could go for Replies etc.

   Diego, instead of using ‘c’ to compose a new newsletter, type ‘C’ and you’ll open a new window to compose your e mail. It looks like using ‘R’ instead of ‘r’ to reply will open a new e mail for replies too.

10. jonathon asked “Is it me or does the pop3 server sometimes stop working when downloading e mail from gmail?” I’ve been using getmail to back up my Gmail, and I’ve noticed that Google will only let you download a few hundred emails in one batch. whether you fetch again, you’ll often catch up. So usually it’s just a matter of being patient.

I heard a lot of great suggestions that I wouldn’t even have thought of. For example, I liked the notion of a “bounce” option for unwanted emails to build it look as whether your e mail address didn’t exist. Oh, and since so many folks asked for cool features, let me add one more feature I want: let me set a different vacation letter for co-workers compared to citizens outside Google. possibly in Google Apps for Gmail, whether you are managing example.com, let humans on example.com set a different vacation knowledge for folks on example.com vs. other domains?

By the way, what was the funniest suggestion I saw? Jeff Hall won with “A USB breathalyzer kit for a friend who forgets how embarrassing her e-mails are when she gets drunk. The e-mails could be delayed until she provides a negative sample.”

And here’s your bonus tip. whether you’re a Gmail ability user, three urls to check out are the Gmail tag on Lifehacker, the official Gmail blog, and Google Operating System. Lifehacker does so many posts per day that limiting to the Gmail tag will narrow down the posts you see. The Gmail blog is the best place to get official Gmail news first. And Google OS seems to have Gmail-related posts pretty often.

Orginal post by Matt Cutts