Create an Email with Gmail

Gmail has slowly been rolling out the new composition window since November 2012, but now it’s become the default setting for all users.

The new composition window includes some of the same features as before, along with some new ones. With Google’s desire to innovate we can only expect more changes to follow, so it’s always good to stay abreast of the latest releases.

First, click on the compose button.

Then the new composition window will pop-up.

The top menu is pretty standard to other features in Gmail, but the bottom menu acts a little differently. You may even be confused on How to Send a Gmail Email in the new user experience, so here’s some tips on how to navigate the new composition window to Create an Email with Gmail.

The first icon you’ll see is the underlined A, this brings up your formatting options. Here you’ll find bold, italics, underline, font, size, text color, numbered list, bulleted list, alignment with 3 options, and remove formatting. The features on the old version and left off the new version are highlight color, emoticion, link, indent less, indent more, and quote.

However, you can find the link and emoticion buttons in the hidden menu on the lower bar. To pull up the hidden menu, hover the mouse over attach files, like shown below. This brings up “hot buttons” that you may want to use while creating your email in Gmail.

From left to right the icons are:  insert files using Drive, insert photos, link, emoticion, and insert invitation.

I really like the new set up in Gmail, it makes email feel less formal. People are getting used to communicating with less words whether it’s text, twitter, or links to articles, so it’s time email got less bulky.

You can also send a quick email newsletter in the new Gmail composition window. I added the Flashissue plug-in to my Chrome browser and simply press the “+Add Clip” button shown above to create an email newsletter in Gmail. This automatically inserts newsletter content into my Gmail that I can send to my Gmail contact list in 5 minutes.

Gmail is constantly innovating and improving their product features. Gmail is obviously the leader in email and it’s always best to try to stay ahead of the lead. Take a sneak peek at Gmail Blue which Google predicts, “I think the first thought that’s going to come to the end user’s mind is, ‘I can’t believe I waited this long for this.'” Enjoy!