October 31, 2012

How to Open Any Mail in Gmail's New Panels

If you've enabled Gmail's new interface for composing messages, there's a simple way to open any Gmail message in the chat-like panels:

1. open the message

2. edit the URL from your browser's address bar. Replace the last slash (/) from the URL with ?compose=

For example, replace:

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?shva=1#inbox/13a111c6f50b9084

with:

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?shva=1#inbox?compose=13a111c6f50b9084


Gmail actually creates a new message with the same content and saves it as a draft. That's the reason why you can edit the message. When you no longer need the message, click the "close" button. You may need to delete the messages from the "drafts" label.

You can open multiple messages using the same trick. After using the instructions above:

3. open a new Gmail message

4. edit the URL from your browser's address bar. Replace ?compose= with & and the last slash (/) from the URL with ?compose=.
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12 comments:

  1. UnknownOctober 31, 2012 at 6:40 AM

    Will this option be available as a possible option in settings or as a lab-feature?

    ReplyDelete
  2. AwfkiOctober 31, 2012 at 6:47 AM

    Save the javascript below as a bookmarklet, open the email and then click the bookmarklet and it will do this automagically.

    javascript:(function() {window.location=window.location.toString().replace('#inbox/','#inbox/?compose=');})()

    ReplyDelete
  3. istvan nonnOctober 31, 2012 at 7:05 AM

    Great trick ... Thanks

    ReplyDelete
  4. Marco Aurelio ZoquiOctober 31, 2012 at 8:09 AM

    Canned responses (from google labs) is not available in the new ui.

    ReplyDelete
  5. G-MaNOctober 31, 2012 at 8:50 AM

    I was switched to the new compose window just now. Here's the help page for the new compose https://support.google.com/mail/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=2645922&p=newcompose

    ReplyDelete
  6. UnknownOctober 31, 2012 at 10:06 AM

    That... seems more cumbersome than other solutions, I have to admit. :P

    ReplyDelete
  7. Sreenath VOctober 31, 2012 at 3:30 PM

    new compose window is much better and very useful.

    ReplyDelete
  8. AnonymousOctober 31, 2012 at 10:15 PM

    Its really great idea!! I really liked new compose window

    ReplyDelete
  9. Jessica B JohnsonNovember 1, 2012 at 12:02 AM

    I am regular user of gmail but i never hear about this technicality before read your post. It is really awesome feature which is making gmail more attractive and interesting.
    business logo design

    ReplyDelete
  10. HariNovember 1, 2012 at 6:35 AM

    Doesn't work for me, tried to manually edit as well use the bookmarket that someone posted.

    ReplyDelete
  11. AnonymousNovember 2, 2012 at 11:11 AM

    Worked for me

    ReplyDelete
  12. UnknownFebruary 1, 2017 at 5:28 AM

    Nothing seems to work to get my email. Why did you make it so hard to even try. Money is nothing with everything these days. I have a pacage deal.

    ReplyDelete

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