Gmail Tip: How to send “subject only” messages

Sunday, October 26, 2008

If you add "EOM" (end of message) to the end of your subject, Gmail will not complain about an empty message text. This allows you to quickly send short subject only email messages like "Coffee at 9:30? EOM". Official Gmail blog entry

How Do I Unmute a Gmail Conversation?

Monday, October 20, 2008

Yesterday, I discovered that I had accidentally muted an important conversation. I found no obvious way to undo it. This lifehacker blog post points to the solution:

To un-mute a conversation, select the conversation and click Move to inbox. Doing so will move the entire conversation to your inbox and will remove the mute action, so that future messages are also delivered to your inbox.

Muting conversations is very handy, by the way. From the Gmail help pages:

If you're subscribed to a mailing list, you've no doubt been subjected to the 'thread that just won't die!' If you're part of a long message conversation that isn't relevant, you can 'mute' the conversation to keep all future additions out of your inbox. By using the 'm' shortcut key, new messages added to the conversation bypass your inbox so that the conversation stays archived. If your address appears in the to or cc field, though, the conversation will pop back into your inbox ready for your attention. Muted messages are not marked as read, are still searchable, and can specifically be found by searching for:

Faster Gmail loading

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Thanks to Google, Gmail loads much faster! Account switching, new message windows, and initial startup are much zippier!

Check out this article for more information.

Gmail 2.0 and Mailplane

Monday, November 05, 2007

Google prepares Gmail for the future. According to the official Gmail blog, Gmail 2.0 is being rolled out over the next few weeks. If you see the "Newer Version" link in the upper right part of your main window, you already have been upgraded:


However, Mailplane isn't compatible with Gmail 2.0, yet. The Gmail 1.0 interface is still available, and Mailplane 1.54 automatically opens this interface when started. So, if you don't use the "Newer Version" link, Mailplane works without problems. I am currently working on the upgrade. Mailplane will support both Gmail 1.0 and 2.0.

But, what can you expect from the new Gmail? In Firefox, Gmail 2.0 doesn't look much different. However, for Mailplane users it is great news: Some really missed Gmail features will come to WebKit and therefore Mailplane (and Safari). Here are two examples:

Quick contacts/Google Talk in sidebar:


The "Update Conversation" feature:


Google seems to have unified the code for the different supported browsers. The days are numbered where WebKit users had to live with an older Gmail version, I guess.

And here is the best part: Mailplane is based on WebKit and WebKit is the fastest browser rendering engine. With the new Gmail speed improvements, Mailplane will be faster than ever.

From the Gmail blog post: "These techniques really shine on newer browsers and computers. Using an alpha version of Safari 3 on a MacBook, we're seeing sub-200ms times when opening messages—pretty quick."

Google announces IMAP for Gmail

Saturday, October 27, 2007

This week, Google announced IMAP access for Gmail. That's great news for Mailplane users. Why?

Many people access their Gmail mailbox from various locations and devices. In my case this is

• Mailplane on my MacBook and the family iMac
• the Gmail java application on my Motorola V3 handset
• Firefox on a linux box
• And occasionally Internet Explorer on Windows

IMAP now extends access to my precious email data:

• As the iPhone doesn't run the java application to access Gmail, I will be able to use IMAP when I will
• I will be able to backup my Gmail email data

Regardless how I access my Gmail mailbox, I see and change the same email data. For example, I could "star" a conversation on my handset, then create a reply on Linux with Firefox, attach a photo with Mailplane, and then send the draft from an iPhone.

Will IMAP access replace Mailplane for me? No way!
I love the Gmail web interface, in my opinion it beats all traditional mail clients. For me Gmail thru Mail.app isn't Gmail anymore: no real labels, no Google search, no pretty conversation view. And Mailplane gives me best of both worlds: The speed and power of Gmail and the beauty and functionality of my Mac desktop.