Comments on: A Little Gmail Tweak That Makes a Big Difference

By: k Barringer

k Barringer — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 03:22:09 +0000

I asked how to get the new menu bar not what it will do, had to go to yahoo to ask same question. Very hurt.

By: Paulo Sargaço

Paulo Sargaço — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 09:54:15 +0000

Jeff said “Also, I don’t have a problem with threaded-conversation interface”

I meant to mention that too. One of the things I like more about GMail is precisely the threaded-conversation interface. I bet there is room for improvement but I’d like to see that spelled out. One thing I definitely wouldn’t like would be for that feature to go away.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 04:08:02 +0000

I wish I could get rid of the “Move to” button; I don’t like it.
Also, I don’t have a problem with threaded-conversation interface.

By: Paulo Sargaço

Paulo Sargaço — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 12:13:39 +0000

@John I was using the BestGMail2 keyboard shortcuts, so I had the GMail ones disabled. Comparing the two sets of shortcuts it seems GMail has more options. But many of them require 2 keys to be pressed. BestGMail ha one major flaw: there was no shortcut to “Compose”. Which is silly. But I have to try GMail’s to assess if it worth to make the switch.

Regarding the redrawing of the whole webpage, it seems particularly silly since that when you return to the inbox only the messages section of the page is redrawn. But maybe it’s just a case of them not having gotten around to do it.

Finally, I hope this doesn’t sound picky (it does, I know, but my hands are writing this of their free will. Can’t seem to stop them). My name ends with an “o”. I’m Portuguese, hence Paulo and not Paul. No offence taken, though.

By: John Proffitt

John Proffitt — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 11:31:25 +0000

Paul – The shortcuts are keyboard shortcuts. They must first be turned on in your Gmail Settings area (General tab). Once turned on, you need to know the shortcuts to use them. You can hit “?” to get a listing of the shortcuts, by the way.

As for refreshing once you look at a set of labeled messages, that was always the case with Gmail. The set of messages in the Inbox almost never matches the set of messages with a particular label applied. There’s a lot of AJAX screen redrawing in Gmail, but it doesn’t cover every single use-case.

By: Paulo Sargaço

Paulo Sargaço — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 11:20:07 +0000

I like the improvements. I would also like (I think) the shortcut you mentioned if I understood how it worked. Maybe it’s not working for me because I use BetterGmail2 on Firefox. Perhaps there’s a collision of some kind. But one thing I didn’t like is the fact that when you choose to see the messages with a particular label, the whole page has to be refreshed. Why not just redraw the messages area? Or was GMail always like this?

By: John Proffitt

John Proffitt — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 04:38:40 +0000

Whew! I thought I was the only one excited about this change. It finally “unifies” the interface across platforms, so I get the same look (virtually) on Mac or Windows or Linux. Much better, I say.

And I totally agree that this gives me more value than offline access. But I suspect that’s a minority opinion.

By: Daniel Ionescu

Daniel Ionescu — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 22:33:57 +0000

I noticed that my Gmail buttons got square shaped and the new move-to button only when I had to log in to the web version because IMAP was playing up (probably while updating interface). Guess this makes a difference for web users but not so much for POP3 or IMAP.

However, my Google Apps account didn’t get the overhaul yet, only regular Gmail.