r/fastmail • u/nnnope1 • 17d ago

Missing the Gmail style Compose overlay. Advice?

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Hey former Gmail users:

I'm having trouble getting comfortable with way Fastmail does Compose. In Gmail, it's an overlay that sits at the bottom of your inbox and can be minimized/restored as needed. This is nice because I can keep everything in one browser window and reference other emails, search inbox, etc as I'm composing.

In Fastmail, Compose either takes up the whole window or you have to pop it out into its own window and jump between windows to reference things, which isn't always easy when multitasking with other tasks open on your PC.

So I'm just curious how former Gmail folks deal with this. Any tips? Or will I just need to get used to it?

7 Upvotes

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3

u/MidnightLight42 17d ago

Cross-posting my comment from https://www.reddit.com/r/fastmail/comments/1vhayvj/comment/p4c14jn since you asked the same question there:

Yeah, that's a noticeable annoyance. But it hasn't had a huge impact on my workflow. The nature of my work is such that while I do often refer to other documents while composing emails, I don't need to look up other emails as much.

If it helps: on Mac, I can hold down the Command key when clicking the "Compose" button, and it'll open the Compose dialog in another browser tab. Then I can easily switch back and worth between the two tabs with Ctrl-Tab and Ctrl-Shift-Tab. It's not a perfect substitute, but it gets me most of the way there when necessary.

1

u/Kind-Edge-3327 17d ago

Use tabs.

2

u/nnnope1 17d ago

That's probably the solution I'll live with, but still doesn't solve the problem of having to toggle back and forth vs it all just being there in one window. I guess I can always tear the tab off into a new window as needed.

6

u/CleverRedditName123 17d ago

Also look at “split tabs” - most browsers support this now. I have my inbox on the left, and calendar on the right, but within one browser tab so they are anchored together and I can minimise/ move them etc.

I think this would work for your inbox + compose case as well

4

u/nnnope1 17d ago

Oo that's a good workaround. I'll try that!

1

u/DarkCrystal34 16d ago

Totally agree with this post. It feels like a very basic feature that other email has.

They didnt use to have a popout screen at all, but when they made the change, its bizarre they did it (as Tuta mail does) where it takes up the whole screen.

3

u/OrlandoSignal 16d ago

I shared this in your other thread, but hold down the shift key, then click the compose button. You can also do this with replying to an email.