New Gmail tool keeps you from making a fool of yourself

There's really nothing worse than sending out an important e-mail with mention of an attachment then forgetting to actually attach the file that goes with it. To that end, a brilliant new Gmail labs feature is an opt-in nagger that will give you a warning pop-up if you try to send without a file and have used the word "attached" somewhere in the message.

It's not a perfect system. For example, if you say, "I've put the files in this e-mail" or "included in this message" it won't warn you. Amit over at Puse 2.0 also noticed that the system managed to flub "here is the attachment" and "Attach a document," so the phrasing is not an exact science. With anything like this there's a careful balance between making the act of sending an e-mail sloppy yet simple versus precise and difficult.

To turn on this new feature you must opt-in through the Gmail labs settings menu.

With the forgotten attachment reminder on you'll get a small alert like this if you try to send off a message that mentions attachments but does not have them.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

[jbhardman]

What is "Puse 2.0"?

[achowdhry]

**Pulse 2.0** is a technology blog. If you click the link, it'd be quite obvious.

[artie V]

If only they had a similar utility for Cnet bloggers....

[Josh.Lowensohn]

That's cute.

[BlitzBoy1120]

Not a bad idea actually. It may not be perfect, but hey, it's better than nothing.

[pbroni]

What the world really needs is a reminder that says, "You are about to leave the house without a helmet. Do you really want to leave the house without a helmet?"

[DrtyDogg]

there was an addin for outlook 2000 that did the same thing.

[delf76]

Yawn.... next please. Seriously, this made news?

[achowdhry]

This is a pretty big feature because it's artificial intelligence combined with enterprise functionality. For those of us who send a countless number of e-mails per day, this feature is crucial. Other e-mail developers should use this feature as a benchmark.

[HighwayHome]

"There's really nothing worse than sending out an important e-mail with mention of an attachment then forgetting to actually attach the file that goes with it."

Yeah, it doesn't get any worse than that. Imagine the sheer horror of having to receive an email back stating that you forgot to add the attachment. And if that's not bad enough, having to resend the email with the attachment. I don't know about you, but I won't be able to show my face for months after such a mess up.

[t26l]

You don't know how many times I've forgotten to attach something...

[vpytko]

I would prefer that the attachment nagger was part of the spell/grammar checker. Run one, and your email is perfected! But ohw many peopel run spelcheckk? See attackment.

[dell1980]

There's an add-on for Thunderbird called check and send that can do this for any words you specify, it can also give you the alert if there are any spelling mistakes.

[dlcizvklwktgu]

Amusing to see GMail catching up to Pegasus Mail [http://www.pmail.com/] -- the power-user's free POP3/IMAP email client software -- has had this "brilliant new feature" for years.

[haider_unik]

Is this tool for the thick Americans? Of course...