[crcurrie]

Maybe this is a dumb newbie question, but is there a simple way to attach documents to a Gmail message?

Right now I can figure out only two ways, neither of them simple:

1. Go to Google Docs, select the file, click on Actions, then Share, then Send as Email Attachment.

2. Go to Google Docs, download the file to my hard drive, then go to Gmail and insert the attachment into the message.

It seems to me that there should be a way to access my cloud documents straight from the Gmail attachments interface, but right now it doesn't seem possible. That seems a basic adaptation to Chromebook computing that hasn't been made. Or am I wrong?

 

[Googlegal]

With the new google docs, in the doc itself you can click on "collaborate" and email as an attachment. Also in the old Google docs, you can email the people you want to share it with a notification that you are sharing it with them (In the doc, click on share, type in emails and click the "notify by email").

Hope that helps!!
Rebecca

 

[crcurrie]

Thanks, Rebecca. What I'm really talking about is the Gmail interface, not Google Docs. In other words, when I'm creating a message in Gmail, or replying to a message, and I want to attach a document, I want to figure out a way to attach that document without having to open up Google Docs and performing a series of extra steps to get that document into my email message.

This is a very basic email function that I used to do on a daily basis on my Windows computer, using Outlook. I would be surprised if I'm an outlier, and equally surprised if the brains at Google haven't thought about including that functionality in Gmail.

I'm an independent contractor, using my new Chromebook for work (I know, a bit of a roll of the dice -- I'm not an early adopter by nature), so I'm anxiously looking to see if I can perform various everyday office tasks on my Chromebook without undue muss or fuss.

I'm just wondering if I'm missing something ...

 

[crcurrie]

An alternate strategy would be to have some easy way of syncing my Google Docs with the file structure on my small Chromebook hard drive. I wasn't planning on keeping any documents on the hard drive, but I wouldn't be averse to doing so as long as it didn't involve my having to frequently perform manual tasks to keep the docs up to date. It would have the added benefit of making the docs accessible to me at times when I wasn't connected to the Internet.

Does anyone know of an extension that will download and sync your Google Docs file with your hard drive?

 

[crcurrie]

OK, I saw a product idea survey conducted by Google and which closed in July. Making Google Docs available as Gmail attachments collected the second highest number of votes.

So that means that a gazillion people do consider this a basic functionality, and it also means that it isn't there yet.

The hopeful news is that now Google understands this -- and perhaps we'll see this feature soon ...