Attach Files to Gmail From Any Windows Application – gAttach

Users of a desktop email client like Outlook or Thunderbird have long been used to using the email function built in many applications like Word, Windows Explorer, etc to attach files with ease.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t work for web based email like Gmail. You could make Gmail the default email client within the browser like you can do in Firefox. But, your Windows desktop applications don’t have any idea how to do it for Gmail. I came across gAttach on Madhur’s blog and tried it out.

What is gAttach?

gAttach is a small Windows application that lets you email using Gmail with or without attachments from almost any Windows application. Here are a gist of gAttach features

• Send email from any Windows application via Gmail
• Handles email – mailto links from all browsers and not just Firefox
• Works with Google Apps
• Uses HTTPS for added security
• Option to let gAttach remember your Gmail username/password for convenience or you can just login yourself
• Choose to launch Gmail after creating a draft message
• Choose to use basic HTML version or Rich Text version
• Option Load Gmail when you click on an email link
• Option to setup proxy server details
• Free for personal use

gAttach was a small 496K download and just took under 2 minutes to install. Once installed, you just use the Send to ‘Mail recipient’ function in your Windows Explorer right-click menu to attach files. Just be mind ful of the 20MB attachment size limit in Gmail.

Gmail Notifier can also make Gmail the default mail client for Windows and Mac but gAttach gives you the extra options mentioned here.

What about Linux?

gAttach is a Windows application. What if you wanted to make Gmail the default mail client in Linux? How-to Geek has this trick covered. Even though the post is on how to get it done on Ubuntu, it should work on other Linux distros as well.

Use Gmail without a Mouse

For a power Gmail user, some of the Gmail keyboard shortcuts are essential. For me, ‘#’ key is just invaluable to delete mails easily trying to keep up with the ‘zero inbox’ I try to follow. However, this post from official Gmail blog, nicely walks though on various keyboard shortcuts to use Gmail without a mouse. (tip: just type ? in Gmail to see various shortcuts)

Gmail users, what do you think? If you are using Yahoo or Hotmail, do you know of a similar way to do this?

[via Madhur Kapoor]