Today, as part of my administrative duties, I had to send out a series of emails to various individuals, each with an attachment. And around the third or fourth email I composed, I forgot to attach the attachment.
Who hasn’t forgotten an attachment at some point or other, and then had to send a follow-up email saying “oops, sorry, here it is.” Adding to my own list of tasks and increasing anyone else’s inbox clutter certainly isn’t my idea of productivity.
So lo and behold, my delighted surprise, when I hit “send” and up popped a little notifier that said:
Did you mean to attach files?
You wrote “I’m attaching” in your message, but there are no files attached. Send anyway?
Now, I sometimes have mixed feelings about Gmail’s surveillance of everything I type, but in this instance I was grateful.
So I took a look around and discovered that this is a recently graduated feature from Gmail Labs, along with custom label colors, YouTube previews, and other good stuff. After testing new features (which you can opt into, if you like) Gmail Labs periodically “graduates” them to be part of all users’ standard implementation.
Has Gmail saved you from your own mistakes? Let us know in the comments!
(cc licensed image from flickr user Sea Frost)
Follow Profhacker through your favorite RSS reader: 
3 Responses to Graduated in Gmail: the Forgotten Attachment Detector
Cardinal - March 15, 2010 at 7:55 pm
This is pretty darn clever. Since I am required to use my campus e-mail for work, I can’t rely on google to remind me. But I make it a habit to attach the attachments as soon as I type the words “I’ve attached…”. Once the relevant files are attached, I’m allowed to continue composing the message. My forgotten attachment apology e-mails have dropped almost to zero since adopting the policy.
William Patrick Wend - March 16, 2010 at 5:38 pm
Yep, I installed this plugin on one of my Gmail accounts because I kept forgetting to add the attachment when I sent documents.
Rana - March 17, 2010 at 5:18 pm
This is slightly off-topic, so feel free to delete!
I just wanted to remind people that if they can avoid using attachments in the first place, do so. Obviously, if one’s transmitting forms or the like where the format is important, or a multi-page document, that’s one thing. But I get so many attachments that, after I download them, open them, and read them, prove to be little more than a few lines of information (like an event flier) that could just have been easily typed into an email.
If it’s in-line text, then it’s a matter of a few seconds to scan, decide, and keep or delete the email. If it’s an attachment – especially if it’s an attachment that’s not compatible with my software – it’s a waste of time and hard-drive space, and I will not think well of the person who did it that way.