We use gmail for work, with it ported through Microsoft Outlook.
I’ve been out sick the past couple days and logged in via gmail.
Holy Moly, gmail blows.
Was the user interface designed by a group of 3rd graders? I can’t believe how cheap it all looks. Does anyone else feel this way, or have my pain meds totally messed with with my brain?
I like it a lot. It’s very clean and uncluttered. And the conversation-style handling of emails is fantastic.
You can change the skin to give it all a different look (functionality remains the same, though) by clicking on the icon in the top right that looks like a cog. Then -> Mail settings -> Themes.
What Panurge said. It’s clean and simple. It’s not full of crap. I like it a lot.
I like the Gmail interface so I have to vote for the pain meds 
We moved over the Gmail a few months ago. We still use our corporate domain. I’ve stopped using Outlook altogether because the Gmail client is so much faster. What don’t you like about Gmail?
So it is the pain meds!
Many people who don’t like it aren’t using it as intended.
The intention is that you leave the inbox almost empty: you label and archive an email when it’s been read or dealt with.
Multiple labelling (rather than folder storage) is seven shades of awesome.
The search function is exemplar, and using the advanced featuresy (banana in:recipes has:attachment after:2006/3/25 before:2006/3/28) pisses all over Outlook.
The client is fast, responsive, evolving, and I very much like the simplicity of the interface - not to mention the add-on functions.
What about it don’t you like?
I think it’s OK, but not spectacular.
There have been a few times that I’ve clicked on a thread and accidentally deleted it. If I’m not quick enough to realize it and click undo, it’s gone forever.
Or something like that. It’s been a while since that’s happened.
Gmail’s search function alone shames Outlook into pissing its pants.
Or you could just go into “Trash” and retrieve it.
And you can keep your folder structure if you like, which I do. And the relatively recent addition of drag and drop, and nesting, means I can manage and organize my files just like I used to in Outlook.
One of the first things I would recommend is to turn off conversation view.
Also, there are many features in Labs that allow you to customize your experience.
I like it OK, except I’m not happy they decided to bury the “Sign Out” link (which now requires a second click on your email address shown in the top right corner in order to get to). Judging from the hundreds of complaints about it on Google’s forum, I’m hardly the only one. Based on their lame responses to the complaints and the fact that weeks have now passed since they changed it, I assume they’re not planning to revert. The only reasonable explanation I can think of is that they’re trying to subtly discourage people from signing out—so as to more easily track your web browsing in other windows, perhaps?
Yeah, two clicks to sign out of a free email service isn’t exactly the end of the world, but it’s annoying, and suggests (to me) an ever-so-slight creep toward Evil on the part of Google.
I looked at gmail just the other day to see if I could use it instead of Outlook, given that I use gmail for my email. Here are issues and nitpicks I came across - maybe more experienced users know of solutions.
Is there any way to have multiple gmail email addresses showing on the same page, either in the same Inbox, or separate Inboxes on the same page? I know I can forward from one gmail account to another, but that’s not the same (although this will do if anyone can tell me how then to respond to the forwarded email and have my response come from the original email address, not the one it was forwarded to).
I use several gmail accounts, downloaded to Outlook. In Outlook I can see them all in one glance and see which have unread emails. I can then save emails from any of the accounts into my personal folders, including mixing emails from different accounts into one folder. Is there any equivalent in gmail?
I didn’t see any way to set a time on a task in gmail, just a date. Okay, in Outlook the task only has a date also, but you can set a time to be reminded.
I like the Reading Pane in Outlook and didn’t see an equivalent in gmail.
I can scroll down Outlook emails one at a time using the down arrow key, see the result in the Reading Pane, and then hit Delete if I am done with the email. I didn’t find anything that easy in gmail.
As **jjimm **suggests, I already keep my Inbox small. I move emails to personal folders. I can see an advantage in being able to use multiple labels. However, I move emails to personal folders by dragging them there. I don’t see anything that easy in gmail - it looks as if I have to select a label from a drop-down. That seems cumbersome in comparison (given that I have 40 folders).
I like the To Do Bar in Outlook, and saw no equivalent in gmail. Maybe there is something at a higher level given that I should really only compare gmail to the email part of Outlook.
Outlook does not show me adverts.
Is there any way of importing old emails from Outlook personal folders into gmail? I have emails going back years and would like to have them all in one place.
However, I do recognize that I am unfamiliar with gmail and that it may have benefits of which I am unaware (this thread has indicated a few things to try out).
As for the OP’s comment, yeah, I agree that the gmail interface looks cheap.
I see your point but, for me, it’s not an issue at all. In fact, I really like that I can have up to three accounts open at once and simply switch between them without having to log out of one and log into another. I have no reason to log out.
Mostly, I like it (with several additions from the labs), but I would like to have an inbox view that hides all mail with labels other than Inbox.
I wouldn’t. I’d give it a proper 4-week learning curve try, and then if you don’t see how useful and easy it is to use, switch it off.
Oh, it’s easy enough. I just don’t like my mail organized in conversations.
Yes, drag and drop is available. You can drag files into “folders” just like you do in Outlook.
Files? It is emails I want to drag and drop. As soon as I click on an email in the Inbox, it opens that email (even before I let go), so I cannot drag it anywhere.
Just archive all your labeled items.
Oops. I meant emails, not files. Sorry.
At the very left of your message, you should see a ‘handle’ comprised of 8 dots that looks something like this:
::
::
Click and drag the handle to the label you want to move your message to and drop it.