How 2 ... Call back sent e-mail in Gmail

March 25, 2009 By Etan Horowitz

Ever realize you accidentally hit "Reply All" seconds after it was too late? Or forget to send the attachment mentioned in your message? With Gmail's "Undo Send" and "Forgotten Attachment Detector" features, you can give yourself an extra five seconds to call back a message so you can fix it.

1. Log into your account at Gmail.com. Click on "Settings" in the upper right corner of the page.

2. Click on the "Labs" tab under Settings. (If you don't see the "Labs" tab, make sure you have the latest version of your Web browser.) Scroll down and click on "Enable" next to "Forgotten Attachment Detector" and "Undo Send." Click on "Save Changes."

3. The next time you send an e-mail that you want to call back, click on "Undo" at the top of your Inbox. If you catch it within five seconds, the sending will be undone and a draft of your message will appear on the screen. You can now make changes and send the message again, save it or delete it.

4. The next time you send a message that Gmail thinks should have an attachment but doesn't, you'll see a pop-up window asking you if you want to send the file without an attachment. In my tests, including the words "I have attached" seemed to trigger the warning.

5. You can turn these features off at any time by returning to Labs in the Settings menu.

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(Etan Horowitz is the technology columnist for the Orlando Sentinel.)
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