Every once in a while, Google releases a new feature that’s so useful it’s impossible to miss. To make your life easier, it is now possible to compose an email directly from a Google Docs document.
Let’s take an example: you have been asked to write an email to send to a client or a third party. Normally, you write the email, copy and paste it to send to other members of your team – so that they can read it and suggest any changes. Once you get their feedback, you rework the email, copy-paste it back into a “New Message” window on Gmail, and then send it.
Now there is a much better solution, as the Google team has made it possible to create drafts for Gmail directly in Google Docs. You can then share this document with your team, get feedback, and then send the email from Docs. You can even create a document and compose multiple emails to send to different recipients, share the document with your team, and ask other people to help you write the missives.
Yeah, that’s pretty cool. The only thing you will need for this is a Google account and access to Google Drive.
Create a draft email in Google Docs
First, open a new Google Docs document. Place your cursor anywhere in the document.
Then click on Insert > Core Components > Email Draft.
Once you’ve added a draft email in a Google Docs document, it’s time to create your email as if you were working in Gmail. You can add recipient, Cc, Bcc, subject, and email body as below diagram.
The email block has been added to a Google Docs document, and you can now add attachments. To do this, click on the blue Gmail icon to the left of the block (see above), which will open a separate pop-up window, where you can add attachments, format body text, etc.
Gmail popup appears when sending from the email block in a Google Docs document.
When you are done, click on the “send” button and the missive is sent to the recipient. After sending the message, you must manually close the pop-up window. If you don’t want to send from the document, you can always go to Gmail and select the Draft label, where you’ll find the email waiting to be sent.
And that’s all there is to take advantage of this new feature of Google Docs. If you need to collaborate on emails or just want to quickly compose a message while working in Google Docs, now you can.
Source: ZDNet.com