Old Compose for Chrome restores Gmail's old compose interface
Google back in April 2013 changed the Gmail compose interface in a significant matter. Instead of opening it in its own page on the Gmail website, it now opened as a small window attached as an overlay on the page you were on. The window was a lot smaller, and while there have been options to enlarge it or center it on the screen, it was still disliked by Gmail users who wanted the old interface back.
This was possible for some time, as Google displayed an option to return to the old compose interface on the Gmail website. Eventually though, the company removed the link leaving users with nothing but the new interface to compose emails on.
Update: We have removed the link to the extension as it is no longer working correctly. You can try an extension like Gmail Classic/Old Theme instead.
Old Compose is a Google Chrome extension that restores the old interface on Gmail.
Note: The extension is not listed in the Chrome Web store, and the developers of it have put in place several hurdles that you have to jump over before you can download it. They require you to enter an email address first, and then make a post on Twitter or Facebook about it, before you get access to the download. Someone did however upload the latest version of the Old Compose extension here, so that you can download it directly.
To install Old Compose in Google Chrome, click on the settings button in the main toolbar and select Tools > Extensions from the options. You can alternatively load chrome://extensions/ directly.
Drag and drop the downloaded file to the page to get the installation dialog and install it in the browser.
The developer has created an instructional video that walks you through the installation.
When you visit Gmail afterwards and click on compose there on the page, you will notice that the compose interface opens up like it did before Google made the change.
Verdict
If you want Gmail's old compose window back, this is your chance to to do. While limited to Chrome, it is the best solution so far to achieve just that.
There are a couple of things to not like about the extension and they are all linked to how it is offered and distributed. First, it is not offered in the official Chrome store which may raise some alarm bells as it has not been checked for security issues or malicious contents.
Second, forcing users to provide the makers with an email address and to make a post on Twitter or Facebook before they can download and install the extension makes it look like an email harvesting and link bait extension more than anything else.
You said that Outlook isn’t your main email client, so which is your main one?
I think its thunderbird
It is Mozilla Thunderbird.
Awesome! This actually solved my problem… what a stupid bug.
If this is the same bug that I’ve encountered, there may be another fix: (1) hover over open Outlook item in Taskbar, cursor up to hover over Outlook window item, and right-click; (2) this should give you Restore / Move / Size / Minimize / Maximize — choose Move or Size; (3) use your cursor keys, going arbitrarily N/S/E/W, to try to move or size the Outlook window back into view. Basically, the app behaves as though it were open in a 0x0 window, or at a location that’s offscreen, and this will frequently work to resize and/or move the window. Don’t forget to close while resized/moved, so that Outlook remembers the size/position for next time.
THANK YOU Claude!!! I could get the main window to launch but could not get any other message window to show on the desktop. You are my hero!!!!
Solved my issue! 6 years later and this is still problem…
Fantastic. Thank you. Size did the trick.
This solved my Outlook problem, too. Thank you. :)
Thank you so much, this started happening to me today and was causing big problems. You are a life saver, I hope I can help you in some way some day.
You are a god – thank you!
thanks a lot…. work like charm.. :-)
Yah…thanks Claude. I’ve been having the same problem and tried all the suggestions…your solution was the answer. It had resized itself to a 0/0 box. Cheers
Excellent post. This had me baffled even trying to accurately describe the problem. This fixed it for me.
Thank you
Thanks a lot for the article. Don’t know why it happenend, don’t know how it got fixed, but it was really annoying and now it works :-)
Thanks a lot. I was facing this issue from past 3 week. I tried everything but no resolution. The issue was happening intermittently and mainly when I was changing the display of screen ( as i use 2 monitors). The only option i had was to do system restore. But thanks to you.
I’ve been tried to sole this problem for 12hours. Your comment about changing the display of screen helped me a lot!! Thanks!!
Thank you…don’t know why this happened but your instructions helped me fix it. Running Windows 10 and office pro 2007
Great tip! Thanks!
Worked for me, too – thank you!!!
It’s Worked for me, too
thank you very much!
I had a similar issue with Outlook 2013 on Windows 10 and this helped me to fix it. Thank you very much!
Thank you so much. Solved!
Considering you published this in 2012, incredible not been debugged by Microsoft.
Thank you again. M
This problem was faced by only one user logging to TS 2008 r2 using outlook 2010.The issue was resolved.
Thanks.
Great tip. Thank you!!!! If it helps, I had to use the Control Key and the arrow keys at the same time to bring my window back into view. Worked like a charm.
Thank you, this worked !!!!
Man, you are a fucking god. Thanks a lot, what an annoying bug!!
Awesome, this post solved the issue. Many thanks!