I’ve never been a big fan of Gmail’s browser-based interface. Although it’s improved over the years, it’s still cluttered, disorganized, and often unintuitive.
For example, on those rare occasions when you want to print an email, how do you do it? Ah, right: When you’re viewing the message, there’s a teeny printer icon above the Reply button.
However, when you mouse over that icon, you’ll notice that the pop-up descriptor says “Print all.” And, sure enough, when you click it, you’ll get a preview that shows you the entire email thread—which may be quite lengthy, and more than you want to print.
However, there is a way to print just a single message in Gmail, specifically the one you’re viewing.
Instead of clicking the aforementioned Reply button, click the small arrow that’s attached to it. This is technically a “More” button, though it’s not to be confused with the actual More button in the toolbar that spans the top of the message.
Click this little arrow and you’ll see that it drops down a lengthy list of options—some of which aren’t available via the toolbar.
So, all you need to do is click Down arrow, Print. In the preview window that appears next, you’ll see just the currently selected message, not the entire thread.
This is also a fast and easy way to add the sender to your Contacts list—another option that doesn’t appear elsewhere.
Contributing Editor Rick Broida writes about business and consumer technology. Ask for help with your PC hassles at hasslefree@pcworld.com, or try the treasure trove of helpful folks in the PCWorld Forums. Sign up to have the Hassle-Free PC newsletter e-mailed to you each week.