How do I reply to several separate emails at once?

September 4, 2007 11:22 AM

gmailfilter: I would like to write one email in reply to a group of people (whose addresses are not in my contacts and don't pop up automatically) who have each written me separate emails. Is there a way to do this through some sort of "select and bcc all" thing? I don't know how to run greasemonkey scripts, but if they are easy, I could try.
posted by rmless to Computers & Internet (7 answers total)

If they've sent you an email, their addresses should autopopulate your address book. Select "Contacts" on the left of the page, place a check in the box next to each name you want to include, then click the compose button.
posted by grateful at 11:27 AM on September 4, 2007

Response by poster: Thanks, but that is almost as time-consuming as just copying and pasting their addresses. I was wondering if there is something I can do from the inbox page (where all of these emails are close together because they just came in) to select and reply.
posted by rmless at 11:32 AM on September 4, 2007

Best answer: sounds like an excellent suggestion to send into google.
posted by crewshell at 12:15 PM on September 4, 2007

Best answer: To solve your immediate problem, though, I'd think in terms of clicks and flow.

Instead of looking at copy/pasting all the addresses into a new mass message, ala...

* open inbox message
* click "show details"
* select address
* copy address
* close message
* open "reply" message (or switch to Notepad file)
* paste address
* close "reply" message
(repeat until done)
* send single mass message

I would simply compose my reply message, then paste it quickly into individual replies. That way you only have to:

* open inbox message
* click "reply"
* paste text
* click "send"
(repeat until done)

Click, click, CTRL-V, click. Next!

You could tear through your inbox pretty quickly that way.
posted by Tubes at 12:48 PM on September 4, 2007

I have struggled with this too. (the above method probably won't work for your needs b/c you will end up with dozens of different conversations when people start replying)

the fact is, I love gmail, but it's woefully lacking in some very basic functionality.

as of not that long ago, they do at least have groups. (choose contacts on the front page, then groups) It's annoying time consuming the first time, but at least you have the group for future use.
posted by drjimmy11 at 2:06 PM on September 4, 2007

If you send the emails all with the same subject, won't they automatically enter in to the same thread?

If your friends all use their actual names attached to their email addresses, they should autopopulate in the To: field simply by typing in a letter or two of their names.
posted by DecemberRaine at 2:27 PM on September 4, 2007

Response by poster: Thanks, all. At least I know that I'm not missing some blindingly obvious solution. It's nice to know that a few of you struggle with this as well.
I just did the copy and paste of the email addresses from my inbox, as Tubes suggested, and it was annoying. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) I won't ever have to use this group of email addresses again; it was a one-time thing.
So if I write up a petition to Google, will you guys sign it?
posted by rmless at 2:32 PM on September 4, 2007