How To Make New Gmail Look More Like Old Gmail In Two Clicks

Wow, that’s dense and cluttered.  Remember, whitespace is a good thing.

Are you retarded?

And too much is not a good thing.  I don’t need my inbox double spaced.

The new gmail is for the retarded.  i am switching to hotmail.   These gmail folks got a bad idea  fish in their “think tank”

When I tried the new gmail the web search window disappeared how do you get that back on the new look?

Don’t fix things that aren’t broken>

Yep, as I told a fellow on Twitter, someone rich and famous should start a petition to return Gmail to the “old” look. I’m sure many would sign it. I would. (And, of course, Google would ignore it,as usual.)

thanks.. well kinda thankfully seems like I was able to go back to old gmail again today.  hoping it is not a glitch, or if it is please let it stay…

Yahoo mail is still better than gmail.

Where did my “groups” go?

I’m getting pissed at Google, quit forcing crap upon us, I do not like the New Gmail look, also you get us to start liking something like the google toolbar then you don’t support it any more this is not right… I won’t even use google chrome because you would never support your own Tool Bar how lame is that.

I hate the gmail new look.  I would like to go back to the old one .  HELP!!!!!!

Yep….kinda upset about the GROUPS going away….made teaching and emailing students MUCH easier!

the gmail folks are annoying guys.

How about the scrolling mechanism….it now does not work on the NEW Gmail.  I give Gmail more credit than this, to make a new system that is so unoperable.

It has been horrible. I tried to replied to their customer support because we requested to go back to the old look, and the replied tab would not even work.

 new gmail i awful

I absolutely detest the gmail ’new look’ model.  I sincerely hope that Gmail sits up and listens to all this negative feedback and just plain leaves it alone.

The new google look is a God send!
To the competiton, It sucks big time

How the hell are people with netbooks supposed to use this garbage? And why for the love of Cthulhu is there no option to show text instead of blasted pictograms on the buttons. Idiots…

Google needs to realize how awful their new look is. Under “settings” I selected “switch back to the old look temporarily”. If enough users do this, maybe google will realize that this new look is a huge mistake.

how to it

Yuck! Boring!

great, now I am printing out grey area when printing emails….no body thought how much this would cost in black ink?  Bad idea….bad bad bad idea.

IS THERE A BOOK ON THIS NEW SWITCH OVER SO EVERYONE CAN KNOW HOW TO WORK WITH ALL THE CHANGES WE WILL BE FORCED TO LEARN? THIS IS NOT USER FRIENDLY AND IN THESE TIME PEOPLE ARE LOOKING FOR JOBS AND NEED THE ADDRESS WE GAVE TO POTENTIAL EMPLOYERS -

Thank you!! This made it so much better!!

Bottomline….the new look sucks. Why change?

I don’t like it at all. The message panel is too washed-out. It’s hard to tell apart unread messages from the older ones. Gmail should use better contrast, preferably with a darker background.

new look Gmail is ugly and not functional, do not read well, children’s drawings were theme, chat -section hide labels (folders). buttons are big and ugly - no text. There are many positive click the drop-down. .. The icons in the editor and gogle documents are pale (no Color) ugly, ugly, ugly. The ads are part in an open letter (no border line) bar interpreter (merged in a single view and difficult todistinguish from the text in the message) in message, show quoted text”behind the transparent(invisible icon of three points) (. ..)

So hate the new look and fee of Gmail.  Want to go back to the prior version.  Don’t mind changing when things make sense, but this is NOT improvement.  Hope that Google understands what VOC stands for.  Voice of Customer and we say old version is better.  Hit the back button please!

There is effectively nothing you can do in the new look to get the compactness, contrast, borders colors and feel of the old look. It was well thought out, intuitively placed, and there were NO drop down menus. ugh. Google is turning into Apple.

used it for a while, while usable in compact setting, old look still better. can’t get used to the icons (prefer the word Archive as a button, took me minutes to figure out that it’s a square looking icon..i still mess it up after a month )

really hate the new gmail, it is so spread out, emails are hard to reach and the white space is too glaring, why did they wreck a good thing!

I hate the “new look”.  I can’t get my contacts when I try to forward an e-mail.  If I can’t get the “old” look back I will probably change my e-mail again.  HELP!

i cant use it except to reply. how do you clik a contact and get a blank email page to send a letter in??

its so awful i am finding another provider.

???

The colorless, Mac 1.0 look is horrid. A UI should have color and text for ease of use. Having to hover over a button to see what it does is asinine.

The new look SUCKS!!! ARE YOU LESTING GOOGLE!!! I have been a goolge mail user sence before it was open to the public, you know the Beta/invite era of gmail. Within days of getting my gmail I had closed ALL my other email accounts. IF YOU MAKE THE NEW LOOK PERMANENT I WILL LEAVE GMAIL FOREVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!THE BEGING OF THE END IS HERE!!My google calendar is STUCK IN THE CRAPY NEW LOOK!!! IT SUCKS!!!! IT SUCKS!!!! IT SUCKS!!!! IT SUCKS!!!! IT SUCKS!!!! IT SUCKS!!!! IT SUCKS!!!! IT SUCKS!!!! IT SUCKS!!!! IT SUCKS!!!! IT SUCKS!!!! IT SUCKS!!!! IT SUCKS!!!! IT SUCKS!!!! IT SUCKS!!!! IT SUCKS!!!! IT SUCKS!!!! IT SUCKS!!!! IT SUCKS!!!! IT SUCKS!!!! IT SUCKS!!!! IT SUCKS!!!! IT SUCKS!!!! IT SUCKS!!!! IT SUCKS!!!! IT SUCKS!!!! IT SUCKS!!!! IT SUCKS!!!! IT SUCKS!!!! IT SUCKS!!!! IT SUCKS!!!! IT SUCKS!!!! IT SUCKS!!!! IT SUCKS!!!! IT SUCKS!!!! IT SUCKS!!!! IT SUCKS!!!! IT SUCKS!!!! IT SUCKS!!!! IT SUCKS!!!! IT SUCKS!!!! IT SUCKS!!!! IT SUCKS!!!!

I don’t get the icon labels and sometimes I delete messages that I want to archive.  I really don’t like this new “look”.  I might be switching to another email provider.  Do you know of any good ones?

new gmail look is horrible, Im switching to hotmail

The new format sucks. We are not idiots to realize that there is a compact mode. It sucks anyway!!

please, help me to get my old look back, thank you!

Fredox, you’re insane. The new gmail look may LOOK efficient, but I guarantee you it’s not. The file names on the side overlap each other and DON’T even get me started on the lame utilities.

Also try going into the colors/themes options and selecting High Contrast. Helps at least some =(

I was perfectly fine with the old look. It was easy to use, it’s not complicated, best email client ever.
The new look makes me foam at the mouth, it is stupid, inefficient, and overly complex. What makes me even angrier is that Google likes to pretend that it’s incredible. You have to switch to it because it’s so great. >:(

I am seriously considering switching email clients if they force us into this new look despite almost nobody liking it. I’d even be fine with it being optional.

Agree the new look sucks. Worst thing is, that I can’t make the calendar gadget work.

I hate the new look and I am switching back to aol….

Surely, there is a corporate spy planted to extract Google secrets while planting poison within their think tank.  Well done, Microsoft!

GOOGLE I DONT NEED THIS NEW LOOK GMAIL PLEASE GIVE ME BACK
MY OLD GMAIL I CLAIM RESPECT AND I NEED MY OLD GMAIL AND YOU DONT TOUCH MORE IN MY PROGRAM

The new gmail looks terrible.  The old gmail is home, like apple pie!  Please don’t take the old look away but offer it as an option in the “new” gmail if you must migrate to that format.

Is there any way to change the background colour and that awful GMAIL logo like you can in the old version?

The new look is bollacks

the new gmail look is totally dreadful, and I can’t for the life of  me figure out why it isn’t an option to keep the old look – I’d switch back in an instant if it weren’t on all my frigging business cards – almost as bad a misstep as the Netflix move – very stupid

The new look = EPIC DESIGN FAIL

it would be better if you wrote it like this:

step 1:
step 2:

and then all the blablabla so frustrated gmail user don’t have to skim through all your shit

I’m still using the OLD look. Click the wheel icon (Settings) to access the hidden menu, then click “Revert to the old look temporarily.”

The new look will attack you every month or so. Just beat it back into hiding each time.

The new Gmail sucks. The chat sidebar overlaps the email inbox and I am constantly having to fight the chat balloon that pops out to see my email. It sucks.

I do not like the new one at all. will probably go back to yahoo or hot mail.  its a shame they had to change it.  i like everything else about Google.

I do not like the new one at all. will probably go back to yahoo or hot mail.  its a shame they had to change it.  i like everything else about Google.

let the retards and grandma and grandpa and other lite or “surf users” go with the Kindergarten version of Gmail and give us power users a Gmail that you can actually use you know something where we can actually sort by sender or by date or subject or attachment DONT DUMB it down because some people “dont get it”

What retard dreamed the “new look” up? All this does is put people off.

wHAT IS WRONG WITH THE WAY gMAIL IS NOW. i DON” WANT TO CHANGE!

what is wrong with you. The old G mail is just fine. What are you doing. Everybody Hates the new update. Don”t our opinions count? GET REAL and pay attention to the negative comments.

Thank-you! I hated the new look until I found this!

I hope people will keep complaining about the new gmail look so they will make the older version,which is far superior an option. Now would be a great time for a new email company to take over for those disgruntled with the drab new gmail that is so drab and depressing.I can no longer revert to the older look.

It seems that Gmail people enjoy controlling use, why to force us to use new look?
Sadists !!!

I think they just decided to jump on the facebook and apple bandwagon of “lets screw with what works just to piss off our users just because we can.”

I absolutely HATE the “new” look… New does NOT mean better and there is NOTHING better about their new look… I have been changing back to the old every time…until today… can’t change back… and, they’ve not fixed any of the problems since they tried sticking us with this months and months ago…

time to look for a different email client

The day has arrived
Google sucks so bad it hurts
expletives deleted

Google are idiots. Not only have they buggerd up Youtube for everyone, they have now moved onto Gmail.  It’s like they think it’s cool to come into your house and move all your furniture around. Don’t those prize pigs consider everything is already fine???
Back off Google, you really all are a complete bunch of self-centred arseholes!

The lack of contrast on the ‘new look’ makes the readability very difficult.

I am a 70 year old pensioner who has aquired computer skills only in the last few years,i rely on email for important communication,as i am currently a lung cancer patient,,The new format is impossible for me to use,it jumps about all over the place scrolling is a nightmare,its very difficult to read,a sickening pink/mauve wash all over the screen,i will take my computer to a shop today to ask if they can help with this nightmare if not i am forced to change to a more usable server,,,with all the pressures in my life at the moment this is one i could have one without……not a change for the better!

I am back to Hotmail, they new look is rubbish, and it does not allow me to switch back either.

The slider bar is way too narrow. Anyone know how to make it the old width?

truly truly hate it. there’s no minus sign for Chat anymore? i stopped inviting people to gmail when they forced the Contacts button on us. finally they added a minus sign for that menu.

WORST THING Google EVER DID PERIOD!

I agree.. this new look which is totally disoraganized with the overlap on my labels is
REALLY BAD. I need to work and have spend over an hr trying to find a way to go back to the old look.
Did see an http address a Sarah posted to go back to a similar old look which worked until I went out and logged back in. I could SCREAM!!!!!!!!!!!!

Google isn’t the company it was.

The new look sucks, everyone has to fight back to get the old look back, give the new look designer his million dollar bonus and let him go. The new look really, really, really sucks.

 I HATE the new look…I have a widescreen laptop and since it doesn’t fit, I have two scrollbars on the side…one for the browser and one or GMail…It’s loads of fun scrolling up and down with both all the time because of the crappy interface.

I found a cure…not perfect, but good enough so that I don’t ditch GMail for someone else. There are some features missing, so try it for yourself to see if you like it. Here’s what I did:

While looking at the hideous GMail interface:

Click the Reload button on your browser.

Now comes the hard part, at the bottom right corner for a few seconds only, there is a link for Basic HTML – (for slow connections only). Click that link before it goes away.

If you missed, reload again until you click it.

Once you get the link properly, your e-mail will load in a format very similar to your old format. Now the key to keep this look, in the upper right corner, click the link “Set Basic HTML as Default”

Like I said before, not all options are available. but in my opinion, this is a million times better than the new garbage they’re forcing us to use.

I hope this helps!

gmail new look is a shit….

why would they have to ditch the old look? it’s just a look, and it won everyone over for being all of the things this new look thinks it’s doing but is not. if they want to add more things, just make them fit in with that look. it is so weird. facebook and google are in a race to regress. 

I Hate new version of gmail……

║ Why am I having a headache since this morning? I need clue, hmm ……

I can’t stand the new look and they haven’t done anything to improve it. Why do they have to make changes when people are used to the current design. It reminds me of Yahoo.

 IMHO it is a quality control thing. Now with retarded application they’ll be able to dismiss the last remnants of user support. And users eventually. :sigh:

I have used G-mail for years and was very happy with it. Why do you force people to change to something that is so incredibly user unfriendly  and so many users hate?  Above all, why do you want to take away our freedom of choice. Why can’t those who like the new look switch to it, and those who prefer the old one be able to stick with it. It is like one-party rule in a country that claims to be free.

After more than 5 years using gmail, I decided today to move all my stuff to my own mail server.  I should have done it several months ago, when things started changing (e.g., their privacy policy). I first thought that I should wait, thinking that the gmail team was going to change their attitude, and start treating the users a bit better. The reality is that they don’t. In fact, we are not the users, just the product that they want to sell.  So, quite slowly (since, unfortunately, I got too much dependency with gmail),  I plan to definitively move everything to my server, and forget about gmail. It has been a great tool for many years. Today, it is just crap, with a horrible style, and not respectful with us at all.

The compact view still sucks, BUT there is another way to keep the new look from your door completely with just  two clicks.  When  your gmail is loading, click the ‘use basic HTML’  (for slower connections) option. Then when you get into your account you will get a  contradictory banner warning telling you that basic html is ‘slower’  than flash. However, you also get a ‘make html my default setting’  link.  Click this and  you’re back to the old look, albeit with slightly reduced functionality.

If “is ain’t broke, don’t fix it”!!!!!  The new look is NOT good.  WHY WHY WHY?????  Please go back to the old look and we will not have to look and search more for what we need.

I hate the new gmail look. Almost every single step needs more clicks. Easy stuff needs to be discovered and unearth. I am kissing gmail goodbye. Their decision to ignore customers’s reaction is so obnoxious.I hope they’ll fire the team who came with the new design. They repeat the story of Netflix: how to annoy customers and destroy a great business model. 

I HATE the new look. You can shove it. Do not make us take what you this look better. Give us a choice if want to keep the old one. Just because you needed something to do and decided changing our mail would be a good idea, trust me it WASN’T.  I agree, are you retarded.

its jsut wrong. i like words, i read them faster than i decode an icon. this new look is hard – no colour and all icons. yuck.

I hate the new look. switching to a different email. Idiots at Gmail!

 If we all sign my petition to Scrap the new Gmail, we’ll have a chance of staying with Gmail instead of switching to a new service.

Everyone should “Report a bug” in gmail and report that the bug IS the new look… overwhelm their “bug report”

 LOL great idea too!

do not like this new look, why we cannot have a choice, who likes new one will have new one who prefers old stays with old design. My father is over 80 and he doesn’t like a new one but does he has a choice? And I do not like it ether. 

I just hate this new gmail from google.  Is there anyway Google will go back to the old way.  I can not find forward on my gmai, plus it taking up the whole page.  What can I do..  I love gmail.

 Sign my petition to Scrap the new Gmail.

Google’s design team should be fired for this (and their other ‘improvements’). So far they have added nothing to the useability of the product. They’ve replaced clear text buttons with DIY icons that nobody recognizes, clear high-contrast text with black on grey (or any other color as long as you don’t actually want to see the text in high contrast). It’s not that the old design couldn’t be improved – they simply failed in their attempt at it.

Yes, I think you are retarded.

Ok, well I agree with you Fredox. I’m super pissed that I’m stuck with this “compact” view and I can’t change it to anything else. Just because I’m on a laptop doesn’t mean I want to look at all my e-mails on one page, as nasty and cluttered as it looks TO ME. Some people like it, more power to them. I just want to ability to change it to how I want it. Google should give me that. 

this new gnail is crappola..give me Eudora 

SAD DAY!  They forced the change today.

 This new look is simply counter-intuitive.  For the rest of us that aren’t going to use a Google-flavored OS, desktop or mobile, why foist this AWFUL interface upon us?  At least offer the old look as a skin so that those that prefer it can change.

If there was a viable alternative to Gmail (email, contacts, calendar, Exchange-type push functionality on iPhone, two-stage authentication, etc.) I would be planning my migration right now.  This new look is so terrible that I would walk away from my account given a viable alternative.

I held out as long as the system would let me, and it seems this morning, Tuesday, April 24, 2012, was D-Day for Google.  The new look was forced on me this morning and they’ve eliminated the option to change back.  If anyone knows of a way to regain the old default look, please share it.

i hate this new look. it does not work for me. i can only read half a e-mail, because the arrows that         scroll down dont work right, and there are no arrows on bottom, i am definatly going to get rid of google, if they dont fix the problem, i will get some one else

why do you think you know what is best for us. if you want to be a brainyac do it on your own computer, but leave ours alone. we like things more easy for us

i hate the new gmail.  now i have to do a “page down” option tio read the whole message (using user notebook) then “page up” to respond. etc….yech

I lost the ability to “pinch-squeeze” zoom with firefox and the update.  I HATE the new “look”, cluttered appearance, and the unforgivable loss of contrast.  This new look is a total failure for those with limited function.  Why not GIVE a choice??  Being disabled makes everything all of this much more important or should I say unusable.  If I can google the new look and gmail and see so many negative comments and so few positive might be a hint google.

So they forced the new look today and I was roaming around looking for what I thought would be the inevitable petition to put it back when I found this blog. The problem is that the actual ‘look’ of the change is the least of the problems. On all the dark themes “compact” is *unreadable*, actually painful to look at (real pain not aesthetic pain), and “comfortable” (which as you point out is actually stupid) isn’t much better AND cuts off half of your inbox with its waste of space. Whoever is responsible for this should be fired. “User Experience” is about the USER, not daddy-whoever wanting to have theoretical aesthetics. I know I’m not the only one that sent this feedback and gmail did nothing to fix it. I guess they want me to stop using webmail. So long, ad revenue!

defensibly retarded lol

i loath the scrollable labels and gchat makes me not want to use them at all about to switch to yahoo….

The new look blows.  How would you like if I came in your house, rearranged your furniture and nailed it to the ground – sorry, can’t change the new look.  

still ugly, the new look has three row toolbar fix on top of display area, why?

How do we give feedback to GMAIL? I can’t stand the new format..It doesn’t look modern-it looks like nothing. I don’t want to loose my old address but probably will have to switch out of Gmail.

The thing that made Gmail great was the ease of using it.  They have destroyed that.  I hate to lose the email address I’ve used for years, but it looks like there is not choice.  I hate that.

what cunt fucked up my gmail?? i would like to shoot him in his geeky face, wanker!! who the fuck does he think he is?? my gmail worked just fine! dont need no nerdy cunt brain telling me i need white writing on a black background, fucking over paid shit brained spotty faced cunt!!!

I started a new Facebook page called “I Hate Gmail’s New Look” so please join and let’s get this nonsense back to the way it should be!

How do i even look at my messages?