Is there a way to set a “permanent pen” in Gmail?

Question

Responding to an email inline in Gmail requires formatting each bit of text. Is there a way to set a permanent pen similar to Lotus Notes so that everything I type while it is turned on maintains the same format?

For example: Original email question?

My response to the question

Another point in the email

My response to the point

For each of my responses, I had to select the text and set it to Bold and Italic.

There is an add-in that makes this possible in Thunberbird: http://superuser.com/a/200295/121933

Does this functionality exist in Gmail?

Answer 1

No GMail does not currently have such a feature.

BUT there is a really weird/annoying workaround if you want it that bad. Google allows you to have a signature. You can configuration the signature in the General settings. What you could do is put one letter in the signature with the formatting you want. When you compose a new email that would mean you must start typing from the signature line. Once finished typing your message you can deleting and blank lines above it.

Of course this only works if you are composing the first message. During a reply I the signature is placed below the quoted text therefore making this method very annoying.

Hope this sorta helps!