Send someone a 'draft' email for reviewing, then to send that message to the real intended recipient

Question

After sending an email, it moves to sent and does not stay in drafts (makes sense). Sometimes, I need to send someone a 'draft' email, meaning they are not the end person but someone I need to check the email against. It would be the same formatting and attachments. After I get an Okay, I want to send that message to the real intended recipient. Replying and forwarding messes up attachments and signatures.

Is there a way to do this after being sent (i.e., can't go back to these emails and duplicate for drafts)?

Answer 1

Google recently added the possibility to write Gmail email messages in Google Docs. The detailed instructions are in the reference, but summary is

1. Create a new document
2. Type @. An emerging menu will appear with the option to create a Gmail draft.
3. Click the option to create a Gmail Draft. This will insert a building block and will look as follows:

From the bubble

Email Draft
When you're done writing the email, you can easily convert it into a Gmail draft by clicking on this button.
Got it.

There is no way to add attachments to the Google document, but it still could be handy to enhance your workflow. One option is that you share the Google document with the reviewer.

I wonder if clicking the M button to create a Gmail draft multiple times might be possible. I will test this later.

Reference

• Use Google Docs to draft emails

Answer 2

I had the same issue during an internship a few years ago. Here's how I solved it :

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On gmail there is an option for exporting emails/drafts as an .eml file.
Attach it in a mail or share it with the person who needs to check against.

If you have the green light from this person then you can send it from your drafts or modify it.

Answer 3

What's asked by poster is known to be impossible in Gmail. It's a trivial feature of most other MUA like Thunderbird.

As of today, I can't find the export feature anywhere.

But I found a biased work around:

• send message to yourself
• go in sent forlder
• worward message as attachement
• negociate with friend
• legacy forward message to intended person

The bias is that the first time you send the message, it will NOT contain the final receiver anywhere.

This should be compatible with HTML format, and respect attachements.

Answer 4

You can use a canned response templates for this. Once enabled, you'd compose the email you are sending to the person checking. Then when you need to send it to the real person you can make any adjustments and send exactly as desired.