Cannot attach google docs to Gmail as an PDF attachment anymore

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I have been a great fan of being able to edit text files in Google Docs, creating nice layouts and quickly attaching them to email from within the Drive button in Gmail.
However as of very recently users are unable to attach files anymore using this method.

The reasons as to why this is happening…pretty obscure

Probably a Product Manager at big G, believed that attaching PDF to email would stop recipients from signin into their Google accounts.
They like data.
Sadly, we all know that’s probably the reason why this feature has been deprecated.

New “Warning” message appears

Gmail greets you with this new message

In Gmail, when previously trying to attach files to Gmail, whether they were text (Google Docs) or spreadsheets (Google Sheets) you could select the “attachment” button.
This button would automatically parse and convert the file from the Google format to a relative “attachable” format:

  • PDF for text files
  • XLS for spreadsheets
  • PPT for presentations

Now it’s no longer the case. The functionality is broken, instead the file is attached forcefully as a link to a Google Docs, G Sheets or G Slides viewer on the web.

How to attach a Google Drive file to Gmail as an attachment

Although the functionality has been removed from within Gmail, it is still possible to attach files to emails and send them out as independent files.
This is how:

  • Go to the main “Menu” from within your Google Doc, Sheets or Slides
  • Select “Email as Attachment”
  • Compose your email, find your destination and press Send

Editor below is definitely super light-weight:

This is what you'll see to compose your Gmail + attachment email, pretty shallow

The other option is to download locally the file and the re-upload it from within Gmail as an attachment to my email.

This is, in my opinion a pretty bad user experience, I am basically sending email from within a Google Drive web-app.

Not really what you would expect from Google. I am expecting Gmail to handle emails and all file operations between me and my correspondents should be handled within its user interface. Clearly not everyone agrees with this.

Finally, after removing the ability to send Calendar invites directly from within Gmail, we have lost yet another great time-saver.
Thanks Google, I guess - at least Gmail is still “”””FREE””””. Right?