Can you copy the email address from the "To" box in the new Gmail?

More details please. Specifically where are you?

- Are you using the browser version? Android? iOS?
– Are you in a new compose window or viewing an old email?

@tom_g I’m using a PC, and IE8.

I tried to compose an email. I pasted the email address into the TO box but then when I tried to copy it from there, it does’t want to. I hope that is enough info.

If I hover the mouse pointer over the name (point, do no click), a window pops up and I can copy the email address there.

Just to make sure I have this right…

- You open gmail in IE8
– click “compose”
– in the “to” field, you paste an email address
– a few minutes later you want to re-copy the email address you just pasted in the “to” field.

Is that right? If so, just double-click on the pasted email address, select the text, and then copy it.
Hope that helps.

One thing you mentioned in your details is copy/pasting, then copying a different piece of text… then wanting to be able to paste something that you had copied earlier. There’s no getting around that. Your clipboard will only hold on to the last thing you copied – it’s up to you to remember what you copied last. If you find that you need to navigate away from your Compose window, you can save your email as a Draft, then find and copy the text you need, then return to your Draft to keep working on it.

However, another approach is to add the person as a contact, so that you can call up their email address by starting to type their name in the To field. At least that will mean that you don’t have to remember or search for their address. But if it’s an address you’ll never use again, then you’re trading off the time you spend making a new contact entry vs. the time you save not having to look for their address. You’ll have to decide which is more important to you.

I find gmail can be a little touchy in terms of copy/pasting text (not just addresses). Sometimes I have to try more than once, and be more careful the second time to keep my cursor over the text I want to copy. Just try again if it isn’t working for you the first time. But copy/paste is definitely possible from the To field in the Compose window, and also from the To field in a received email.

@tom_g Double-clicking doesn’t actually select all of an email address, only the part before or after the @ sign. You have to click and drag to select the whole address.

@glacial: ”@tom_g Double-clicking doesn’t actually select all of an email address, only the part before or after the @ sign. You have to click and drag to select the whole address.”

Well, technically I didn’t say that double-clicking would select the text. I added that as a second step. However, I could have said that and would have been correct.
If I paste an email address in the “to” box, then double-click on that address, the entire email address is selected. Then, just ctrl-c and it’s copied.

Note: I don’t have access to IE8, so there could be something unique to IE8 or older browsers that would cause copying problems.

Damn, I hate it when I lose a post I’ve edited!

Short version:

Yes, I didn’t realize that you’d said double-click, then select. It wouldn’t have occurred to me that you literally meant these as two separate steps.

In both IE and Firefox, double-clicking selects only that part of the address before or after the @ sign. I don’t know why my browsers behave differently from yours. I can select the entire address in IE by double-clicking 3 times, successively. Although that is not hugely onerous, I find it simpler to just click and drag. YMMV.

I should have mentioned that I use Chrome.

@tom_g Ah.

Thank you all I just found out that Gmail had gone back to the previous perfectly fine state. Good for Google.

@glacial
“One thing you mentioned in your details is copy/pasting, then copying a different piece of text… then wanting to be able to paste something that you had copied earlier. There’s no getting around that.”
I wish it weren’t a fact though. I find that sounds like a simple thing doesn’t it?

I just had to use the “Insert” buttton. I didn’t touch anything.