How to: Automate Adding Customizable Buttons to your Gmail Messages

Here's an easy way to add a little flair to your day-to-day emails.

Background

When I'm sending a link to a report or tutorial, I want it to stand out from my other email content. And sometimes hyperlink-formatted text just isn't enough.

So, I came up with this little trick that allows me to easily insert a customizable button in my Gmail messages.

I find myself creating these buttons from scratch several times a day, and I finally realized that I could save some time by automating most of the process.

Technology leveraged:

• 'insert image by url' functionality of Gmail
• a text expansion app, like TextExpander
• a button wizard site that I use on a regular basis: Da Button Factory.

How To

1. Generate your button using Da Button Factory
2. Pass the button image url into TextExpander and customize
3. Use the insert image by url and your TextExpander abbreviation to insert the button into an email
4. Add a hyperlink to the button

See it in Action

Sample Button image url:

http://dabuttonfactory.com/b.png?t=button%20to%20customize&f=Calibri-Bold&ts=18&tc=ffffff&it=png&c=round&bgt=unicolored&bgc=79a5f2&hp=20&vp=11

The example button looks like this:

Do you use TextExpander to automate your daily tasks? Have you figured out how to tweak your Gmail messages to stand out? Share your thoughts in the comments.