The formatting toolbar is a specific feature in Gmail that allows you to edit and adjust the text of your emails, making them more appealing and easily readable. From choosing different font sizes and styles to bolding or underlining text, and even including numbered or bullet-point lists, it works just like any other handy text editing tool.
But although the formatting toolbar should appear automatically in the Compose window once you start writing a new email, sometimes it simply doesn’t show up, or even disappears in the middle of writing text. So, how can you fix this issue? Here are some solutions that might help:
Table of Contents
Opening the Formatting Options
More often than not, the solution to a problem can be as simple as pressing a single button, especially if you’ve accidentally hidden the formatting toolbar without even realizing.
When you press the Compose button to start writing a new email, click on the ‘A’ underlined icon at the bottom of the Compose window, right next to the Send button. This is the Formatting Options section which should immediately bring up the formatting toolbar.
Viewing the Compose window in full screen
If the solution above hasn’t helped, some Gmail users have reported that the formatting toolbar only appears when they open the Compose window in full screen, instead of viewing it as a small square at the edge of your display. Here’s how to do it:
- Press the Compose button to begin writing a new email.
- Press on the Full Screen icon (double-headed arrow) at the beginning of the Compose window.
- Alternatively, press the three dots in the lower-right part of the Compose window, and then choose the Default to Full Screen option.
Disabling plain text
In case you have accidentally started writing your email in plain text mode without noticing, simply disabling the plain text option can help to restore the formatting toolbar in Gmail. If you want to give it a try as well, just follow these steps:
- Press the Compose button to begin writing a new email.
- Press on the three dots in the lower-right part of the Compose window.
- Here, simply unselect the Plain Text Mode option.
Refreshing the page
Another simple solution that might help to restore the formatting toolbar is to simply refresh the Gmail web page, and then begin writing a new email as you normally would.
To do this, simply press the F5 key on your keyboard, or click the curved arrow icon in the upper part of your browser.
If none of these options have solved your issue, you might want to try clearing the collected cookies and cache from your browser in an effort to help Gmail run smoothly.
The method for clearing the cache and cookies will depend on the exact browser you are using at the moment. However, it can normally be found in the Settings, under the Cookies and Site Data section, or similar.
Updating your browser
If you are using an outdated version of a web browser, it might be interfering with Gmail’s operations as well. To that end, another good solution to your issue might be to update the browser you’re currently using to the latest version.
Although this will depend on the specific internet browser as well, updates can mostly be found in the About [Browser] section of your web browser’s Menu.
In most cases, one of the solutions mentioned above will help to solve your Gmail issues and restore the lost formatting toolbar. If not, the best option might be to contact Google’s customer support, and kindly ask them to attempt resolving this problem.
