It happens to the best of us – you write a detailed email introducing the wonderful document you are attaching, and then you send it off without attaching the file. Argh!
Aside from consulting a checklist before you send every email (highly recommended, and I provide one in Chapter 19 of The Customizable Style Guide for Coaches Who Write), how can you seamlessly check the status of your attachments before your emails go out?
Enter the forgotten attachment detector, which basically scans your email text for telltale phrases like: see attached, I've attached, enclosed, I've included, etc. If one of the phrases is there, but your file is not, this detector interrupts the Send process to gently inquire if perhaps you forgot to attach it.
This tool has caught/saved me a few times already, in the few short weeks since I made the transition from Outlook to Gmail.
The forgotten attachment detector is from the Gmail Lab, where you can find beta versions of innovative tools designed to make our lives online easier (thank you, Google!). You can read my earlier review/love letter about another Gmail Lab, canned responses.