How to organise Gmail messages

Q I rely on Gmail’s webmail service, simply because it’s easier trying to keep my emails in sync across my various computers. However, sometimes when composing long emails I would like to refer back to earlier messages in order to complete what I need to write but Gmail seems to offer no way to do this. Do you have any ideas?
Emily Salt

A In fact Gmail does offer a way to deal with exactly this kind of situation. Begin composing a new message in the usual way and then notice the small icon at the top right of the To box – it looks like one square on top of another.

Hover the mouse pointer over this and you’ll notice it’s labelled ‘In new window’. Click it and the current message will be placed in its own browser window, while the Gmail window behind will return to the inbox. This button is available in any message window, not just the Compose screen.

In this way, it’s possible to open as many messages as you need, each in its own window.