Google’s Gmail is one the most popular free web based email services available today. Why shouldn’t it be? After all it comes with gigabytes of storage space, free POP3 and IMAP support, Offline mode, superior personalization through Gmail Labs and many more features.
To render these advanced features to its users, Gmail makes use of Ajax, employing JavaScript codes. While these work fine on advanced browsers like IE7 +, Mozilla Firefox 2+ and the Gmail interface loads in the Standard mode, the features don’t properly load on earlier browsers.
For users who still browse web with earlier generation of web browsers or are using a slow internet connection, Gmail offers a Basic HTML mode. The basic HTML mode is compatible with almost any browser.
As the name suggests, the basic HTML mode is plain basic and lacks interactive features of Gmail. You will find the following features missing in the basic HTML mode.
- Gmail Chat
- Spell checker
- Keyboard shortcuts
- Ability to manage filters
- Adding, editing, importing, or deleting contacts
- Custom ‘from:’ addresses
- Rich formatting
You can access Gmail in basic HTML mode by using the URL’s http://mail.google.com/mail/h or https://mail.google.com/mail/h ( for secure login)
To switch from Standard mode to basic HTML mode or from basic HTML mode to Standard mode in Gmail, scroll down to the bottom of the page or press the “End” key and click on the version of Gmail you want to view against the “Gmail view” option.