Is there a better solution to the compose button covering emails when preview pane is enabled?

[fungilation]

This looks great! I missed Inbox and this is cleaner than the Gmail interface I was forced to switch to.

2 suggestions:

1. Make the Main Menu (list of Inbox, Starred, etc.) width adjustable. I use a 3 columns setup with vertical split panes mode with the emails (2 columns there), so for space efficiency, I'd much like to reduce the column width under the Main Menu, just as I can drag the width of the 2 columns in Split Panes.
2. Option to move placement of the floating Compose and "..." button above it (Calendar, etc.) I'd like it on the bottom right instead of left, to not block my view of emails. With my tall screen, I have empty space on the bottom left. I see there's currently no options page for this extension, so maybe this would be the first 😉

I'm a JS programmer though I've never worked on extensions before, so let me know how I can help! Great extension so thanks again @leggett, and your work on Gmail/Inbox.

[leggett]

Thanks for the suggestions. Making the left-nav resizable would add a fair bit of work for not a ton of benefit. So I don't want to take that on.

And I don't want to have any settings. I know what you mean though about the compose button in split pane. I'm going to rename this bug to see if I can think of a better solution for that use case.

[fungilation]

Understood. You want to "simplify" Gmail and have an opinionated view on what's simply best. Consider my suggestions to just one then: move the FAB buttons (+ and above it) to the left, as I think that's better overall in most situations. In my case, screenshots:

Without left nav bar (my new default):

With left nav bar:

In both cases, the FAB buttons are still in the way on bottom right, but wouldn't in empty space on bottom left.

A fancier, more difficult to implement alternative is making the FAB button(s) draggable, to interactively move them to whichever corner a user want.

[rodolfo-romero]

Another scenario where this is causing problems is when replying/forwarding an email. The button that allows to cancel the draft email is behind the compose button and cannot be accessed. This is specially troublesome when having an add-on panel opened on the right hand side, such as the calendar.

[leggett]

@rodolfo-romero agree I need to do something about this. I think this is only fully impossible in horizontal preview pane. In vertical preview pane, you should be able to scroll the conversation further so it is not behind the compose button. Not the best fix but keeps it from being fully impossible for now.

[fungilation]

Yup, that's my work around and went vertical split panes instead. Works better for me on that so I consider it an upgrade going vertical, just need more window width for it. Including collapsing the Main Menu left nav.

What's the reservation against moving the FAB button simply to the left? I think it's better in multiple situations.

[leggett]

Moving the fab to the bottom left would move it away from where compose moles and add-ons show up (all on the right) and is not in keeping with where Material and Google Inbox has had FABs.

Instead, I'm moving the right aligned actions in inline-reply to the left a bit so they don't overlap. Not the most elegant solution but good enough for now. This will go out in v1.5.0 (a big update that will address this and several other bugs as well as compatibility with 4 of the top 3rd party extensions).