I'd just start a new email rather than continue the long chain...but it almost sounds like texting is what you'd really want to do...

I don't know what kind of hardware you're using but this is no different than if you wanted to send her a snippet from something you read on a different source. A newspaper, a website, a pdf, no matter.

On a PC, highlight the text you want to put into your new email. Right click and choose Copy.

Go to the new message. Put the cursor in the text area, press Return a few times, then right click and choose Paste. You've now taken text of your choosing from anywhere - a different email or whatever and pasted it into your new message with room on top to add additional text.

On a phone or tablet, Android vs the Apple type may be different. Do a search for "copy and paste Android" or whatever is appropriate, and you'll find how to do it.

I find texting is an awful way of communicating unless the message is just a few words or a short sentence. Especially for information to be referred to sometime later. Specific comments or information in an email is easily found with a search, no matter what kind of hardware is being used. Try the same for with a text listed in what's an unindexed, unsearchable flow of comments dating back to the beginning of time - it's impossible. There is always a backup copy of an email in the provider's mail system. I'm not sure text messages are the same.

Edit to add - for the new copy, it's a brand new message, not Reply.

Nicely written, Elmer.

Nah, I don't much care for texting. We write lengthy emails , my husband says we are writing a book. LOL . I suppose you can't just delete the past email content in gmail? Just start a new email and copy and paste the email I am replying to into my new email. I wonder why gmail is so different from all the other web based emails that I have use over the past 30 years? You get used to doing something a certain way and it's hard to change especially when it seems this gmail is a step back?

arkansas girl - I checked my gmail account & tried replicating what you describe but can’t. When I choose to reply to a single sender their message to me doesn’t show up unless I click on the elipsis that appears in lower left of email - then the original message(s) pop up. I also looked at email settings but didn’t find any for changing from ’always include original message in reply” to ’don’t include…” Sorry no help to you. Most email programs do have settings that can be changed from default. Ask Google?

arkansas girl, the copy/paste technique is the same for anything, any site, any purpose, any software, any anything.

There was a time when email account providers thought they might attract more users and more use by adding features. Most of the ISPs were pretty inept in trying to do so, which is why the independent mail providers like Google and Yahoo more than overwhelmed them in popularity.

The winning features - reliability. Uptime. Security. Effective spam filters. Large memory allowances. Capable apps for smartphones and tablets. An excellent and well integrated portfolio of peripheral capabilities,. all with excellent Android and Apple apps. Calendar, Contacts, Maps, Document storage and creation with capabilities that rival (and compatible with) Microsoft 360, and more.

One perhaps obscure feature that still amazes me is useful because we have what seem to be monthly trips or visits for outselves or family or friends. If someone forwards to me their airline email showing the flights they booked, the flight info magically appears as a meeting committment on my Gmail calendar, showing the range of time from takeoff to landing. For the day of arrival, if I open the calendar to the day, information updated every few minutes on the flight's status - actual departure time, expected arrival time, expected arrival gate - appears in my calendar. Extremely useful when picking up visitors at the airport.

KW, google search is always my first course of action.

I think A girl is correct that when "Replying" to a message that has had several iterations back and forth, the entire history is included in the new message. Easily avoided, as I described above.

I also dislike gmail but use it anyway because I like its "contacts" list AKA address book. I hate its filing system, and I also dislike not being able to delete parts of conversations when I reply. If it were not for gmails contacts list, I would not use it at all, and I only started using it because the contacts list works on my phone for when I want to call someone.

At this point, I think I need to get rid of some obsolete or unused entries in my contacts list.

I have had the same issue and I also would never send a text longer than a sentence or two. Typing is soo much faster. I think the only go around is for you to copy your sisters response paste it in a new email and then respond. Most of my email partners want all previous communication deleted each time.

OMG Olychick! That WORKS! You are a genius! That is exactly what I needed, I haven't actually used it to create an email just yet but I did try it out briefly. I'm pretty sure this will solve the issue I was having. I also notice that sometimes when my sister sends me emails, our conversation from the entirely of the email will not only ALL be there but it will be there two or three times. Strange! She uses gmail but through Outlook instead of logging into gmail on line. That was one reason why I was so "desperate" to get that deleted out of there! :) Thank you so much!!!!!

KW, your way also worked BTW!!!!! I clicked on the ellipsis(...) and there it was. I tried it on an email and when I checked the "sent" copy of it, all the extra email stuff was deleted and only what I had left in the text box was left! So those reading this thread that also hated all the extra text(old part of the conversation)....these two methods work to be able to delete the unwanted parts away! :)

Not a genius, just thiught to google it! I knew there had to be a way. I sent myself a text to try it out and saw it did exactly what you wanted!

OK well, I guess that my google search wasn't worded right because I didn't get anything helpful. I also think that others may not have even known wth I was talking about...HAHA! ;P

I tried following the directions and found it didn't achieve what the OP was asking about.

She asked if there was a way to continue the conversation without including each prior back and forth communication.

The insructions given only above lead to allowing editing the subject line, as #5 above says. The original long thread of many additions remains. .

Am I missing something?

Yes, it specifies subject line in the part I copied and pasted but you can edit all the text the same way There is another way, too, but I can’t post it until I’m on my laptop.

I see, an undocumented feature.

I think I'll stick with the cutting/pasting into a new message approach but alternatives give people a choice.

Sorry it was too complicated for you to figure out.

@arkansas girl Here is another way to do it, that also came up but I haven't tried it. https://it.stonybrook.edu/help/kb/understanding-whats-included-in-google-mail-replies

" Sorry it was too complicated for you to figure out. "

If you're referring to me, there was nothing complicated or needing to be"figured out".

Your instructions say "Click the cursor into the subject field and make the desired changes." That implies changes in the subject field, nothing else.

I'm not into wasting time clicking here, clicking there, trying to find features not mentioned in documentation or poorly described. If you like doing that, great.

LOL!

And LOL at you too!

I hate Gmail. I use Yahoo and am very happy with it.

Tonite I used Tom's Gmail account and his name shows alongside the email addy. I've tried to get rid of it, but I can't. They want a name showing. I just put his initial, but I'm not sure that will work.

I tried logging into Google, I seldom actually log in, but on occasion I want to use Google docs. It immediately directed me to a page that my whole Google account will be completely disabled as of January. Apparently I went against their standards and they thought I was posting spam, p*orn, terrorist activity, a slew of possibilities. None of which is true of course.

If I try to appeal, I lost my whole main email account which is what I use to sign in with. I certainly don't want to lose that. Oh well.

I find gmail to be extremely user unfriendly - almost nothing about it is intuitive, and instructions are way more complicated and convoluted than should be necessary. And I've done database programming in the past and created code!

I agree Lars. I HATE gmail and I also hate google maps. I do love to search for some things with google, but that's the only thing I love about it.

I'm glad to find out I'm not the only one that hates the gmail. Olychick, what maps do you use? I don't like the google maps either, the colors they use for their mapping makes it hard to see the streets.

Jasdip, I think you should be able to change the display name by going to settings, choose "ALL SETTINGS", chose tab "accounts and imports" then find the setting for "send mail as" then chose "edit info" that should allow you change it from TOM to whatever name you chose to change it to. I hope this works!

This is a well-known story in Silicon Valley. Google Maps has been ahead from the start and has been eating Apple's lunch ever since. Apple Maps was in awkward, barely past beta form when Apple unveiled it. Buggy, glitchy, prone to crash. At the time, Google Maps was running at full speed as a reliable and already full featured app. Apple has been playing catchup all these years and at least according to the review linked below from a respected source, hasn't YET pulled even. A PR embarrassment for years.

A head to head eval choose Google Maps as the better one.

One surprising shortcoming that Apple Maps still has, according to the article, is that it can't handle a trip with more than one destinations. Huh? That's child's play for Google. Enter an ultimate destination, then stops along the way (as for specific routing for a trip or running errands), and Google handles that with ease.

At a user level, Apple maps display is seen by some as a bit sparser and more comfortable. Personally, I think it's performance and reliability that matter and Apple Maps still falls short with dynamic rerouting.

Waze is another navigation app that many people find useful, especially its up to the moment road information (crashes, speed traps, other problems) that users can upload for all to see. Google owns Waze and some of the crowdsourced info is also displayed in Google maps from time to time.

A most useful capability of Google Maps I appreciate happens when I get meeting or appointment notices for my calendar that include an address. When it's time to go, I go to the car and open my calendar. After a couple of simple presses on the screen (that don't require entering the address), voila, Google Maps opens showing the navigation to the destination that I can immediately display for Nav purposes in the car using CarPlay. Maybe Apple Maps does that too? I'll never know.

PCMag review - Apple Maps vs Google Maps vs Waze

I switched to gmail as my primary (two) addresses after the local ISP eliminated email service (after changing their 3rd network name change). I never use the web access portal other than when necessary to change account settings. I've been using Mozilla Thunderbird for 20 years.

I have two throwaway yahoo addys, which unfortunately no longer work with Tbird due to Yahoo security restriction BS.

I use Waze. Recently did a road-trip with a friend who previously used Waze but now prefers Google Maps.