October 2015: What happened to gmail formatting options?

I just noticed that some routine formatting buttons I use in composing messages in gmail have been removed from the message composition window (Firefox, Win7).

These include typeface, size, bold italics, bullets, indenting, remove formatting.

It has to be a mistake, right?

I did submit this same inquiry to a google product forum.

I just checked and all of my options are still there. Try restarting Ffx

In my case, there was an underlined capital letter A to the left of the attachments paper clip in the single formatting toolbar line I had. It looked a bit like the "choose color" button. When I clicked it though, it restored the missing toolbar with the formatting options I'd mentioned.

I must have clicked that "A" by mistake earlier, suppressing those formatting options.

All set - marking "solved" in record time!

ThrashZone said:

Hi,
Yep you were in plain text mode.

Well, strictly speaking it was kind of a modified plain text. I could embed photos, insert and edit hyperlinks, stuff like that, but none of the common formatting things.

I think gmail changed its user interface in the past few years regarding that, because I remember a time where you were either "plainly plain" - just alphanumeric characters and nothing fancier - or you had the formatting.

Oh well, problem solved, and now I'll not use gmail while tired and not wearing contacts.