Until mid-2017, Google offered an experimental feature called » Quote Selected Text» as part of Gmail Labs . If this feature is activated, any text you highlight in a message is automatically quoted when you start typing a reply. Google turned off function » Selected text» since June 28, 2017.
Gmail does not provide an alternative solution. To quote only selected text in a reply, you have to do it the old-fashioned way: by copying the content from the original post. Here’s how.
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Open the email you want to reply to.
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Click arrow » Reply» at the top right of the email to add a reply section at the bottom of the email.
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In your original email, use your cursor to highlight the part of the message you want to quote in your reply.
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Click ctrl+c on a Windows computer or Command+C on mac, to copy the selected text.
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Place the cursor in the reply email where you want the cited material to appear.
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Click the quote icon in the format bar at the bottom of the answer screen. A vertical line will appear in the response box to indicate the material being cited.
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Click Ctrl+V on a Windows computer or Command+V on a Mac to paste the copied text. The quotation appears in the response as indented text with a vertical bar to the left.
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Fill out your email and send as usual.
Gmail Labs is not the same as Google Labs an experimental site that has been shut down. Gmail Labs is still available in settings gmail . It offers a changing set of experimental features, some of which are eventually included in Gmail itself, and some of which are abandoned — for example, Quote of the selected text — or redesigned as Android apps.