Take back premature e-mails

Ever sent an e-mail you wish you could take back? Well, now you have that option — if you act fast.

Google recently announced a feature to its Gmail client that allows users to un-send a sent message. Once its added, users will see an “undo” button after they send an e-mail.

They’ll have to act quickly, though — the button disappears after five seconds.

Don’t use Gmail? A similar solution can be set up in Microsoft Outlook to delay messages from being sent for a certain period of time. Here’s how to do it in Outlook 2003:

1. Click on the “Rules and Alerts” option in the “Tools” menu.
2. Click “New rule,” then “Start from a blank rule.”
3. In the menu that appears, highlight “Check messages after sending” and click “Next.”
4. Select “Defer delivery by a number of minutes.” The next dialog box will ask you for a number.

Now after you write an e-mail, Outlook will delay delivering it for a certain amount of time. That will give you some extra time to confirm you want to send it or look for any mistakes.