I had the same problem, so I simply set my gmail up in my "Mail" app instead. I left gmail set up in the "Gmail" app too, as I think it has to be in there to synch contacts and stuff.
It is a piece of cake. The default "Mail" app already knows the servers and ports needed and setup takes only the email addy and your password.
Okay, I am new to Android, however, it is operating much like a PC.
I set-up my Gmail as IMAP
Advantages:
1. Push email.
2. Real time deleting, archiving, etc. What you do on your handheld is what happens in Gmail on your PC and vise versa.
3. When there is an attachment, scroll down to the bottom of the email and two buttons exist, "Preview" and "Download"
4. Select Preview and the document (word, excel, pdf, etc.) open in the native application (QuickOffice) preinstalled and it is very good.
5. Select "download" button and a pop-up asks what native app you would like to use if there are options (for me, Kindle for Android and QuickOffice) can both read pdf files for instance. The file opens in the native app and, yes, there is no menu option to save the document. HOWEVER, go to the native application (QuickOffice) in this case and open Qickpdf.
Then select SDCard. Look on the list for the file "download" it will have the date of the most recent download. Select the folder and open up your file. It has been saved to the SD card in the download folder by default.
I agree that this could be more user friendly so I may try the free app mentioned in this thread.
Sending an attachment in GMail is not as user friendly either.
Go to MyDocuments and select the files you want to "share." Can select a list of them with the check boxes. Would be nice if the native Gmail app would provide access to the on board file directory, but not right now.
Anyway, no ad-ons needed, just have to grab the files from the files first before composing an email.
