I would like to store an email messages with text and attachments as a sort of canned response. This is particularly useful since I sometimes feel it necessary to send out a pre-crafted message to select recipients, which is why I do not use filters in conjunction with canned responses.
Currently the most convenient option for me is to craft my email as a draft and just keep forwarding it to people. This method works great since all of the attachments remain attached and the text remain in tact as well. The downside is if I don't forward the message and send my draft, I need to save the message as a draft all over again. Additionally, whenever you forward a message a little header get thrown into the top of the message body and deleting it every time is annoying.
Another option is to use the canned responses to save the text of the message that I want to send but no attachment support is available. The closest anyone has come has been to place images in the signature via link to stored file on the web but that is really not a direct route, and this only works apparently with canned responses used in conjunction with filters.
Go back to Outlook 🙁
This is the last step and I don't want to take it.
Best Answer
This is not currently possible with Gmail as it currently exists as you've already figured out. Your most straightforward option is probably to use an e-mail client. You don't want Outlook; how about Thunderbird?
Another option might be using something like Auto Hot Key that would allow you to kick off the process of attaching to a message with just a few keystrokes.
Personally, I think the best option would be to upload these files to any of the many filesharing services out there and include the instructions for downloading the file (usually just a link to a URL) in your canned message.