Google Mail - Gmail Shortcuts
It has been over 5 years since I posted about keyboard shortcuts to Google Mail, so I think it is time again! Here's the repost with some updates, and a few of my favorite shortcuts that I think save me lots of time cumulatively!
Some people have expressed frustration to me because "things just happen" while they are in their email. Typically, as we tend to be short of possessed devices, it is because they have unintentionally used one or more of the built in email shortcuts.
So, how do you know the shortcuts? And, how can you turn them off (or on)?
Well, to know they are enabled or not, you need to check your email settings. To do this go to the gear and select Settings:
Some people have expressed frustration to me because "things just happen" while they are in their email. Typically, as we tend to be short of possessed devices, it is because they have unintentionally used one or more of the built in email shortcuts.
So, how do you know the shortcuts? And, how can you turn them off (or on)?
Well, to know they are enabled or not, you need to check your email settings. To do this go to the gear and select Settings:
Once the settings are displayed, make sure you are looking at the General Settings, and scroll down until you see Keyboard shortcuts:. This will tell you if they are on or off:
Turn them on or off, as desired, and make sure to "Save Changes" at the bottom of the window. You may go through these steps as often as you wish.
If the shortcuts are on, to see what shortcuts are available to you (and this is true in any of the Google Apps) at any time you can use the question mark to view them (hit Shift + /).
You may notice something that is different about Google Shortcuts from many others - there are LOTS of shortcuts that do not require a "special" key be used with them! This is usually where the issues come in for some users - they hit a key that activates a shortcut on accident. Knowing about these will help you understand why it isn't good to pile that stack of papers on your keyboard when your mail is up....and prevent us from getting as many reports of possessed computers...
Here are a few of my favorite short cuts to use:
- c - open up the compose window
- r - reply to the email currently open
- a - reply to all recipients of the currently open email
- f - forward the email currently open
- u - get from the currently open email back to the list of emails
- g-i - go to the inbox
- e - archive the currently selected email
- # - delete the currently selected email
- ! - mark currently email as Spam
- z - undo last action