There’s no doubt that Gmail is the most popular email service today. Everyone has a gmail account and I love it for its user-experience. Now if you are someone like me, you might have more than one account and get tons of mails. When browsing through the clutter of more than 200 mails/day, it becomes very important to find ways to do it faster and that where keyboard shortcuts come handy.
This is the first of the many posts I am writing under the ‘Improve Productivity Series’. Hope you will find these helpful. To make sure you do not miss out on any posts, make sure you subscribe to eWebBuddy via the links in your sidebar.
Yes, you can have keyboard shortcuts for Gmail. To activate shortcuts, simply click on the icon at the top-right in the shape of a ‘mechanical gear’ and select ‘Mail Settings’ from the drop-down. Under the general tab, you will find the following:
So select ‘Keyboard shortcuts on’ and save your settings. Now you are all set for action.
Following are the various keyboard shortcuts available with gmail. Incase you would like to customize this further, you can activate a tool under the Lab Tab. Do leave a comment and let me know if you found this helpful.
| Jumping | |
|---|---|
| g then i : | Go to Inbox |
| g then s : | Go to Starred conversations |
| g then t : | Go to Sent messages |
| g then d : | Go to Drafts |
| g then a : | Go to All mail |
| g then c : | Go to Contacts |
| g then k : | Go to Tasks |
| g then l : | Go to Label |
| Threadlist selection | |
| * then a : | Select all conversations |
| * then n : | Deselect all conversations |
| * then r : | Select read conversations |
| * then u : | Select unread conversations |
| * then s : | Select starred conversations |
| * then t : | Select unstarred conversations |
| Navigation | |
| u : | Back to threadlist |
| k / j : | Newer/older conversation |
| o or <Enter> : | Open conversation; collapse/expand conversation |
| p / n : | Read previous/next message |
| ` : | Go to next inbox section |
| ~ : | Go to previous inbox section |
| Application | |
| c : | Compose |
| / : | Search |
| q : | Focus chat contact search |
| ? : | Open shortcut help |
| Actions | |
|---|---|
| , : | Move focus to toolbar |
| x : | Select conversation |
| s : | Rotate superstar |
| y : | Remove label |
| e : | Archive |
| m : | Ignore conversation |
| ! : | Report as spam |
| # : | Move to trash |
| r : | Reply |
| <Shift> + r : | Reply in a new window |
| a : | Reply all |
| <Shift> + a : | Reply all in a new window |
| f : | Forward |
| <Shift> + f : | Forward in a new window |
| <Shift> + n : | Update conversation |
| <Tab> then Enter : | Send mail |
| <Esc> : | Focus last chat mole |
| ] / [ : | Remove conversation from current view and go previous/next |
| } / { : | Archive conversation and go previous/next |
| z : | Undo last action |
| . : | Open more actions menu |
| <Shift> + i : | Mark as read |
| <Shift> + u : | Mark as unread |
| _ : | Mark unread from the selected message |
| <Ctrl> + s : | Save draft |
| + or = : | Mark as important |
| – : | Mark as not important |
| <Shift> + t : | Add conversation to Tasks |
