Quick Tip: Turn On Gmail Keyboard Shortcuts

 

use Gmail Keyboard Shortcuts to save time

I’ve mentioned a time or two that I love finding shortcuts for the tasks I do repeatedly, and it’s amazing how much time you can save in various programs with keyboard shortcuts.

Gmail is no exception.

Turn on your keyboard shortcuts in Gmail and navigate to your Inbox, Drafts, Sent Mail and Starred items with just the press of a couple keys. Archive, reply and forward with just one keystroke. And organize your emails with additional keyboard commands.

Cool, right?

Here’s how:

1. Log in to your email account.

2. Click on the Settings menu, which is a little gear in the upper right corner in the most recent version of Gmail and is a menu labeled Settings in Google Apps accounts.

3. Look for the Keyboard Shortcuts settings on the General tab and select the radio button next to Keyboard Shortcuts On.

Once you’ve enabled the shortcuts, the key is to actually learn them. Be sure to look through the full list to see which will help you the most (and I still look at it every few weeks to learn more of them for myself), but here are my favorites:

• g then i = go to the inbox

• g then d = go to drafts

• g then s = go to starred messages

• g then t = go to sent mail

• c = compose a new message

• / = moves the cursor to the search box

• u = return to the conversation list from an individual message

• e = archive the current message

• ? = see the list of keyboard shortcuts

• s = star the current message

• r = reply

• a = reply all

• f = forward

Do you use keyboard shortcuts in Gmail? Which are your favorite?

Tagged as: quick tips