Sometimes, checking off messages and archiving, deleting, or applying labels can seem like it takes forever. Gmail has a few shortcuts built-in for making the inbox easier. Here are a few of our favorites.
Mouse Shortcuts
Drag and Drop Labels:
Applying labels has gotten a bit more difficult in the most recent version of Gmail. Now, you need to check a message, select the label from the "Labels" dropdown, and hit the "Apply" button at the bottom of the dropdown menu—which I always forget to do. A much easier way, if you're a mouse user, is to just drag the label from the left sidebar onto the message itself. Alternatively, if you have keyboard shortcuts enabled, just hit "l" on your keyboard, type the first few letters of the label you want, and hit Enter—it'll immediately apply that label to all checked messages.
Alternatively, you can drag a message—from the left edge of its row—to a label to remove it from your inbox and apply only that label, if you prefer to use labels more like folders.
Shift-Click to Select Multiple Messages:
If you want to select a big block of messages, you don't need to check every box individually. Like a native program on your computer, you can check the topmost box, hold Shift, then check the box at the bottom to select a large chunk of messages in just a few clicks.
If you're a keyboard lover, you can navigate nearly the entire Gmail interface without ever touching the mouse. To enable them, head to the General tab of Gmail's settings and press "Enable Keyboard Shortcuts". There are a lot of keyboard shortcuts, but these are some of the most useful:
Navigate Messages with j and k:
From the inbox view, you can cycle through messages with the "j" and "k" keys (j to go down, k to go up). Doing this won't select the messages with a checkbox, but it will highlight them with a thin blue line on the left side of its row, showing you that it's ready to be acted upon.
Open Messages with o:
When a message is highlighted in the inbox, you can open it by hitting Enter or tapping "o" on the keyboard. Note that once messages are open, you can continue to cycle through them with j and k.
Move Through a Thread with n and p:
If you want to view past messages in a longer thread, you can use n and p to highlight messages in a thread just like you use j and k to highlight messages in the inbox. Pressing the n key higlights the next message, while p highlights the previous message, and you can expand a highlighted message by pressing the "o" key—again, just like in the inbox view.
Select Messages with x:
If you want to check that message's box—so you can add a label, move it to a new folder, or whatever—just hit the x key on your keyboard.
Apply Labels with l:
As described above, you can apply a label to a message by hitting the "l" key, typing in the first few letters of the label you want, and pressing Enter. You can do this when you're viewing the message in question, or from the inbox if you've checked the message's box.
Star, Spam, Archive, and Trash Messages:
You can star messages with the "s" key, mark them as spam with "!", archive it with "e", or delete it with "#". You can do this either from the message view or after highlighting a message in the inbox.
Compose, Reply, and Forward Messages:
Similar to the above, you can compose a new message by hitting "c", reply to a message with "r" (or reply all with "a"), and forward it by pressing "f". If you hold Shift while pressing one of these keys, it'll open the compose view in a new window, which is handy if you want to consult another email while writing one.
Bring Up the More Actions Menu with the Period Key:
For your lesser-used actions, you can hit "." to bring up the More Actions menu. This lets you mark all messages as read, or mark selected messages as unread, in addition to muting a specific conversation, adding it to tasks, or filtering messages just like it.
Mark Items as Important with the + and - Keys:
If you use Priority Inbox, you can mark messages as important with the "+" key (or rather, the = key, since you don't need to hold shift when pressing it) and mark them as unimportant with the - key. This helps Gmail understand what is and isn't important to you, so Priority Inbox can have more accurate filters.
Jump to Different Views:
To quickly jump to a different part of your inbox—such as Starred messages, Drafts, All Mail, Contacts, or more—you can hit the "g" key (for "Go") and one of the following keys immediately afterward:
§ g then i goes to your inbox
§ g then s goes to your starred messages
§ g then t goes to Sent Messages
§ g then d goes to Drafts
§ g then a goes to All Mail
§ g then c goes to Contacts
§ g then k goes to Tasks
§ g then l then the label name goes to that label
These are just a few of our favorite shortcuts. There are a ton of other keyboard shortcuts, and you can see them all in one handy cheat sheet by hitting Shift + / on your keyboard (also known as typing the "?" key).
Below is the screen shot of these shortcuts.
It might take a bit to get used to some of the keyboard shortcuts, but once you do, you'll be able to navigate the inbox a lot faster.
7:44 AM
Parasharmaneesh
