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Keyboard shortcuts

Gmail-style, and always on — there is no setting to enable them. Press ? anywhere for the same list inside the app, or find it in Settings › Keyboard shortcuts.

How they behave

Ctrl below is Cmd on a Mac; ihasmail picks the right one for the platform and the help dialog shows what it picked.

Two-key sequences are typed one key after the other, not together: G then I for the inbox. The first key opens a 1.2-second window; miss it and the sequence is forgotten, and the first key does nothing on its own.

Nothing fires while you are typing — in a text box, a search field, a dropdown or the rich-text editor. Three composer shortcuts are the deliberate exception, marked below, because they are the ones you want mid-sentence.

Nothing fires while a dialog or a menu is open. Those handle their own keys, so Esc closes the dialog rather than reaching the mail list behind it.

The view you are in wins. Shortcuts are registered per view, so the same letter does different things in different places — N is the next message in a conversation and the next period in the calendar; A is reply-all in mail and agenda view in the calendar. Where a view defines nothing, the global set below still applies.

Available everywhere.

Keys Does
? Show this list
/ Search mail
C Compose a new message
G then I Go to Inbox
G then S Go to Starred
G then T Go to Sent
G then D Go to Drafts
G then A Go to All mail / Archive
G then L Go to Calendar
G then C Go to Contacts
G then F Go to Files
G then K Go to Settings

The message list

Keys Does
J Next conversation
K Previous conversation
O Open conversation
U Back to the list
Esc Back to the list, or clear the selection if there is one
X Select this conversation
Ctrl+A Select all

Acting on a conversation

These apply to the selection if there is one, and to the focused conversation otherwise — so X X X then E archives three.

Keys Does
E Archive
# Delete
! Report spam, or not spam
S Star, or unstar
Shift+I Mark as read
Shift+U Mark as unread
V Move to…
L Label…

Every one of these can be undone from the toast that follows it.

Inside a conversation

Keys Does
R Reply
A Reply all
F Forward
N Next message in the conversation
P Previous message in the conversation
] Archive, and open the next conversation

Composing

The three that work while you are typing, which is the point of them.

Keys Does
Ctrl+Enter Send
Ctrl+S Save draft
Esc Close the composer, saving the draft

Calendar

Keys Does
T Today
N Next period
P Previous period
D Day view
W Week view
M Month view
A Agenda view
C New event

Aliases

These work but are left out of the in-app list, because a second name for the same thing makes the list harder to read rather than more useful.

Alias Same as
Down / Up J / K
Enter O — open
Y E — archive
Del # — delete

Where there are none

Contacts and Files define no shortcuts of their own. The navigation set still works, so G then C gets you there and / still reaches search, but moving around inside them is mouse and tab.