Gmail is an integral part of our lives. It has become a way to communicate with others, share ideas and collaborate on projects. However, one downside is that it can be time-consuming because you’re constantly switching screens between your email inbox and other apps. This tutorial will show the key Gmail shortcuts designed to help you be more efficient.
Why Use Gmail Shortcut Keys?
While the mouse is a computing advancement, it isn’t always the fastest way to perform a software task. Oftentimes, a keyboard equivalent is a quicker input method because you don’t have to find specific icons or menu options. This is one reason why macro keyboard apps like ActiveWords or Alfred are appealing.
Gmail has almost 100 keyboard shortcuts, but I’m going to stick to the essentials. In this case, essential is defined as something you would routinely use instead of something needed infrequently.
I’ve also indicated whether keyboard shortcuts can apply to an individual email, conversation, or folder. By folder, I mean a Gmail list based on a label. So, for example, I would consider the Inbox label as a folder. The advantage of folders is that you can act on more than one email by checking what you want.
How to Turn On Gmail Keyboard Shortcuts
The first thing you want to do is to verify that you’ve turned keyboard shortcuts on. Otherwise, your efforts will be useless.
- Open Gmail
- On the top-right toolbar, click the settings icon.
- Click the See all settings button.
- Click General from the top menu.
- Toggle the radio button for Keyboard shortcuts on.
- Scroll to the page bottom and click Save changes.
One Keystroke Wonders
You can do all these items with 1 keystroke. They tend to be some of the most frequently used commands and the easiest to learn.
| Action | Keystrokes | Applies |
|---|---|---|
| Create Email | c | Folder |
| Snooze Email | b | Folder or Email |
| Archive Email | e | Folder or Email |
| Forward Email | f | Individual email |
| Reply to Email | r | Individual email |
| Reply to All | a | Individual email |
| Move Email | v | Folder or Email |
| Open More Menu | . (period) | Folder or Email |
| Mark Email Important | = | Folder or Email |
| Remove Important Marker | – (hyphen) | Folder or Email |
| Rotate Star Icons | s | Individual email |
| Add or Remove Label | l (lowercase L) | Folder or Email |
| Search Email | / | Folder or Email |
Please note that the command for Forward email is for a specific email. This is different from setting up gmail forwarding rules
Going Places with the G Key
These shortcuts use two letters, and the first one is always g followed by the letter after the + sign. These shortcuts allow you to jump between sections of Gmail or navigate to Google Contacts or Google Tasks. Sadly, there isn’t a shortcut to get you to Google Calendar.
| Action | Keystrokes | Applies |
|---|---|---|
| Go to Inbox | g + i | Folder or Email |
| Go to Starred Emails | g + s | Folder or Email |
| Go to Snoozed Email | g + b | Folder or Email |
| Go to Sent Email | g + t | Folder or Email |
| Go to Draft Email | g + d | Folder or Email |
| Go to All Email | g + a | Folder or Email |
| Go to Google Contacts | g + c | Folder or Email |
| Go to Google Tasks | g + k | Folder or Email |
| Go to Specific Label | g + l | Folder or Email |
Working with Conversations
Based on your Gmail settings, you might group email items with the same subject into “conversations” or “threads.” There are several shortcuts I use with them. However, there is no shortcut to reverse the date order of conversations. You can ignore this section if you have the view setting off.
| Action | Keystrokes | Applies |
|---|---|---|
| Mute a conversation | m | Email thread |
| Expand a conversation | ; | Email thread |
| Collapse a conversation | : | Email thread |
Shift into a Higher Gear
The entries below are a tad more involved simply because you have to use the Shift key. However, the rewards are worth the effort because you will frequently use these actions.
| Action | Keystrokes | Applies |
|---|---|---|
| Delete email | Shift + 3 (#) | Folder or Email |
| Reply in New Window | Shift + r | |
| Mark email as read | Shift + i | Folder or Email |
| Report Email as Spam | Shift + 1 (!) | Folder or Email |
| See all shortcuts | Shift + ? | Folder or Email |
Control & Command
This section is where we have a slight twist. Windows users should use the Ctrl key, whereas MacOS people should use the Command key. ⌘ Within the table, I’ll use Ctrl/Cmd, and you can use the one for your operating system. These are keyboard modifier keys.
| Action | Keystrokes | Applies |
|---|---|---|
| Send Email | Ctrl/Cmd + Enter | |
| Apply bold | Ctrl/Cmd + b | |
| Apply italics | Ctrl/Cmd + i | |
| Apply underline | Ctrl/Cmd + u | |
| Insert link | Ctrl/Cmd + k | |
| Remove all formatting | Ctrl/Cmd + \ |
Customizing or Remapping Gmail Shortcuts
If you work with many programs or have dexterity issues, you might want to remap your shortcuts. This means instead of using Google’s assigned keystrokes, you can make your own. For example, Google has “m” for “mute conversation,” but I’ve never used that command. However, I often move conversations and would prefer to assign it to “m.”
- Open Gmail
- On the top-right toolbar, click the settings icon .
- Click the See all settings button.
- Click Advanced from the top menu.
- Toggle the radio button for Custom keyboard shortcuts.
- Scroll to the page bottom and click Save changes.
- Log out of Gmail.
- Log back in.
- Go back to settings and you should see a new menu option for Keyboard Shortcuts.
- Click Keyboard Shortcuts.
- Scroll down the Action column to find your shortcut. (In my case, I first removed the “m” for “mute conversation” and then applied it to open “move to” menu.
- Click Save Changes button.
While the above Gmail shortcuts don’t cover the whole spectrum, they are the essentials. In addition, mastering these keyboard shortcuts will allow you to simplify other tasks such as deleting Gmail email items.