I am practicing inbox zero for which I follow a simple routine to check all my mails
- move those mail to relevant labels/folders
- delete the message
- forward it to read later – Instapaper
- add as task or a todo item – basically mark for followup
- or reply
Basically, my email management workflow follows only these principles and I need to sort my mails based on the above rule
The Problem: Multiple devices with multiple mail clients
I use Windows, Linux, Mac and Iphone and an Android tablet. Following up with mails on these devices can be time consuming and often exhaustive and I spend most of my time searching for shortcuts to ease my mail management.
I tried to follow a simple routine and use the browser to access Gmail, reading emails on the browser can be difficult as I am not able to find any keyboard shortcut which can help me read the mail.
When I decide to use Thunderbird mail client on my windows machine I know a few excellent keywords but its helpful only till I am using thunderbird and once I move to use mac. then again the same issue starts searching for keyboard shortcuts for mac mail.
I have spent quite some time googling to find keyboard shortcuts for my different mail client as I use them.
So to save me from my regular arduous task of searching for keyboard shortcuts, I put this page to act as a golden source of the frequently used keyboard shortcuts I need while going through mail clients.
Keeping the list simple limiting to the tasks I want to do with my mails and really not an extensive list of keyboard shortcuts for all the activities you can do with the mail client
| Task | Thunderbird | Mac Mail | Web Gmail | Outlook Windows |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reply to a mail | Ctrl + R Ctrl + Shift + R – Reply All | Command-R Shift-Command-R – Reply All | r a – reply all | Ctrl+R Ctrl+Shift+R – Reply all |
| Write a new mail | Ctrl+M | Command-N | c | Ctrl+N |
| Forward a mail | Ctrl + L | Shift-Command-F | f | Ctrl+F |
| Send Message | Ctrl+Enter Ctrl+Shift+Enter – Send Later | Shift-Command-D | ⌘/Ctrl + Enter | Alt+S |
| Archive Message | A | Control-Command-A | e | |
| Move Message | Drag message to destination folder. | v | Ctrl+Shift+S | |
| Add as a task | Shift + t b – snooze | Ctrl+Shift+K | ||
| Delete | Del | Del | # | Ctrl+Shift+D |
| Message filter | Ctrl + Shift + K | Command-L | ||
| Follow up | b | Ctrl+Shift+G | ||
| Keyboard Shortcuts links | Thunderbird Keyboard Shortcuts | Mail on Mac | Gmail Keyboard Shortcuts | Outlook Keyboard Shortcuts |
Please feel free to use the resource as your handy cheat sheet, and if you know the solutions or shortcuts for the empty slots do let me know and I will update the table.