So I’ve not actually used any of the keyboard commands in Gmail until today. I used Control-I to italicize something — anyway, it occurred to me that it would probably be nice to actually know what the key commands were, being that its a web app, and key commands are not something that have been around forever, at least in common practice. SO, funny thing is, I hit the help link in Gmail and did a search for keyboard commands, or keyboard shortcuts, can’t remember which; at any rate, the search returned nothing. Seriously.
So, being the good(gler) little searcher that I am, I just did a general google search for “gmail key commands,” which returned several entries, including an article on Lifehacker which primarily describes the Greasemonkey Gmail Macros script.
More immediately helpful to me was the link in this article on Google that lists the keyboard shortcuts that exist within Gmail by default: http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?ctx=%67mail&hl=en&answer=6594
Of course, what I really wanted was a control key for message send. Unfortunately, the key command for this is (when you are done composing but still have the input box in focus)
Oh, and also, you have to turn your keyboard shortcuts on in your Gmail settings – I think its off by default. AND, commands such as “bold” and “italic” are actually control keys, as opposed to just simple key commands. In other words, you got some learnin’ to do here if you opt in to using the shortcuts — the cognitive overhead to the non-uber-geek is probably, I dare say, not worth it, although I may have to play around with them more and give an update on that judgement. (and so it becomes more complicated….can I get an amen here Mikol?)