Hi Jeanne,
Yes there are a dizzying number of shortcuts to use for Gmail standard view actually. The organization I work for switched to Gmail about a year and a half ago, and while I had been using basic HTML mode at home, I found this was not at all sufficient to meet my needs at work. The standard view has spellcheck, much easier access to your contacts, better search functionality, and a whole host of other utilities that basic HTML view doesn't offer. I didn't so much need these at home, but definitely do at work. I discussed using an overlay like Outlook, and apparently without Microsoft Exchange in the mix, Outlook does not play nicely with enterprise-wide Gmail at all. I use Outlook for my home Gmail account, and htat works very well. But it wasn't an option for work unfortunately. So I had to make the switch to standard view Gmail.
I'm pasting below a list of shortcut keys that will hopefully be helpful. The listserv won't let me attach it unfortunately.
To answer your two specific questions, when a message is open, you can press shift+3 to delete it. When in the message list, press x to select the message and then shift+3 to delete any messages selected. Note that if you're using JAWS, you will have to toggle between having the virtual PC cursor on or off a lot. For example, to navigate a list of messages, the virtual cursor will need to be off. Same for when you're writing a message. But when reading a message, the virtual cursor will need to be on. A pain, but I don't know how to get around that.
To delete a mistyped email address, tab or shift tab over to the To field, press the left and right arrows until you hear the address you want to delete, and then just press the delete key.
Hope that helps. See below for shortcut keys. The learning curve for these shortcut keys is fairly steep unfortunately, mostly because they are not intuitive at all. It took me about a week of using Gmail for hours every day to really master all the important ones. But they're necessary if you don't want to use an email client like Outlook. Good luck!
Catherine
Keyboard shortcuts
Action | Shortcut |
Previous message in an open conversation | p |
Next message in an open conversation | n |
Focus main window | Shift + Esc |
Focus latest chat or compose | Esc |
Advance to the next chat or compose | Ctrl + . |
Advance to previous chat or compose | Ctrl + , |
Send | ⌘/Ctrl + Enter |
Add cc recipients | ⌘/Ctrl + Shift + c |
Add bcc recipients | ⌘/Ctrl + Shift + b |
Access custom from | ⌘/Ctrl + Shift + f |
Insert a link | ⌘/Ctrl + k |
Go to next misspelled word (Mac only) | ⌘ + ; |
Open spelling suggestions | ⌘/Ctrl + m |
To spellcheck:
Formatting text
Action | Shortcut |
Previous font | ⌘/Ctrl + Shift + 5 |
Next font | ⌘/Ctrl + Shift + 6 |
Decrease text size | ⌘/Ctrl + Shift + - |
Increase text size | ⌘/Ctrl + Shift and + |
Bold | ⌘/Ctrl + b |
Italics | ⌘/Ctrl + i |
Underline | ⌘/Ctrl + u |
Numbered list | ⌘/Ctrl + Shift + 7 |
Bulleted list | ⌘/Ctrl + Shift + 8 |
Quote | ⌘/Ctrl + Shift + 9 |
Indent less | ⌘/Ctrl + [ |
Indent more | ⌘/Ctrl + ] |
Align left | ⌘/Ctrl + Shift + l |
Align center | ⌘/Ctrl + Shift + e |
Align right | ⌘/Ctrl + Shift + r |
Remove formatting | ⌘/Ctrl + \ |
Actions
Note: These shortcuts won't work unless keyboard shortcuts are turned on.
Action | Shortcut |
Move focus to toolbar | , |
Select conversation | x |
Toggle star/rotate among superstars | s |
Archive | e |
Mute conversation | m |
Report as spam | ! |
Delete | # |
Reply | r |
Reply in a new window | Shift + r |
Reply all | a |
Reply all in a new window | Shift + a |
Forward | f |
Forward in a new window | Shift + f |
Update conversation | Shift + n |
Archive conversation and go previous/next | ] or [ |
Undo last action | z |
Mark as read | Shift + i |
Mark as unread | Shift + u |
Mark unread from the selected message | _ |
Mark as important | + or = |
Mark as not important | - |
Snooze Note: This shortcut isn't available in classic Gmail. | b |
Expand entire conversation | ; |
Collapse entire conversation | : |
Add conversation to Tasks | Shift + t |
pp or kk | Previous period |
nn or jj | Next period |
tt | Today |
gg | Go to date |
Views
11 or dd | Day view |
22 or ww | Week view |
33 or mm | Month view |
44 or xx | Custom view |
55 or aa | Schedule view |
66 or yy | Year view |
Actions
cc | Create event |
ee | Edit event |
BackspaceBackspace or DeleteDelete | Delete event |
CtrlCtrl + zz or zz | Undo last action (if possible) |
EscapeEsc | Back to calendar view |
CtrlCtrl + ss or CtrlCtrl + EnterEnter | Save event |
Application
// | Search |
Shift⇧ Shift + == or ++ | Focus on Search for people to meet text box |
Shift⇧ Shift + cc or qq | Open create dialog |
CtrlCtrl + pp | Print |
ss | Settings |
CtrlCtrl + // or ?? | Open shortcut help |
AltAlt + CtrlCtrl + .. | Jump to side panel |
AltAlt + CtrlCtrl + ,, | Jump to side panel |
AltAlt + RightRight | Show person or group info |
-----Original Message-----
From: Visually Impaired Computer Users' Group List <[log in to unmask]> On Behalf Of Jeanne Fike
Sent: Wednesday, November 15, 2023 4:29 PM
Subject: [VICUG-L] some questions about using Gmail in standard view
Hi,
I've worked with Gmail in standard view. Are there any good tutorials on it? I don't have it synced to Outlook or any other program and don't want to.
Google is doing away with Gmail in HTML in January 2024.
One of my "dummies" questions is there a shortcut key to delete a message in a conversation? Another one is how to delete an email address in a new email I'm writing if I've made an error?
Thanks in advance for feedback.
Jeanne
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