A GMail Annoyance

Wednesday, June 27. 2007

I love gmail. Really, I think it is the best web based email software I have ever used. The keyboard shortcuts make browsing through emails and conversations a breeze. Everyone has their pet peeves, so here is mine.

The UI for navigating between links is quite standard - click on newer or older in the email header to navigate:

Google’s help center for keyboard shortcuts lists the j key to move an older conversation and the k key to browse newer.

Have you looked at your keyboard lately? If you haven’t, take a peek:

Notice that the j key is to the left of the k key. So according to those keyboard shortcuts, newer conversations are on the right of the keyboard, but unfortunately this is switched relative to the user interface, where a newer conversation link is on the left.

Share This

Posted by Seb Ruiz in sebr at 21:32 | Comments (6) | Trackbacks (0)

Trackbacks

Trackback specific URI for this entry

No Trackbacks

Comments

Display comments as (Linear | Threaded)

Heh yes, it helps me to see K as an abbreviation for (K)urrent

#1 bdam on 2007-06-28 03:22 (Reply)

Geez did I already mention that these spam-prevention things really really suck! It took 10 tries to get through this procedure.

#1.1 bdam on 2007-06-28 03:26 (Reply)

It's 200% correct. These are VIM shortcuts

#2 Stalwart (Homepage) on 2007-06-28 04:58 (Reply)

The most annoying thing with GMail is that it insist on having receiver names commented. The email standard clarly spesifies:

Full Name "Comment"

#3 Daniel Aleksandersen (Homepage) on 2007-06-28 16:06 (Reply)

As Stalwart pointed out, it just follows the traditional vi shortcuts.
Since newer e-mails are above, that's k, and older ones below, that's j; which are vi's traditional up/down shortcuts.
h would be left, and l right.
There you have a complete set of extra arrows keys, which really come handy once you get used to them.
AFAIK some really old keyboards (not that I got to use or see them) lacked arrows, which explains its origin.

#4 Javier on 2007-06-30 04:02 (Reply)

They could just reverse the newer//older.

new is forward... =)

then the keys will line up too!

#5 Wizard on 2007-07-01 10:16 (Reply)

Add Comment

Name
Email
Homepage
In reply to
Comment	Enclosing asterisks marks text as bold (word), underscore are made via _word_. Standard emoticons like :-) and ;-) are converted to images. To prevent automated Bots from commentspamming, please enter the string you see in the image below in the appropriate input box. Your comment will only be submitted if the strings match. Please ensure that your browser supports and accepts cookies, or your comment cannot be verified correctly. Enter the string from the spam-prevention image above:
	Remember Information? Subscribe to this entry