In Mozilla Thunderbird, while working with your e-mails, you have been toggling between the mouse and keyboard frequently so far. The keyboard shortcuts are easy to use and helps to perform your operations faster. We have listed out the most useful keyboard shortcut keys for Thunderbird in different categories based on their function.
Like most other programs, even Thunderbird recognizes keyboard combinations with which you can take care of tasks often faster than you could with a mouse. This is especially interesting when you are composing new e-mails, since you can work without using the mouse.
You want usual short-cut keys for printing, copying, pasting, cutting, undo, and redo work. However, in addition to this there are other shortcut keys that help save time when managing the inbox. Instead of working one’s way through menus with the mouse a single press of the [N] or the [P] key, for instance, helps you go forward or backward to the next unread mail.
Likewise, you can call-up the new mails for the active account with the [F5] key. When composing e-mails, you can fnish off the usual formatting through the keyboard and execute tasks. This can even assist you in sending mails much faster. However, you need to continue using the mouse for file attachments.
Mozilla Thunderbird Keyboard Shortcuts
General
F8 Toggle the message pane’s visibility
F2 Rename current folder
F5 Send + Receive
Ctrl+U View current email’s source
Ctrl+M Create blank email
Ctrl+N (Also works)
Del Delete selected email
Ctrl+Q Exit Thunderbird
Email Organization
J Mark selected email as "junk mail"
Shift+J Mark selected email as "not junk"
M Toggles the selected email’s "Read" status
Ctrl+Shift+C Marks as "Read" all emails in current folder
G Group-sort your emails
i Toggles the selected email’s "Flag" status
1-5 Assign a label to the selected email
0 (zero) Un-label the selected email
* Expand all threads
/ Collapse all threads
Ctrl+A Select all emails in folder
Ctrl+Shift+A Select all emails in thread
Email Reading
Ctrl++ Increase email text size
Ctrl+- Decrease email text size
Ctrl+0 (zero) Normal email text size
F Next email (tip: F as in Forward)
B Previous email (tip: B as in backward)
N Next unread email (tip: N as in Next)
P Previous unread email (tip: P as in Previous)
T Next unread thread
Ctrl+O Open current email
Ctrl+P Print current email
Email Message
Ctrl+R Reply to email
Ctrl+Shift+R Reply to all recipients
Ctrl+L Forward email
Ctrl+Enter Send an email immediately
Ctrl+Shift+Enter Send an email later
Email Formatting
Ctrl+B Bold
Ctrl+U Underlined
Ctrl+I Italic
Ctrl+L Insert Link
Ctrl+A Select All
Ctrl+X Cut selected text
Ctrl+C Copy selected text
Ctrl+V Paste
Ctrl+K Check spelling
Find & Search
Ctrl+F Find text in current email
Ctrl+G Find again (find next)
Ctrl+Shift+G Find previous
Ctrl+Shift+F Search messages
Address Book
Ctrl+2 Show Address Book (when in email side of Thunderbird)
Ctrl+1 Show Thunderbird (when in Address Book)
Ctrl+N New Address Book Card
Ctrl+I Opens current contact’s properties
Ctrl+Shift+F Find a contact in address book
‘A’ moves it to an ‘Archive’ folder
I would like to disable these shorcuts
This cannot be ALL the shortcuts. When I have selected an email in Inbox (but not opened it, just selected it, “A” makes the message disappear (and quite annoying at that!!). If does not go to trash, it just disappears. You must be kidding me!!!
“B” moves to the previous email, etc.
Control-M no longer creates a new blank email. It minimizes the program.
I have used Thunderbird for several years, but I only recently became interested in using keyboard shortcuts. My current interest is due to volunteering to help a blind person access her computer. Accessing a computer without being able to use the screen at all is harder than you might imagine. Try it sometime.
It turns out that Thunderbird is one of the easiest mail readers to use if you are blind.
For a screen-reader, I recommend the free, open-source NVDA. Be sure to use one of the free SAPI 5 voices provided by MS if you are using Vista or Win7. Vista and Win7 also have limited voice recognition, which is helpful if you can’t use a mouse.
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