3 ms·

Easier in what way? Can you give us an example? How are "advanced keystrokes" in Gmail going to be easier or better for someone when all of the keyboard shortc

by WayneDB 13y ago

Easier in what way? Can you give us an example? How are "advanced keystrokes" in Gmail going to be easier or better for someone when all of the keyboard shortcuts are completely inconsistent with every other application (web or otherwise)? Here they are - https://support.google.com/mail/answer/6594?hl=en&ctx=mail https://support.google.com/mail/answer/6594?hl=en&ctx=ma... I just can't imagine how anyone could find Gmail to be easier, given that all of the functionality is hidden behind unlabeled, non-obvious buttons that are spread out all over the screen. In Outlook and Thunderbird, the vast majority of action-inputs are very clearly labeled and keyboard access is made obvious by an underlined letter or a tool-tip that shows you the shortcut (unlike Gmail). How could it be easier, when I can drag three attachments into a new Outlook message and hit send quicker than Gmail can even upload the attachments that I dragged to it? How could it be easier, when I click "Inbox" and then I can't use the keyboard arrows (or Tab) to move to "Starred", "Important", "Sent Mail", etc? I guess I have to learn some non-obvious keyboard shortcut.

lallysingh 13y ago
Huh? Have you hit the ? mark? Gmail's key-bindings are set up to be as fast as possible, and are faster to type than a normal desktop app, as you don't have to worry about eating up characters meant for a text box somewhere. I really suggest you give it a fair shot. I like it a lot better than any desktop mail app I've ever used (and that's been quite a few). For example: To go to "Starred" hit "g" then "s". To go to an arbitrary label, hit "g" "l" and then you have a drop-down list of labels, with autocomplete. Seems nicer than tabbing about. To compose, hit "c".
- WayneDB 13y ago
  Yeah, that's great except it's completely non-obvious and totally inconsistent with every other application that I use.
  - anakinx 13y ago
    Unless you're a vim user
    - WayneDB 13y ago
      How about if I'm a typical Office user? Though there's a lot more to UX consistency than keyboard shortcuts...since we're on the topic...I wonder if these Gmail shortcuts are even consistent within Google's own offerings. Anyone wanna look?
      - rbanffy 13y ago
        I believe one of the most important design goals of Microsoft Office has always been to make it nearly impossible for someone to migrate away from it.
        WayneDB 13y ago
        So, that's why even third-party programs are consistent with things like "Ctrl + N" to start a new document? Sorry, that's an Windows standard and it didn't even start with Windows.

by WayneDB 13y ago

lallysingh 13y ago

Huh? Have you hit the ? mark? Gmail's key-bindings are set up to be as fast as possible, and are faster to type than a normal desktop app, as you don't have to worry about eating up characters meant for a text box somewhere. I really suggest you give it a fair shot. I like it a lot better than any desktop mail app I've ever used (and that's been quite a few). For example: To go to "Starred" hit "g" then "s". To go to an arbitrary label, hit "g" "l" and then you have a drop-down list of labels, with autocomplete. Seems nicer than tabbing about. To compose, hit "c".

WayneDB 13y ago
Yeah, that's great except it's completely non-obvious and totally inconsistent with every other application that I use.
- anakinx 13y ago
  Unless you're a vim user
  - WayneDB 13y ago
    How about if I'm a typical Office user? Though there's a lot more to UX consistency than keyboard shortcuts...since we're on the topic...I wonder if these Gmail shortcuts are even consistent within Google's own offerings. Anyone wanna look?
    - rbanffy 13y ago
      I believe one of the most important design goals of Microsoft Office has always been to make it nearly impossible for someone to migrate away from it.
      - WayneDB 13y ago
        So, that's why even third-party programs are consistent with things like "Ctrl + N" to start a new document? Sorry, that's an Windows standard and it didn't even start with Windows.