Hi guys, I happened to discover this cool new keyboard shortcut in the new gmail interface. This shortcut will work only if you have enabled keyboard shortcuts.

After logging in, press the ‘J’ key just to make sure that keyboard shortcuts are working. Once done with that, press ‘.’ (dot) key. The “More Actions” combo box will now expand. Use the standard arrow keys to move among the list of labels and actions. To move out of the combo box, press Escape key.

Example Uses:

  1. Use the ‘x’ key to select a few messages/conversations.
  2. Press ‘.’ (dot) to expand the “More Actions” box.
  3. Select a label and press ‘Enter’.
  4. The label will now be applied to the selected conversations. 😀

That said, the “More Actions” drop down is not an actual combo box. It’s done using DIVs and CSS.

P.S.: To enable keyboard shortcuts, first login to gmail. Then click “Settings” at the top right corner of the window. Now click “Keyboard shortcuts on” and click on “Save Changes” button at the bottom.

3 Responses to “Easter Egg in Gmail – The ‘.’ Keyboard shortcut”

  1. Rajagopal Says:

    Cool! Didn’t know of this easter egg till now.

  2. Waves » Blog Archive » NTFS, Gmail Keyboard Shortcuts Says:

    […] available. I will post the links as and when I read them. Nice stuff ! As you already know, I have enabled keyboard shortcuts on my gmail account. Gmail actually shows you the list of available shortcuts right inside your […]

  3. Waves » Blog Archive » Top 5 Gmail Lab Features Says:

    […] be it. I have set up filters extensively to mark labels to most of my emails. I’m also a keyboard shortcut junkie & expect web apps to have keyboard shortcuts. Retrieving emails based on a given label […]