Google’s web applications are chock-full of productivity-enhancing features. Many of these are proudly trumpeted by the web giant – indeed, the company can sometimes seem just a tad self satisfied. But some of their most handy little tricks, like keyboard shortcuts, are somewhat better hidden away.
In Gmail, you can hit c to compose a new message. Simple, huh? k, j, n and p can be used for navigating between conversations or messages, ! marks a message as spam… well, actually there are too many to list them all here. So follow this link and get the low down from Google themselves. And here are some for Google Calendar (yes, c can be used to create an event!).
Shortcuts in Google Maps are a little more basic, but just as handy. According to Google:
Use the arrow keys to pan left, right, up and down. The page up, page down, home and end keys let you pan out even wider.The plus (+) key lets you zoom in and the minus key (-) is for zooming out.
But my very favourite is the latest edition of Google Reader, their super RSS feeds app. Just hit ? to get a smart overlay up on screen, detailing all the things you can do in Reader without a mouse! You can have a look at Google’s own listing here, but be sure to try the g then h, a, s, t or u combinations. Now that’s some serious productivity!
