Stumbled across a nice feature in Hotmail today. You can change your keyboard shortcuts in Hotmail to use either Hotmail/OWA mode or for users who are more familiar with Yahoo Mail or Gmail there is an option for them too. The always useful help library for Windows Live has a full list of keyboard shortcuts for all modes which I’ve copied and pasted in all its glory here for your viewing pleasure:
Keyboard shortcuts
Keyboard shortcuts can save you time when you use Windows Live Hotmail.
| To | Press |
| Delete a message | Delete |
| Create a new message | Ctrl+N |
| Send a message | Ctrl+Enter |
| Open a message | Ctrl+Shift+O |
| Print a message | Ctrl+Shift+P |
| Reply to a message | Ctrl+R |
| Reply all to a message | Ctrl+Shift+R |
| Forward a message | Ctrl+Shift+F |
| Save a draft message | Ctrl+S |
| Mark a message as junk | Ctrl+Shift+J |
| Mark a message as read | Ctrl+Q |
| Mark a message as unread | Ctrl+U |
| Move to a folder | Ctrl+Shift+V |
| Open the next message | Ctrl+. |
| Open the previous message | Ctrl+, |
| Close a message | Esc |
| Search your e-mail messages | / |
| Check spelling | F7 |
| Select all | S then A |
| Deselect all | S then N |
| Go to the inbox | G then I |
| Go to your People page | G then P |
| Go to your Calendar | G then C |
| Go to Messenger (this will open Windows Live Messenger from within Hotmail) | G then M |
| Go to your Home page | G then H |
| Go to your Drafts folder | F then D |
| Go to your Sent folder | F then S |
If you're more familiar with Gmail or Yahoo! keyboard shortcuts, you can use these in Hotmail too. If a cell is empty, there is no corresponding keyboard shortcut in Gmail or Yahoo!.
| To | Gmail shortcut | Yahoo! shortcut |
| Delete a message | # | Delete |
| Create a new message | C | N |
| Send a message | | Alt+S |
| Open a message | O | |
| Print a message | | P |
| Reply to a message | R | R |
| Reply all to a message | A | A |
| Forward a message | F | F |
| Save a draft message | Ctrl+S | Ctrl+S |
| Mark a message as junk | ! | |
| Mark a message as read | Ctrl+I | K |
| Mark a message as unread | Shift+U | Shift+K |
| Move to a folder | | D |
| Open the next message | N | Ctrl+. |
| Open the previous message | P | Ctrl+, |
| Close a message | U | Esc |
| Search your e-mail messages | / | S |
| Check spelling | | |
| Select all | * then A | |
| Deselect all | * then N | |
| Go to the inbox | G then I | M |
| Go to your People page | G then C | |
| Go to your Calendar | | |
| Go to Messenger (this will open Windows Live Messenger from within Hotmail) | | |
| Go to your Home page | | |
| Go to your Drafts folder | G then D | |
| Go to your Sent folder | G then T | |