Keyboard shortcuts

Nixt Mail can be used entirely from the keyboard. This page lists every shortcut. The same list is in the app under Help › Keyboard Shortcuts, which opens Settings › Keyboard — or press ?.

On a Mac, shortcuts that use ⌘ also work with Ctrl. On Windows and Linux, use Ctrl.

When single-letter shortcuts work

Shortcuts that are a letter on its own — such as C, E or R — only act when:

• You are not typing. In a text field, a letter is a letter. Shortcuts with ⌘ or Ctrl, and Esc, still work while you type.
• Mail is what you are looking at. Message shortcuts do nothing while the compose window, the command palette, Settings, a dialog, first-run setup, the lock screen or Autopilot is in front.
• Single-key shortcuts are on. See Turn off single-letter shortcuts.

Everywhere

C works when you are not typing; ⌘N and Ctrl+N work anywhere.

Esc closes, in order: the compose window (as its close button does), the command palette, a selection of several messages, an open conversation in Autopilot, and then Autopilot itself. In Settings, Esc first clears the search, then returns to the list of sections on a narrow window, then closes Settings.

Opening Settings from Calendar opens its Calendar section.

The open message

These act on the message open in the reading pane — or, where noted, on every selected message.

• With several messages selected, R, A and F do nothing, because there is no single message to answer.
• In Autopilot, E marks the conversation handled instead of archiving it — the one open beside the map, the one whose card is showing, or the circle the keyboard is on — and moves on to the next one still waiting. On a conversation already marked handled, it puts it back. The mail itself stays where it is.
• Settings › Keyboard › Delete key can make Backspace and Delete archive instead. The Keyboard list then shows that row as Archive.

The message list

These work once the message list has the focus — click a message to give it the focus.

The arrow keys move through the list only when the focus is in it; elsewhere they move between controls as usual. Moving through the list stops at the first and last message rather than wrapping round.

Search box

Writing

⌘Return sends from the compose window, and from the reply box under a message once you have written something. It asks every question the Send button asks first. Turn it off with Settings › Keyboard › ⌘Return sends.

Address suggestions

In To, Cc and Bcc, while suggestions are showing:

Editing text

These act on the text field or message text that has the focus.

Undo here undoes typing only. To undo archiving or moving mail, use Undo in the snack bar.

Command palette

Settings

In Calendar

While Calendar is in front, these letters belong to the calendar. They are the same letters Google Calendar uses. A, C, J, K and R mean their Mail actions again as soon as you return to Mail.

In Calendar, ⌘N and Ctrl+N still start a new message. See Calendar for what each view does.

Menus

On Windows and Linux, open a menu in the title bar with Alt and its underlined letter:

On macOS, use the system’s own menu-bar keys. See Menu bar.

Moving around the window

A ring is drawn round the control that has the focus when you move with the keyboard. In the module rail and the sidebar, the focused control is highlighted instead.

Settings that change shortcuts

All are in Settings › Keyboard.

Choose your own keys

Every shortcut that works everywhere, in Mail or in Calendar has Change beside it in Settings › Keyboard.

1. Choose Change on the shortcut’s row.
2. Press the keys you want. The dialog shows them as you press.
3. Choose Save, or Cancel to leave it as it was.

What is accepted:

• A combination needs ⌘, Ctrl or Alt. A letter on its own is a letter first, so it is refused with That needs ⌘, Ctrl or Alt with it.
• Esc and Tab are never taken: they close dialogs and move between controls.
• A combination something else already answers in the same place is refused by name, for example ⌘ K already does Search, or ask AI. The same key may still mean one thing in Calendar and another everywhere else, as R does.

The keys you choose replace the ones the shortcut shipped with, rather than being added to them, and the row says Changed · shipped as and those keys, followed by Put back, which returns that shortcut. Put them all back, beside Change a shortcut, returns every one. Menus print whichever key works now.

The shortcuts inside the message list and the composer — the arrow keys, Return, Tab — have no Change: they belong to whatever has the focus.

Turn off single-letter shortcuts

Single-key shortcuts is on by default. Turn it off if you control your computer by voice, or keys get pressed by accident. Then letters on their own — including J and K in the message list and the Calendar letters — do nothing. Every action still has its ⌘ or Ctrl shortcut or its menu item, and Esc, the arrow keys, Backspace and Delete keep working.

Delete key

Delete key chooses Move to trash (default) or Archive for Delete and Backspace. With Archive, the menu bar stops showing the key beside Move to Trash.

⌘Return sends

⌘Return sends is on by default. Turn it off so that only the Send button sends; the Keyboard list then shows Off for Send, and says Off, as ⌘Return sends above says. The Send button still sends. The setting has the same name on every system; on Windows and Linux it controls Ctrl+Return.

The Keyboard list in Settings

Settings › Keyboard shows every shortcut in three groups: Everywhere, and in Mail, While writing and In Calendar. Each row names the action and shows its keys, one keycap for each combination, and — where the shortcut works everywhere, in Mail or in Calendar — offers Change at the right. Hold the pointer over an action’s name for a few words about it. A row whose keys you chose says Changed · shipped as and the keys Nixt Mail ships with, and offers Put back.

To find a shortcut, type part of its name or its keys into Find a shortcut at the top of the list — for example reply, ⌘ K or calendar. The list narrows as you type, and a group with nothing left in it disappears. Both the ⌘ and the Ctrl form of each shortcut work on every computer. The list shows the one your keyboard is labelled with — ⌘ on a Mac, Ctrl on Windows and Linux — and Find a shortcut finds either. The list reflects your settings: for example, the trash row reads Archive when Delete key is set to archive.