737731 - Option to use gmail-like keyboard shortcuts

Status: UNCONFIRMED

(Thunderbird :: Mail Window Front End, enhancement)

Description

[timbugzilla]

A feature I'd find very useful would be the option to use gmail's keyboard shortcuts to navigate through the message pane and conversations. 

Being able to use shortcuts users already know from gmail in Thunderbird enhances UX, makes switching to Thunderbird easier, and for me makes navigating my inbox a lot quicker.

This option is offered in the Postbox email client, and several webmail interfaces such as Hotmail. It's also a feature you see requested quite often around the internet for other clients such as Outlook:

http://lifehacker.com/5175724/add-gmail-shortcuts-to-outlook-with-gmail-keys

Outlook users have implemented this via autohotkeys: 
 
http://www.autohotkey.com/forum/topic81170.html 

Implementing this feature would help give Thunderbird UX parity with Postbox.

Comment 1

[timbugzilla]

Gmail keyboard shortcuts reference table:

http://support.google.com/mail/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=6594

Comment 2

[timbugzilla]

This blog post details the partial implementation of gmail keyboard shortcuts in Firefox using the keyconfig and nostalgy extensions:

http://teleogistic.net/2011/03/making-the-thunderbird-interface-more-gmail-y/

The amount of effort required even for a partial solution emphasizes the lack of parity with Postbox.

Comment 3

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

I didn't find a duplicate of this. Not confirming, because I'm not sure we'd accept a patch