Top 11 Yahoo Mail Tips and Tricks

by Ian Smith Mar 16th 2007

Yahoo's new version of web mail is, without a doubt, one of the coolest and most fluid Ajax applications we've seen to date. For the average user it offers every major feature that you can find in Outlook or Thunderbird, and it does it with style. But that isn't all, the Yahoo team also took the time to layer the app with embedded tricks, hacks, and shortcuts that makes the whole experience that much sweeter.

With that in mind, here are the top 11 tricks that I use everyday with the new Yahoo Mail Beta:

1. Trick: Instant Address Book Add - Drag a message onto the Contacts link and you'll see the icon change to a plus sign which means you can add that contact to your address book in one easy step.

2. Trick: Navigate your inbox the quick way - Ctrl + Shift + Up Arrow or Down Arrow let you jump to messages in the same folder that have the same subject line. You can hit Ctrl + Shift + Alt + Up Arrow lets you choose another factor to filter on (such as flag) when using Ctrl + Shift to navigate.

3. Easter Egg: When composing a message just hit the Subject: button to cycle through a collection of random (often humorous) subject lines. A lot of real gems in here including:

• The brain has been polished professor.


• All your platypus are belong to us.


• I believe those were mouse droppings.


• The twins just turned 2 and 4 this month!


• How about never? Is never good for you?


• Care for a foam apple?
  

4. Hack: Organize Your inbox via Message Finder - Now it is as easy as typing in a search, ordering the results by Contact, Location, or Subject, selecting the messages, and dragging them to a new folder. Sounds complicated? It isn't, just do a search and then start dragging and dropping messages.

5. Tip: Select Multiple Messages - Hold shift after selecting a message to select multiple messages. Hold Ctrl to add specific messages to the list. Hit Crtl-A to select all messages in a folder or search results. This is a great way to select everything in your inbox and move it to an archive folder.

6. Tip: Read Messages Now - Go to Options link in the upper right hand corner and then select Mail Options. Find the item labeled mark messages as read and select immediately. This way when you scroll through messages you no longer have to pause one each one to have it marked as read.

7. Tip: Hide/Show Viewing Pane - Just hit the letter V on your keyboard to have more space to organize your folder. Hit V again to reopen the message preview.

8. Tip: Quick Compose - Type the letter N to start a new message or R to reply to a selected message.

9. Trick: Find Text within your message - Hit Crtl + F after selecting a message to find text within a that message. Hitting the enter key lets your scroll through each instance of the word within the message.

10. Trick: Scroll through folder without reading - Holding Crtl lets you scroll through a folder messages using the arrow keys without selecting each individual message.

11. Tip: Send Message Now - By using the Crtl + Enter Key you can send a message you are composing instantly. No more hunting for the send button.

That's it! There are quite a few more shortcuts document in the help section but these are the one's I've found most valuable. Leave a comment and share your Yahoo Mail tips.