Claws Mail is a simple yet powerful e-mail client for the Linux desktop. Its developers designed the program as an intuitive graphical client that can act as a general task organizer. Like Emacs, Claws Mail can work as your mail reader, news aggregator, and RSS reader.
[mte_cheatsheet_download]Essential Claws Mail Keybindings
With Claws Mail, you can use a variety of keybindings to explore and access every function of the program. This includes editing messages through an external text editor and displaying e-mail headers in full. These keyboard shortcuts make Claws Mail one of the best Linux e-mail clients.
The Claws Mail interface is also quick and highly flexible. This cheatsheet will focus on the program’s default set of keybindings so you can get started.
| Shortcut | Function |
|---|---|
| Interface Manipulation | |
| Esc | Exit from any dialog box or menu window. |
| Ctrl + Shift + A | Open the Claws Mail address book. |
| Ctrl + Shift + L | Open the Activity Log window. |
| Ctrl + F12 | Toggle the visibility of the Menu Bar. |
| V | Toggle the display of the message preview panel. |
| Ctrl + P | Open the Print Dialog for the currently selected e-mail. |
| Ctrl + Q | Exit from the current Claws Mail session. |
| E-mail Navigation | |
| N | Go to the next e-mail in the message list. |
| P | Go to the previous e-mail in the message list. |
| Shift + N | Go to the next unread e-mail in the message list. |
| Shift + P | Go to the previous unread e-mail in the message list. |
| Ctrl + T | Toggle between threaded and flat message list display. |
| Ctrl + Shift + F | Search for an e-mail in the currently active folder. |
| / | Search for a specific string in the current e-mail. |
| G | Navigate to a different folder in the current e-mail account. |
| Ctrl + Alt + U | Refresh the current message list. |
| E-mail Management | |
| Ctrl + I | Fetch all unread e-mails from the current account. |
| Ctrl + Shift + I | Fetch all unread e-mails from all active accounts in Claws Mail. |
| Ctrl + W | Prepare Claws Mail to work without network connection. |
| Ctrl + Shift + S | Fetch and send all e-mails from all active accounts in Claws Mail. |
| Ctrl + O | Move the currently selected e-mail to a different folder. |
| Ctrl + Shift + O | Copy the currently selected e-mail to a different folder. |
| Ctrl + S | Save the currently selected e-mail to an external file. |
| Ctrl + D | Move the currently selected e-mail to the Trash folder. |
| Shift + D | Permanently delete all the e-mails in the Trash folder. |
| Ctrl + M | Compose a new e-mail. |
| Ctrl + R | Reply to the currently selected e-mail. |
| Ctrl + Shift + R | Reply to all recipient addresses in the current e-mail thread. |
| Ctrl + L | Reply to a mailing list message. |
| Ctrl + Alt + F | Forward the current e-mail to a different recipient. |
| E-mail Tagging | |
| Shift + 8 | Mark the currently selected e-mail. |
| U | Unmark a marked e-mail. |
| Shift + 1 | Mark the currently selected e-mail as “Unread.” |
| Ctrl + Shift + T | Add and edit the tags for the current e-mail thread. |
| Ctrl + 1 | Mark the current e-mail with an Orange label. |
| Ctrl + 2 | Mark the current e-mail with a Red label. |
| Ctrl + 3 | Mark the current e-mail with a Pink label. |
| Ctrl + 4 | Mark the current e-mail with a Light Blue label. |
| Ctrl + 5 | Mark the current e-mail with a Blue label. |
| Ctrl + 6 | Mark the current e-mail with a Green label. |
| Ctrl + 7 | Mark the current e-mail with a Brown label. |
| Ctrl + 8 | Mark the current e-mail with a Gray label. |
| Ctrl + 9 | Mark the current e-mail with a Light Brown label. |
| Ctrl + 0 | Remove any color label to the current e-mail thread. |
| Composition Window | |
| Ctrl + Enter | Send the e-mail that you are currently writing. |
| Ctrl + Shift + S | Schedule your e-mail to be sent at a later date. |
| Ctrl + S | Save your e-mail on an external file. |
| Ctrl + Z | Undo the last change that you made to your e-mail. |
| Ctrl + Y | Redo the last change that you made to your e-mail. |
| Ctrl + A | Select the text inside your composition window. |
| Ctrl + X | Cut the text that you selected to your clipboard. |
| Ctrl + C | Copy the text that you selected to your clipboard. |
| Ctrl + V | Paste the contents of your clipboard to the current point. |
| Ctrl + L | Wrap the current paragraph within the composition window. |
| Ctrl + Shift + L | Enable auto-wrapping in the current window. |
| Ctrl + Shift + X | Edit the current e-mail through an external editor. |
| Composition Window Editing | |
| Ctrl + B | Move the cursor one character backwards. |
| Ctrl + F | Move the cursor one character forwards. |
| Ctrl + E | Move the cursor to the end of the line. |
| Ctrl + P | Move the cursor to the previous line. |
| Ctrl + N | Move the cursor to the next line. |
| Ctrl + H | Delete the character before the cursor. |
| Ctrl + D | Delete the character after the cursor. |
| Ctrl + U | Delete the current line. |
| Ctrl + K | Delete the text from the cursor until the end of the line. |
Image Credit: Unsplash and Wikimedia Commons. All alterations by Ramces Red.