Keyboard

The Documents tab can be used entirely without a mouse. One logic you only need to understand once: there are focus areas, and the active one has a visible border. What F2 or Delete acts on is decided by the area you are in.

The keys here apply in every keymap — the keymaps (Gmail/Superhuman, Outlook, No single keys, under Settings, Keyboard) only change the Mail tab, Contacts and a few keys in the Calendar.

Focus areas#

The digits go from left to right and stay fixed, even when an area is collapsed — the same idea as in the Notes tab. Hold Alt for a moment to see them on the areas (Settings → Operation). Until 1 October 2026, Alt+1 was the tree, Alt+4 the bookmarks and Alt+5 the preview.

Tab cycles through them in the same order.

Digits in every tab#

Every tab has digits for its areas, from left to right — as here and in the Notes tab. Alt with the digit jumps there, also from inside a text field (the digit does not end up in the text). A collapsed panel opens on the way — while closed it stands as a button on the side rail of its side, with icon, word and digit; a click on it does the same. Alt with the digit of a panel that currently has the keyboard collapses it; so does the small arrow at the top of its edge. Ctrl+Shift+F12 collapses every panel of the tab, pressing it again brings them back. An area that is not there right now — a conversation without an open mail, a page without a contact — cannot be reached by its digit, and it shows none.

In the Calendar, with the editor open, Alt+2 takes the keyboard out of it: then J/K, T, the views and the agenda arrows work, the editor stays open, and Alt+3 leads back to the title. In the Mail tab with two columns the conversation takes the place of the list — Alt+2 then closes it like Esc. Every digit can be rebound per tab (Settings → Keyboard).

Everywhere#

The command palette#

Ctrl+K opens, in every tab, a search field over everything that is possible there right now — in the Documents tab for the area the keyboard is in, in Mail, Contacts, Tasks, Calendar and Inbox their commands —, plus what applies everywhere: switching to a tab, History, Backup, Help, Settings. Type in German or English, typos included ("archive", "snooze", "undo", "wochenansicht", "month"); the command's key is shown on the right. ↑/↓ choose, Return runs it — exactly as the key would —, Esc closes, and the keyboard is back where it was. The most recently used commands are at the top.

Commands without a key — such as Go to the Calendar tab or Copy link in the Mail tab — can only be found in the palette; under Settings, Keyboard you can give them one. In the AI chat the palette only offers what applies everywhere.

Keyboard shortcuts (F1)#

F1, by contrast, shows the keys — all of them, arranged in a tree: on the left "All", below it the places (Everywhere, Inbox, Mail, Contacts, Documents, Note editor, Tasks, Calendar) and under a place its areas — in Documents for example Folder tree, File list, Search field, Results table, Preview, in Mail List, Conversation view, Draft, Sidebar and "Go to". Each row gives its count. On the right is what the chosen node covers, under "All" with headings per place and area.

When it opens, the tab you are in is selected (in the Documents tab the note editor if the keyboard is in the editor), and the keyboard is in the tree:

The search field searches like the command palette — with typos, in English, also by the name of an area ("conversation") —, in the chosen node, or under "All" in everything. Each node then counts its matches; nodes without matches are shown faintly. If the window is narrow, the tree becomes a selection row above the list (↑/↓ choose, a click shows all nodes as a menu; in it ↑/↓ choose as well, Return goes to the list, Esc only closes the menu). When the list, the tree or the menu scrolls, a bar on the right shows where you are. The same tree is under Settings, Keyboard.

Tabs and places#

Two keys apply in every tab, not only in the Documents tab:

• Alt+← / Alt+→ switch to the tab on the left or right in the bar — in the order as it stands (you can arrange it, see Settings, Operation), and at the end back to the start. In Help, Settings, History and Backup they do nothing: those are not tabs.
• Move tab left/right in the command palette (Ctrl+K) moves the tab you are in one place in the bar — for every computer that opens the archive.
• Ctrl+Alt+← / Ctrl+Alt+→ take you to where you were before, and back again — like Back and Forward in the browser, only across the whole app. The ◀ ▶ buttons on the left of the path bar do the same.
• In Help, Ctrl+F goes to the search field: it searches all pages, ↑/↓ choose a match, Return opens it. Esc first clears the search, then leaves the field, and finally closes Help.

A place is the tab and what was in view there: in the Documents tab the folder together with the selected file, the search term and the open note; in the Inbox the row under the cursor; in Tasks the view and row; in the AI chat the conversation and the question you were at; a view is its name. What is remembered is where you stopped — if you move through a list with the arrow keys, you don't leave a place per step, but one at the end. A file that no longer exists leads to its folder. The history lives in the session; after a restart it is empty.

If Ctrl+Alt+← doesn't get through: on some desktops the key is taken (GNOME uses it to switch workspaces). The app can't work around that — under Settings → Keyboard give "Back to the previous place" another key, and likewise "Tab to the left" and "Tab to the right".

Folder tree#

Table#

Filtering by typing#

A letter in the tree or in the list opens a small field at the head of the area and shows only the matches — in the tree together with their parent paths, across the whole section. Arrow keys, Return and Delete keep working on the shorter list. Backspace removes a character, Esc closes. The list filter closes when you change folders; the tree filter stays across a Return.

Selection fields#

Fields with a list below them — the From of an email, the type in the form and in the fact sheet, tags, contact fields, some settings:

Order of precedence for Esc#

1. A dialog is open → close it
2. A filter is active → close the filter
3. Search field with text → delete the text
4. Search field empty → focus back to the list
5. Search bar in the note editor open → first delete its text, then close it
6. Something is selected → clear the selection

Note editor#

While the editor has the focus, all keys belong to the text, including Ctrl+Z. In addition Ctrl+S saves, Ctrl+F searches in this note, Ctrl+R searches and replaces, Ctrl+Alt+Shift+T emergency: switch between the tree view and the old text field, Ctrl+K inserts a reference, Ctrl+Shift+T turns the line under the cursor into a task, Ctrl+W closes, Ctrl+Tab next tab, Ctrl+PgUp/PgDn to the previous/next tab (as in Chrome), Ctrl+Shift+PgUp/PgDn moves the tab to the left/right. The tab keys work in the whole Documents tab, even when the keyboard is in the tree or in the preview.

Gutter and bookmarks (as in IntelliJ): Ctrl+. or Alt+Return collapses or expands the fold at the cursor (section, list item with sub-items, code block, header) — in a task card Alt+Return still opens the card. Alt+Shift+Return collapses everything, or, if something is already collapsed, expands everything; Ctrl+Shift+− / Ctrl+Shift++ work too. Ctrl+Shift+0 to 9 sets a bookmark on the cursor line (again: removes it), Ctrl+0 to 9 jumps there — also into another note, from anywhere in the Documents tab. What counts is the digit key, not the character: Ctrl+Shift+0 is bookmark 0 even on a German keyboard, although Shift+0 types a =. Ctrl +/Ctrl − still expand and collapse the folder tree, not the text.

Ctrl+F is the same key as everywhere, just with a different reach: in the source it searches in the note, in tree, list, results and bookmarks in the archive. In the note's search bar, ↑ and ↓ (or Return) go from match to match, Esc first deletes the text and then closes.

With the note search open, a second Ctrl+F widens the reach: the term goes into the search field at the top and searches the whole archive, a third one brings it back into the note. So you don't need to know where you are searching before you start — you just keep pressing.

In lists and tables, Return and Tab have a job: Return in a list item creates the next one (same marker, the next number for numbered items, an empty box for checkboxes); on an empty item it ends the list; Tab and Shift+Tab indent and outdent the item together with its sub-items. In a table Return creates a row, Tab jumps to the next cell. Everywhere else Return carries the indentation of the line along; a second Return on the empty indented line jumps back to the start; in a code block the indentation stays. Shift+Return always creates a new line below the cursor line, wherever the cursor is — in a list with a marker, in a table as a table row. Shift+F10 (or the Menu key) opens the context menu at the cursor.

Tasks#

Ctrl+N opens the input field — from anywhere in the tab; Return creates, Esc closes. In the table, ↑/↓, Shift+↑/↓, Space, Ctrl+A, Home/End apply. In a field of the task page, Return writes and Esc discards the input. After @ in the sentence: ↑/↓ choose, Return or Tab accept.

AI chat#

Enter sends, Shift+Enter and Ctrl+Enter insert a line break. Ctrl+F searches the conversation, ↑/↓ jump from match to match. @ in the input field opens the attachment list.

Dialogs#

Return confirms, Esc cancels. When renaming, the name without the extension is preselected. There is deliberately no Shift+Delete for permanent deletion.