No more keyboard email sending! Feb23 '07

I toyed with the idea of writing a blog post that was intentionally left unfinished - full of spelling errors, grammatical mistakes, and cut-off sentences.

The idea was to illustrate the fact that certain email programs are "trigger happy," allowing you to send messages with a keyboard shortcut - often by accident, before the email is finished being composed.

This is incredibly embarrassing, as the recipient often gets a choppy, mis-construed, rough draft of the email message - or a message that gets cut off in mid-sentence.

I think email programs should discontinue keyboard shortcuts that automatically send messages. Or, at least give the user the option to turn that off.

Outlook 2003 is the biggest culprit. They already have the comfortable shortcut of Alt + S to send messages. The problem child is always Control + Enter, which also sends messages, but is far more likely to be hit by accident.

Gmail is also guilty. They allow Tab + Enter to send a message. (Note: that's Tab then Enter. Not together.)

Again, most of the time these keyboard shortcuts are not a problem. But why even take the chance?

I'm all for keyboard shortcuts, but not for irreversible things like sending an email. Once it's sent, it's gone. There's no way to undo it.

Categories: Annoyances , Email , Usability

Add Feedback (view all)

Leave feedback

Feedback

Input format: The editor controls below will assist with Markdown syntax.

Status

Sub-status

Your info

Here come my rants for you since I love keyboard shortcuts. Outlook does have a recall feature to pull messages off the server, though Gm ... Read more.

YA! I had this problem with my gmail sending an e-mail by accident to a prospective employer. I hate this crap! ... Read more.

matthom is published and produced by Matt Thommes - an independent publishing enthusiast, mobile blogger, content creator, informative writer, web developer from Chicago. Never one to conform, Matt intends to promote the effect the web has on our lives, in an effort to intensify, instruct, and clarify all that is happening around us.

Contact Matt

Similar Entries

Stats

214 unique visits since August 2008

Syndicate

Advertisements