keyboard command to scroll viewer window?

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Level 1

48 points

keyboard command to scroll viewer window?

I'm running the current version of mail.app (9.3) in OS X 10.11.5 (El Capitan).

I would like to be able to do basic operation of reading email with keyboard commands. There are keyboard shortcuts to create new messages, reply to or delete messages, move up/down through the list of messages in the message list pane, etc. That is great. But for the most common task of simply reading messages, support for keyboard commands is lacking.

In previous versions of Mail.app, i could use arrow keys to move around in the messages list window and I could use page-up and page down commands (fn-uparrow and fn-downarrow on macbook pro keyboard) to scroll the message view pane up and down. It was also possible to scroll up/down in the message window by using space and shift space. Both page-up/page-down and spacebar/shift-spacebar are consistent with general Mac conventions, including Safari.

In El Capitan, it seems this functionality was removed. Instead page-up and page-down just cause the message list window to scroll. Space does nothing. A workaround of sorts is to hit hit tab to shift the keyboard focus from the message list to the message viewer, followed by scroll commands, then either hit tab two more times or hit shift-tab (but not space or shift-space) to switch focus back to the message list again. This is not convenient for an operation that i do easily hundreds of times each day.

Anyone have any ideas on whether it is possible to restore the old functionality? Hacks like hidden mail preferences settings? ... or some way to use a resource editor utility (does that kind of thing even exist any more?) to modify the application?

Was this an old feature that just got forgotten/abandoned by Apple? Or was it a bug or oversight that this was omitted from the new version? Did Apple deem it as inconsistent with new interface guidelines? Was this functionality replaced some other keyboard shortcut that I just don't know about? Is there a 3rd party plugin or something I can use? Any insights would be appreciated.

MacBook Pro, OS X El Capitan (10.11.5)

Posted on Jun 10, 2016 12:47 PM

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Answer 1

Barney-15E

Level 10

122,822 points

Jun 10, 2016 5:21 PM in response to David Duff

Spacebar still works for me.

Opt+Arrow Up/Dn also works.

I don't know what would interfere with those things. Possibly a third-party app, but I don't know what.

Have you logged out/in or Restarted?

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Answer 2

David Duff Author

Level 1

48 points

Jun 11, 2016 5:03 PM in response to David Duff

Thanks, Barney-15E.

I wasn't aware of the option-arrow shortcuts.

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Answer 3

David Duff Author

Level 1

48 points

Jul 5, 2016 12:33 PM in response to David Duff

Barney-15E:

actually, on my system, i observe:

opt+arrow up does "scroll to top" of the message in the message pane

opt+arrow down does "scroll to bottom" of the message in the message pane.

if i am in a context where the item selected in the list pane is a "thread" (with multiple messages), then these commands scroll the message pane forward/backward so as to bring to the top of the next/previous message in the thread to the top of the message pane.

if i am in a context where i have multiple items selected in the list pane (and they are displayed in the message pane as a "crooked stack" in the message pane), then these commands simply jump the selection in message list pane to the first or last message in the list, respectively.

none of these behaviors are the same as page up/down, and they do not really act (for me) as substitutes.

MacOS keyboard conventions that i'm familiar with use the function key along with up/down/left/right arrow keys to represent page-up, page-down, home, and end keys (i.e., equivalent to pushing those keys on a old full-sized external keyboard). so the use of option-up/down arrow to scroll to the beginning/end of the message sort of makes intuitive sense as it sort of matches the home/end key functions. i still can't see any good reason to take away the old page-up / page-down commands, however.

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Answer 4

Barney-15E

Level 10

122,822 points

Jul 5, 2016 1:44 PM in response to David Duff

if i am in a context where i have multiple items selected in the list pane (and they are displayed in the message pane as a "crooked stack" in the message pane), then these commands simply jump the selection in message list pane to the first or last message in the list, respectively.

Yeah, kind of weird, huh? Try submitting Feedback and maybe they will fix it.

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