Lay My Hat

I have pressed a key, in Gmail, while writing an email (I did have occasion to change some format in the writing...) and now I can't delete an error in the normal way.

On trying to delete a typo I don't get the vertical stroke between the letters but the blue delete rectangle that covers the letter and when I delete that, the words (or rather letters) before and after the deleted blue rectangle all run together. Thank goodness only applies to Gmail and nothing else.

Help please!!

Sounds like you pressed the Insert key on your keyboard. You're now in overwrite mode instead of insert. Press Insert again maybe?

I can't fathom what you may have done, but what you describe sounds like you have swapped from "Inert mode" to "Overwrite mode" - a feature in Word processing that I remember form the 80s. But cannot see it in Gmail.

Try this though:
When in the main gmail list - not when reading or writing a single email, try hitting ?

Up will pop a list of keystrokes that you can/could/may enter to do hundreds of things..... Maybe you pressed one of them

I posted at the same time as Kev, and also found out how to switch it off.

You have to be editing an email.
Highlight more than one character, then press and hold the Insert key for a few seconds.

e-richard wrote:I posted at the same time as Kev, and also found out how to switch it off.

You have to be editing an email.
Highlight more than one character, then press and hold the Insert key for a few seconds.

I've been trying it too but can't get insert to do anything.

My son could probably figure it out as he seems to find all the shortcuts from rotating the screen to having super sized fonts and then I have to call on Google to fix it.

Daren't try anything without being sure in case I foul things up even worse......

If in doubt, just reboot.

OK folks I have been googling around and finally found the solution:

Ctrl-Z is the universal cross-platform keyboard shortcut for Undo, and as such works in all browsers.

And yes, it does work!

and:

If you want a clickable Undo in GMail, you usually have two choices as well as the keyboard shortcut:

1. Right click in your text box and choose Undo from the context menu

2. Enable your browser's menu bar and use Undo from there.

Number 1 works too - never realised it referred to errors:oops:

But Number 2 is not for me......


Where can I find a site that give various short cuts for similar problems? Anyone know?

Still cannot figure out what you did or were trying to explain. In programs where you can toggle between insert and overwrite, Ctrl-Z would not undo this mode but it would undo any typing or modifications you had made to the document. Gmail could work differently I guess.

Older programs used to list the shortcut key along side the menu item but this is slowly vanishing.

You can find many by Googling. Most people already know the shortcuts like cut/paste or even some Windows shortcuts using the Windows key.
http://productivity.ben61a.com/basics/c ... t-keys.php

Kev I too have no idea what I did!

But whatever it was, it happened after I tried to change both the font and size of font while writing an email as they weren't what I usually use.

When I continued writing this email I found my usual typos but I encountered this problem trying to correct these typos. Usually I either back space to insert the vertical stroke and make the correction of the relevant letter or use the mouse to insert the vertical stroke but in this instance it didn't work. Instead no vertical stroke appeared but just a highlight in blue of the letter which when I deleted it to correct I got the word before and after the highlighted one running together with several letters (half the words too) being deleted and all running together.

As I said it affected only gmail and using that shortcut I brought things back to normal.

Whether it was overwrite or not I have no idea but it doesn't sound like it.

pambon wrote:Where can I find a site that give various short cuts for similar problems? Anyone know?

As I said above, the shortcut list in gmail pops up when you hit ? (question mark) in the main gmail screen - i.e. not when you are composing a message

e-richard wrote:

pambon wrote:Where can I find a site that give various short cuts for similar problems? Anyone know?

As I said above, the shortcut list in gmail pops up when you hit ? (question mark) in the main gmail screen - i.e. not when you are composing a message

Wow, indeed it does. I've never seen that before. Just have to make sure the cursor focus is not on the search bar.

Am away from my laptop until this evening hence my next query: when you say 'main Gmail screen ' what exactly is that? When I open my gmail it automatically opens with my Inbox.
Is that what you intend for 'main screen', e-Richard? If so presumably the cursor should be on a blank space.......

(Sorry I'm such an idiot)

Hard to describe this sort of thing without using nasty jargon.

Yes the main screen is your inbox.
Simplest way to talk about the cursor is to suggest you try ? first, then if it does not work, click on the "inbox" menu point on the left. [Really all we're trying to say, is make sure the cursor is not in any text input box]

Sorry to be so silly Richard. Will try it out this afternoon.....