Message List Page Down in Mavericks Apple Mail
Last week I complained that in Mavericks you can no longer Page Up or Page Down through Apple Mail’s message list via the keyboard. The Page Down key used to always apply to the message content pane, even if the message list had focus. However, you used to be able to type Control–Page Down to make it apply to the message list. This no longer works in OS X 10.9.
However, I was able to write a pair AppleScripts that use the accessibility controls to page through the message list. You can use a utility such as FastScripts to assign them keyboard shortcuts.
To page down:
tell application "System Events"
tell process "Mail"
set _messageList to scroll area 1 of splitter group 1 of splitter group 1 of window 1
click button 3 of scroll bar 1 of _messageList -- increment page
end tell
end tell
To page up:
tell application "System Events"
tell process "Mail"
set _messageList to scroll area 1 of splitter group 1 of splitter group 1 of window 1
click button 4 of scroll bar 1 of _messageList -- decrement page
end tell
end tell
9 Comments RSS · Twitter
I thought I read somewhere that opt+page down is the new keyboard shortcut for this. (Or maybe cmd+opt page down?) I'm waiting on Mavericks until Mail.app gets its act together so I don't know if this works or not, but worth trying.
@Nigel Option–Page Down and Command-Option–Page Down don’t do anything. Command-Option–Down Arrow is the old (and still current) command for moving the selection to the bottom message that’s currently scrolled into view.
You might have already figured this out @Michael ...
- on my MacBook Pro (circa 2008) "Fn-Pg Dn" achieves what might be your desired effect
- "Opt-Pg Dn" = move to next msg in content pane (or bottom of current if not a msg thread)
- "Fn-Pg Dn" = move down 1 screen length in msg content pane
@Phil I’m talking about scrolling the list of messages (the top right pane in the classic layout), not the message content.
If you Command-click to deselect the message you're viewing, Page Up / Page Down / Home / End all apply to the messages list instead of the message content pane.
Combine that with my new favorite keyboard shortcut - typing Option-Delete to delete the current email without selecting the next email in the list - and I can triage email much more quickly.
[…] Page Up and Page Down keys now work in the message list, fixing the odd behavior introduced in […]
[…] wrote some AppleScripts that can Page Up/Down in Mail’s message list, and the scripts can be assigned Control–Page […]
