tbkeys

tbkeys is an add-on for Thunderbird that uses Mousetrap to bind key sequences to custom commands.

Install

• Download the tbkeys.xpi file from one of the releases listed on the GitHub releases page.
• Open the Add-ons Manager in Thunderbird (Tools->Add-ons).
• Click on the gear icon in the upper right and choose "Install Add-on From File..." and then select the downloaded tbkeys.xpi file.
• The add-on will self-update from the GitHub releases page when future updates are released.

The tbkeys-lite version of the addon can also be installed from addons.thunderbird.net by searching for "tbkeys-lite" in the Thunderbird addons manager or by downloading the xpi file from this page and following the steps above.

Default key bindings

The default key bindings for the main window are modeled on GMail's key bindings.

Key	Function
c	Compose new message
r	Reply
a	Reply all
f	Forward
#	Delete
u	Refresh mail. If a message tab is open, close it.
j	Next message
k	Previous message
o	Open message
x	Archive message

Customizing key bindings

To customize key bindings, modify the "key bindings" entries in the add-on's preferences pane which can be accessed from the add-on's entry in the Add-ons Manager ("Add-ons" in the Thunderbird menu). Here are some things to consider when setting key bindings:

• The "key bindings" entry should be a JSON object mapping key bindings (with Mousetrap syntax as described here) to a valid command (see the Command syntax) section.
• There are separate fields in the preferences page for setting key bindings for the main Thunderbird window and the compose window. Key bindings do not fire in other windows.
• Key bindings do not fire in text input fields unless the first key combo includes a modifier other than shift.
• The preferences page will not allow invalid JSON to be submitted, but it does not sanity check the key bindings otherwise.
• This old wiki page about Keyconfig also has some commands that are still valid.
• The Developer Toolbox (Tools->Developer Tools->Developer Toolbox in the menu) can be useful for poking around at the UI to find the name of an element to call a function on.
• Defining a key sequence (meaning multiple keys in succession) where the first key combination in the sequence is the same as a built-in shortcut (like ctrl+j ctrl+k) is not supported. Single keys with modifiers may be mapped to override the built-in shortcuts but not sequences.

Command syntax

A few different styles of commands can be specified for key bindings. They are:

• Simple commands: These commands follow the format cmd:<command_name> where <command_name> is a command that Thunderbird can execute with goDoCommand(). Most command names can be found in the main command set file of the Thunderbird source code.
• Simple function calls: These commands follow the format func:<func_name> where <func_name> is a function defined on the Thunderbird window object. That function is called without any arguments.
• Custom function calls: These commands follow the format tbkeys:<func_name> where <func_name> is the name of a custom function written in tbkeys. Currently, the only available custom function is closeMessageAndRefresh which closes the open tab if it is not the first tab and then refreshes all accounts. This behavior mimics the behavior of the GMail keybinding u.
• Unset binding: These entries simply contain the text unset. When an unset keybinding is triggered, nothing happens. This can be useful unbinding built-in Thunderbird key bindings which you do not wish to trigger by accident.
• MailExtension messages: These commands follow the format memsg:<extensionID>:<message> where <extensionID> is the ID of the Thunderbird extension to which to send a message and <message> is a string message to send to the extension using the browser.runtime.sendMessage() MailExtension API. Currently, only string messages are supported because tbkeys stores its commands as strings, though that restriction could possibly be relaxed in the future.
• Eval commands: These entries may contain arbitrary javascript code on which tbkeys will call eval() when the key binding is triggered. Any entry not matching the prefixes of the other command types is treated as an eval command. NOTE: eval commands are not available in tbkeys-lite and will function the same as unset commands instead.

Common key bindings

Here are some examples of eval commands for commonly desired key bindings:

• Next tab: window.document.getElementById('tabmail-tabs').advanceSelectedTab(1, true)
• Previous tab: window.document.getElementById('tabmail-tabs').advanceSelectedTab(-1, true)
• Close tab: func:CloseTabOrWindow
• Scroll message list down: window.document.getElementById('threadTree').scrollByLines(1)
• Scroll message list up: window.document.getElementById('threadTree').scrollByLines(-1)
• Scroll message body down: window.document.getElementById('messagepane').contentDocument.documentElement.getElementsByTagName('body')[0].scrollBy(0, 100)
• Scroll message body up: window.document.getElementById('messagepane').contentDocument.documentElement.getElementsByTagName('body')[0].scrollBy(0, -100)
• Create new folder: window.goDoCommand('cmd_newFolder')
• Subscribe to feed: window.openSubscriptionsDialog(window.GetSelectedMsgFolders()[0])

Unsetting default key bindings

The "Unset singles" button in the preferences pane can be used to unset Thunderbird's default single key bindings in the main window. This function set all of Thunderbird's default single key shortcuts to unset unless they are currently set in tbkey's preferences (that is, it won't overwrite tbkeys' existing settings for single key shortcuts).

tbkeys and tbkeys-lite

tbkeys-lite is a version of tbkeys with the ability to execute arbitrary javascript removed.