OS X Keyboard Shortcut to Add Link to Email

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Having conquered the issue of printing to PDF with a keyboard shortcut, I decided to take on another little thing that frustrates me constantly. I often send links to friends and readers. In Mail.App, in order to get the “insert link” box you have to click the mouse three times.

Add Link.png

Edit –> Link –> Add.

When you are in the middle of typing an email, this is a pain.

Once again, the Keyboard system preference pane to the rescue. Here are the steps…

1. Add a Keyboard Shortcut for Mail

Mail Shortcut 1.png

2. Insert the Menu Title “Add…” Once again, for the ellipsis, make sure to use the key combination “option” + semicolon (;). I have no idea why this is so but don’t argue with results.

Mail Shortcut 2.png

3. Type in your keyboard shortcut. I’m using shift + control + L

Mail Shorcut 3.jpg

That is it. Next time you find yourself writing an email and want to add a link just type in your shortcut and forget about the mouse. Up pops the link window.

Mail Shortcut 4.jpg

67 Comments OS X Keyboard Shortcut to Add Link to Email

  1. ian@mayman.co.uk

    David, you said you use Apple Mail but I’ve never before seen those Mail Tags and was wondering how you get them to show up? I’ve looked through the settings, found the photo browser and the “show stationery” link but no Mail Tags.

    Thanks for your help.

    Ian

    Reply
  2. ian@mayman.co.uk

    David, you said you use Apple Mail but I’ve never before seen those Mail Tags and was wondering how you get them to show up? I’ve looked through the settings, found the photo browser and the “show stationery” link but no Mail Tags.

    Thanks for your help.

    Ian

    Reply
  3. ian@mayman.co.uk

    David, you said you use Apple Mail but I’ve never before seen those Mail Tags and was wondering how you get them to show up? I’ve looked through the settings, found the photo browser and the “show stationery” link but no Mail Tags.

    Thanks for your help.

    Ian

    Reply
  4. ian@mayman.co.uk

    David, you said you use Apple Mail but I’ve never before seen those Mail Tags and was wondering how you get them to show up? I’ve looked through the settings, found the photo browser and the “show stationery” link but no Mail Tags.

    Thanks for your help.

    Ian

    Reply
  5. ian@mayman.co.uk

    David, you said you use Apple Mail but I’ve never before seen those Mail Tags and was wondering how you get them to show up? I’ve looked through the settings, found the photo browser and the “show stationery” link but no Mail Tags.

    Thanks for your help.

    Ian

    Reply
  6. appleshortcuts@papabear.biz

    Thank you for showing me this. I’m a long time PC user who just returned to the world of Macintosh. I’d forgotten how much I love the Mac OS and its nice to be home again… but there are things I’ve learned to do in Windows that I’m surprised has no equivalent in the Mac. I always chided PC people about there not being a shortcut to create a new folder in windows, or to simply close a window “ctrl-w” instead of “alt-f4”. what a pain in the butt that f4 key is. But there are things in the mac that I miss.
    Show desktop “windows-d” is one I miss horribly and adding a url link is an oversight I’m a bit surprised by in the mac.
    Thanks for this wonderful Tip!

    Reply
  7. appleshortcuts@papabear.biz

    Thank you for showing me this. I’m a long time PC user who just returned to the world of Macintosh. I’d forgotten how much I love the Mac OS and its nice to be home again… but there are things I’ve learned to do in Windows that I’m surprised has no equivalent in the Mac. I always chided PC people about there not being a shortcut to create a new folder in windows, or to simply close a window “ctrl-w” instead of “alt-f4”. what a pain in the butt that f4 key is. But there are things in the mac that I miss.
    Show desktop “windows-d” is one I miss horribly and adding a url link is an oversight I’m a bit surprised by in the mac.
    Thanks for this wonderful Tip!

    Reply
  8. appleshortcuts@papabear.biz

    Thank you for showing me this. I’m a long time PC user who just returned to the world of Macintosh. I’d forgotten how much I love the Mac OS and its nice to be home again… but there are things I’ve learned to do in Windows that I’m surprised has no equivalent in the Mac. I always chided PC people about there not being a shortcut to create a new folder in windows, or to simply close a window “ctrl-w” instead of “alt-f4”. what a pain in the butt that f4 key is. But there are things in the mac that I miss.
    Show desktop “windows-d” is one I miss horribly and adding a url link is an oversight I’m a bit surprised by in the mac.
    Thanks for this wonderful Tip!

    Reply
  9. appleshortcuts@papabear.biz

    Thank you for showing me this. I’m a long time PC user who just returned to the world of Macintosh. I’d forgotten how much I love the Mac OS and its nice to be home again… but there are things I’ve learned to do in Windows that I’m surprised has no equivalent in the Mac. I always chided PC people about there not being a shortcut to create a new folder in windows, or to simply close a window “ctrl-w” instead of “alt-f4”. what a pain in the butt that f4 key is. But there are things in the mac that I miss.
    Show desktop “windows-d” is one I miss horribly and adding a url link is an oversight I’m a bit surprised by in the mac.
    Thanks for this wonderful Tip!

    Reply
  10. appleshortcuts@papabear.biz

    Thank you for showing me this. I’m a long time PC user who just returned to the world of Macintosh. I’d forgotten how much I love the Mac OS and its nice to be home again… but there are things I’ve learned to do in Windows that I’m surprised has no equivalent in the Mac. I always chided PC people about there not being a shortcut to create a new folder in windows, or to simply close a window “ctrl-w” instead of “alt-f4”. what a pain in the butt that f4 key is. But there are things in the mac that I miss.
    Show desktop “windows-d” is one I miss horribly and adding a url link is an oversight I’m a bit surprised by in the mac.
    Thanks for this wonderful Tip!

    Reply
  11. iconaholic@gmail.com

    For Show Desktop you’d use ExposĆ© šŸ™‚
    (Usually F11 or F3 depending on which keyboard you have).

    Reply
  12. iconaholic@gmail.com

    For Show Desktop you’d use ExposĆ© šŸ™‚
    (Usually F11 or F3 depending on which keyboard you have).

    Reply
  13. iconaholic@gmail.com

    For Show Desktop you’d use ExposĆ© šŸ™‚
    (Usually F11 or F3 depending on which keyboard you have).

    Reply
  14. iconaholic@gmail.com

    For Show Desktop you’d use ExposĆ© šŸ™‚
    (Usually F11 or F3 depending on which keyboard you have).

    Reply
  15. iconaholic@gmail.com

    For Show Desktop you’d use ExposĆ© šŸ™‚
    (Usually F11 or F3 depending on which keyboard you have).

    Reply
  16. tomaszstasiuk@gmail.com

    You can also set this up with QuickSilver. I have [command-esc] set as a trigger to open QS with the whatever I have selected.

    So if I am reading something I think my wife would like to read. I click the url bar (to select the url), click command-esc which opens QS with the url already plugged in. I tab to get to the next box in QS, type “e” which brings up “compose email to”, I hit tab again to get to the third box and start typing the persons name. when it comes up, I hit enter and I get an email with the recipient and url already entered.

    This is just a nice way to quickly send someone a link; and it is darned fast too.

    Reply
  17. tomaszstasiuk@gmail.com

    You can also set this up with QuickSilver. I have [command-esc] set as a trigger to open QS with the whatever I have selected.

    So if I am reading something I think my wife would like to read. I click the url bar (to select the url), click command-esc which opens QS with the url already plugged in. I tab to get to the next box in QS, type “e” which brings up “compose email to”, I hit tab again to get to the third box and start typing the persons name. when it comes up, I hit enter and I get an email with the recipient and url already entered.

    This is just a nice way to quickly send someone a link; and it is darned fast too.

    Reply
  18. tomaszstasiuk@gmail.com

    You can also set this up with QuickSilver. I have [command-esc] set as a trigger to open QS with the whatever I have selected.

    So if I am reading something I think my wife would like to read. I click the url bar (to select the url), click command-esc which opens QS with the url already plugged in. I tab to get to the next box in QS, type “e” which brings up “compose email to”, I hit tab again to get to the third box and start typing the persons name. when it comes up, I hit enter and I get an email with the recipient and url already entered.

    This is just a nice way to quickly send someone a link; and it is darned fast too.

    Reply
  19. tomaszstasiuk@gmail.com

    You can also set this up with QuickSilver. I have [command-esc] set as a trigger to open QS with the whatever I have selected.

    So if I am reading something I think my wife would like to read. I click the url bar (to select the url), click command-esc which opens QS with the url already plugged in. I tab to get to the next box in QS, type “e” which brings up “compose email to”, I hit tab again to get to the third box and start typing the persons name. when it comes up, I hit enter and I get an email with the recipient and url already entered.

    This is just a nice way to quickly send someone a link; and it is darned fast too.

    Reply
  20. tomaszstasiuk@gmail.com

    You can also set this up with QuickSilver. I have [command-esc] set as a trigger to open QS with the whatever I have selected.

    So if I am reading something I think my wife would like to read. I click the url bar (to select the url), click command-esc which opens QS with the url already plugged in. I tab to get to the next box in QS, type “e” which brings up “compose email to”, I hit tab again to get to the third box and start typing the persons name. when it comes up, I hit enter and I get an email with the recipient and url already entered.

    This is just a nice way to quickly send someone a link; and it is darned fast too.

    Reply
  21. mail@papabear.biz

    I’ve since discovered Expose and have the show desktop feature mapped to one of my extra buttons on my mouse. one shows desktop, the other shows open windows for the current app. There is a bug though where running world of warcraft will unselect your keyboard and mouse shortcuts for expose, requiring you to turn them back on via the system preferences

    I’m still trying to get used to Quicksilver and what it is capable of. thanks for the tip on sending a url. I like that.

    I moved to Entourage from Mail. The only thing I really miss is how well Mail handled dates in an email. “next Thursday” would have a clickable arrow next to it to add the date to the calendar. how nice. Entourage falls into that MS trap of thinking like a developer but it has some really good features.

    If you have any other QS tips Tomasz, send them to me!

    Reply
  22. mail@papabear.biz

    I’ve since discovered Expose and have the show desktop feature mapped to one of my extra buttons on my mouse. one shows desktop, the other shows open windows for the current app. There is a bug though where running world of warcraft will unselect your keyboard and mouse shortcuts for expose, requiring you to turn them back on via the system preferences

    I’m still trying to get used to Quicksilver and what it is capable of. thanks for the tip on sending a url. I like that.

    I moved to Entourage from Mail. The only thing I really miss is how well Mail handled dates in an email. “next Thursday” would have a clickable arrow next to it to add the date to the calendar. how nice. Entourage falls into that MS trap of thinking like a developer but it has some really good features.

    If you have any other QS tips Tomasz, send them to me!

    Reply
  23. mail@papabear.biz

    I’ve since discovered Expose and have the show desktop feature mapped to one of my extra buttons on my mouse. one shows desktop, the other shows open windows for the current app. There is a bug though where running world of warcraft will unselect your keyboard and mouse shortcuts for expose, requiring you to turn them back on via the system preferences

    I’m still trying to get used to Quicksilver and what it is capable of. thanks for the tip on sending a url. I like that.

    I moved to Entourage from Mail. The only thing I really miss is how well Mail handled dates in an email. “next Thursday” would have a clickable arrow next to it to add the date to the calendar. how nice. Entourage falls into that MS trap of thinking like a developer but it has some really good features.

    If you have any other QS tips Tomasz, send them to me!

    Reply
  24. mail@papabear.biz

    I’ve since discovered Expose and have the show desktop feature mapped to one of my extra buttons on my mouse. one shows desktop, the other shows open windows for the current app. There is a bug though where running world of warcraft will unselect your keyboard and mouse shortcuts for expose, requiring you to turn them back on via the system preferences

    I’m still trying to get used to Quicksilver and what it is capable of. thanks for the tip on sending a url. I like that.

    I moved to Entourage from Mail. The only thing I really miss is how well Mail handled dates in an email. “next Thursday” would have a clickable arrow next to it to add the date to the calendar. how nice. Entourage falls into that MS trap of thinking like a developer but it has some really good features.

    If you have any other QS tips Tomasz, send them to me!

    Reply
  25. mail@papabear.biz

    I’ve since discovered Expose and have the show desktop feature mapped to one of my extra buttons on my mouse. one shows desktop, the other shows open windows for the current app. There is a bug though where running world of warcraft will unselect your keyboard and mouse shortcuts for expose, requiring you to turn them back on via the system preferences

    I’m still trying to get used to Quicksilver and what it is capable of. thanks for the tip on sending a url. I like that.

    I moved to Entourage from Mail. The only thing I really miss is how well Mail handled dates in an email. “next Thursday” would have a clickable arrow next to it to add the date to the calendar. how nice. Entourage falls into that MS trap of thinking like a developer but it has some really good features.

    If you have any other QS tips Tomasz, send them to me!

    Reply
  26. bkozlow111@comcast.net

    This is fantastic, thanks. Now if you could solve the “right click menu through keyboard shortcuts” problem, that would really floor me. There are some things, like choosing a spelling option for red-underlined word, that just can’t be done without a mouse.

    Reply
  27. bkozlow111@comcast.net

    This is fantastic, thanks. Now if you could solve the “right click menu through keyboard shortcuts” problem, that would really floor me. There are some things, like choosing a spelling option for red-underlined word, that just can’t be done without a mouse.

    Reply
  28. bkozlow111@comcast.net

    This is fantastic, thanks. Now if you could solve the “right click menu through keyboard shortcuts” problem, that would really floor me. There are some things, like choosing a spelling option for red-underlined word, that just can’t be done without a mouse.

    Reply
  29. bkozlow111@comcast.net

    This is fantastic, thanks. Now if you could solve the “right click menu through keyboard shortcuts” problem, that would really floor me. There are some things, like choosing a spelling option for red-underlined word, that just can’t be done without a mouse.

    Reply
  30. bkozlow111@comcast.net

    This is fantastic, thanks. Now if you could solve the “right click menu through keyboard shortcuts” problem, that would really floor me. There are some things, like choosing a spelling option for red-underlined word, that just can’t be done without a mouse.

    Reply
  31. Kevin B

    Thanks! You just made me $29 (the amount I would have spent on Snow Leopard only to have this shortcut).

    Gracias!

    Reply

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