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Shortcuts in the IM window

May 27, 2009 on 1:04 pm | In 9.0 version | 29 Comments

I’m pretty mouse dependent but there are a few keyboard shortcuts in Yahoo! Messenger 9.0 that I’ve added to my everyday computing life. When I’m in a conversation, these are a few of the ones I find especially time-saving:

F2 (timestamps): This will show or hide timestamps in your IM conversation. I find this helpful when I get back to my desk and a new message window is sitting there from a friend. I can’t always tell when they wrote me, so I just press F2 to see the timestamp on their message. Hit it again and the timestamps vanish.

F3 (recent messages): This is equivalent to clicking the “Recent messages” link in the IM window. It will expand to show the last conversation you had with that contact. I use this a lot to refer back to what we were discussing without having to go into my full archive (Contacts > Message Archive in the main Messenger window).

F7 (display images): Sometimes when I start an IM to a friend, our display images are missing. Rather than having to click the “Open/close display images” button in the IM window, I just hit F7 to bring them up. Hit it again to hide them.

Up/down arrows (prev/next message): This one I discovered completely by accident and you may have too. When you’re typing in the message box of an IM window, use the up arrow on your keyboard to move to the previous message you sent. Hit it repeatedly to keep working your way back through your messages; hit the down arrow to work back in the other direction.

To try it out, open an IM window, place your cursor in the message area, and hit the Up arrow on your keyboard. I use this one when I need to resend a message (usually because my friend was so busy responding to an earlier topic or just missed what I wrote). So once I arrow to the one I want, I just click Send (or Enter on my keyboard) to send it again.

What shortcuts or tricks do you use the most in Yahoo! Messenger?

Sarah Bacon
Product Manager

29 Comments »

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  1. when will you put back the typing sound option on yahoo messenger?

    Comment by yugi — May 27, 2009 #

  2. sounds when your typing that’s annoying y would anyone want that

    Comment by ____Wizard__ — May 27, 2009 #

  3. Escape So I don’t have to click the [X] button.

    Comment by MAD — May 27, 2009 #

  4. im not sure if this has anything to do with this but the blog awhile ago about the auto update that would appear down at the bottom of the screen when there was an update it doesnt seem to work for me im having to manually check it to update

    Comment by Angel — May 27, 2009 #

  5. Yup, an update window doesnt appear here either.

    Comment by sfgdfgdsg — May 27, 2009 #

  6. My fav feature is the one where you fire everyone on the staff for not making the mac version on par with the windows version.

    Really, its hurting the company

    Comment by bleh — May 28, 2009 #

  7. i see there is another update,it would be nice if you show what the updates are, you know a “change log”,, when ever firefox updates it post’s what those updates are . for those who dont get what i’m saying,,oh well.

    Comment by karen — May 28, 2009 #

  8. @Yahoo The Team you’s broke you cant Disable IMVironments anymore from Yahoo Messenger 9.0.0.2161 and Yahoo Messenger 9.0.0.2162 you’s need to re add that back and fix it a.s.p , as a lot of ppl don’t like getting IM’s with IMVironments.

    Comment by ytkpro_xmas — May 28, 2009 #

  9. I don’t have problems with disabling IMvironment here….

    Comment by asdfasdf — May 28, 2009 #

  10. well i down loaded the new mesanger yesterday and cant use the phone anymore so i got a number for 2$ and some change and called my wife to see if that would kick it into working and i can recieve calls but still cant make any

    Comment by mike — May 30, 2009 #

  11. I am wondering what happened to the emotions and greetings that was once on the top of the skin on my messenger window? How can I get it back?
    Thank you,
    boopers

    Comment by emotions on top of skins — June 1, 2009 #

  12. my imvironment will work on some contacts but not on others? Also the call function is not available on some as well?

    Comment by Gary — June 2, 2009 #

  13. I do not like the new version 9.0 could I go back to my original.

    Comment by Barbara Craven — June 3, 2009 #

  14. hey you guys i need help when i made my yahoo messenger account i check KEEP ME SIGNED ON, REMEMBER MY PASSWPRD ,REMEMBER MY EMAIL but now that i wanna log on with a different account it wont let me sign on with a dif one ….. do you guys get it well im confused and need help

    Comment by mikella — June 6, 2009 #

  15. my question is when will websites like this Yahoo scaner will not be able to see if i am in invisible mod because right now i cant hide from this kind of wensites and everybody can scan my id and see if i am hidinh on invisible mod

    Comment by elmo — June 9, 2009 #

  16. Sarah,

    I find the up/ down arrow function to scroll through previous messages a total waste of my time – when you accidentally hit UP instead of shift (laptop user) you lose the message you were just typing – no way to get it back. There’s also no way to disable this feature.

    If this was a command window where I was repeating instructions or something it might be useful, but when you are carrying on a conversation seriously – how often do you repeat yourself – except for the common LOL, YT?, and other chat-tastic short’n’sweet messages.

    Interesting thought – not sure how useful, but is definately the worst “feature” I’ve come across in 10+ years of messenger use.

    Comment by Roger — July 6, 2009 #

  17. I find that I can’t use the up arrow at ALL any more. It just simply does nothing. I am using 9.0.0.2162 and I would love it back!

    Comment by ArrowMissing — July 22, 2009 #

  18. @ArrowMissing – What are you trying to do with the up arrow? If you can give me more detail I can see if we find the same issue on our end.

    Sarah Bacon

    Comment by Administrator — July 22, 2009 #

  19. Join a chat room, type a line, and then up-arrow in the message section to go back through. It used to work and would reveal past messages. Now, nothing.

    Comment by ArrowMissing — July 22, 2009 #

  20. Tab and Shift-Tab no longer work within an IM window as well. They used to have a proper windows behavior of moving you between the fields of typing area and the “Send As” field when starting a new conversation.

    Comment by ArrowMissing — July 25, 2009 #

  21. Cool shortcuts, very useful. Thanks a bunch!!! I found a few move shortcuts here: http://www.usingcomputers.co.uk/tutorials/useful-windows-shortcuts.php its worth taking a look at combined with this article. Thanks, keep up the good posts!

    Patrick

    Comment by Patrick — January 26, 2011 #

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