I’m currently trialling eM Client as a possible replacement for Outlook 2016 and I’ve noticed what seems to be a conflict between two existing features in Contacts.
When the Contacts list has focus, eM Client supports type-to-select: you can start typing a contact’s last name and it jumps to the corresponding contact. This seems to be intended, as someone mentioned it way back in 2014.
However, single-key shortcuts such as G (quick switch) and M (quick move) remain active in Contacts, which interfere with the ability to quickly search someone by name just by typing. As a result, if I try to type a name containing one of those letters, the shortcut is triggered instead.
Disabling these shortcuts globally is not really a solution, since they are extremely useful when working with email. Moreover, I find type-to-select more convenient than the search bar since I’m able to search for someone by name without touching my mouse without getting results that contain those words in any contact field.
It seems to me that single-key shortcuts should either have the possibility to be disabled when the Contacts list has focus, or be configurable separately for Mail, Contacts and Calendar.
Has anyone else noticed this behavior?
For me this is unfortunately quite an importante issue, as I use both type-to-select in Contacts and the M/G shortcuts in Mail frequently.
Hello, we are aware of the conflict between these 2 features, and our team is trying to figure out a convenient way forward for those who would like to use both, but unfortunately, it’s not trivial.
A workaround at this time - if you need the contact lookup often and standard search is not something you’d prefer - is to set the quick move/go shortcuts to something else.
You don’t need to turn off these shortcuts, you can instead just customize them to something else, a 2-combination shortcut instead of single-key, so that you can always use the letters for contact lookup.
You can customize shortcuts in Settings>General>Shortcuts. Select the shortcut from the list, press the new shortcut you’d like to assign, and then save your changes.
When the Contacts list has focus, eM Client supports type-to-select: you can start typing a contact’s last name and it jumps to the corresponding contact. This seems to be intended, as someone mentioned it way back in 2014.
However, single-key shortcuts such as G (quick switch) and M (quick move) remain active in Contacts, which interfere with the ability to quickly search someone by name just by typing. As a result, if I try to type a name containing one of those letters, the shortcut is triggered instead.
Ive personally always just “clicked in the search field at the top” of Contacts and typed a few letters of the contact name you want including names with G and M in them, and they all appear ok underneath. The G and M don’t interfere at all.
Of course. And I can get to the search bar without touching my mouse by pressing Ctrl + E.
But the search bar doesn’t search by name. It searches keywords in any field. This is not very useful if, like me, you have +4000 contacts and you use the “notes” field in them.
Try searching for a contact (that doesn’t have a G and M in its name) by name, just by typing while having your contacts list focused. Type-to-select + arrow keys have been part of my workflow in Outlook for years, it’s just way easier imo.
My current workaround is using an AutoHotKey script ChatGPT made for me that calls the Quick Switch and Quick Move actions (previously set to another keyboard shortcut combo) only when it detects I press G and M when I’m not in Calendar or Contacts via the window title, or a search bar.
Nevertheless, I don’t believe two features clashing by default is a good look. I strongly suggest the team prioritize some sort of resolution for this rather than making users rely on manual workarounds or asking users to abandon convenient default shortcuts.
