Useful keyboard shortcuts for Twitter.com

When Twitter.com unveiled its recent overhaul at the end of 2010, one of the least-discussed features was the addition of some excellent keyboard shortcuts.

Some keyboard shortcuts only work from some pages, but we'll mark those where appropriate.

• n -- post a new status update (works from any page)
• r -- reply to your selected tweet
• t -- retweet (only works on Twitter profiles other than your own)
• m -- direct message (but it doesn't auto-fill the recipient)
• / -- move the cursor to the search box
• . -- move back to the top of the page, and check feed for updates
• g then h -- go to your home page (twitter.com)
• g then r -- see your @ mentions
• g then m -- see your direct messages
• g then p -- go to your profile page (twitter.com/username)
• g then u -- go to a specific user's profile page (it pops up a dialog box)

For a complete list of keyboard shortcuts, type ?.

Now, if you don't use Twitter.com (which is about 65% of Twitter's users), these keyboard shortcuts probably won't work. Every installed Twitter client has different keyboard shortcuts (and some don't have any at all). If you want to lessen your mouse hand dependency, your best bet is to simply head to Google and type the name of your client + "keyboard shortcuts".

For more tech tips, check our tips index.

Tags: hotkeys, keyboard, keyboard shortcuts, KeyboardShortcuts, social networking, social-networking, SocialNetworking, tips, twitter