Keyboard shortcuts help you save time by allowing you to never take your hands off the keyboard to use the mouse. You'll need a Standard 101/102-Key or Natural PS/2 Keyboard to use the shortcuts.
Navigation
Up/Down Arrows
Arrow keys allow you to navigate through messages in your account.
Home
Takes you to the first message in a wave.
End
Takes you to the last message in a wave.
Space
Takes you to the next unread message in a wave.
Left and Right Arrows
Switches focus between the compose window and the inbox.
Page Up/Down
Takes you to the next page within a panel.
Control+Space
Marks all messages "read" when focus is on the Wave panel.
Messages
Enter
Reply to a message at the same level of indentation.
Shift then Enter
Reply to a message at the end of a wave. The new message will appear at the same indentation level, at the very end of the wave.
Ctrl then E
Edit message.
Text editing and formatting
Shift then Enter
Same function as 'Done' button -- signifies you are finished editing your addition to a wave.
Ctrl then B
Bolds/unbolds selected text.
Ctrl then I
Italicizes/unitalicizes selected text.
Ctrl then K
Adds a link.
Ctrl then [n]
Makes the current line a heading, where [n] = 1 through 4 for different sized headings.
This is Basic WAVE FAQ based on public wave on Wave FAQ. If you have any more FAQ or want to update any answers then please post comments to this article
1. What is Google Wave? It might be helpful to consider it as a productivity toolrather than a social network killer or instant messaging replacement. This video provides another aspect of how to use Wave [NSFW: AL].
2. Can I have more than one Wave open at a time? Yes. [CNTRL + CLICK] or [CMND + CLICK] on a wave to have it open in a 'separate' window.
3. How do I search within a Wave? For now, use your browser's search function [CTRL + F] or [CMND + F].
4. How do I enable notifications? You can try using the Google Wave Add-on for Firefox.
5. Can the interval of Wave syncing be changed? No, not as of yet.
6. Is there a shortcut for entering "done" in a blip? Yes. [SHIFT + ENTER] = Done.
7. Is there a list of keyboard shortcuts available? Shortcuts are available at Google Wave Help. 8. How do you link to a wave? Place your cursor where you want to go, then drag and drop from the list of waves. You can also use the WaveID, here's a tutorial! 9. What are some search operators? Plenty can be found here. 10. How do I submit a Wave to Reddit? Submitting the link in your address bar should direct to the Wave. 11. How do I use the text formatting features? A row of text editing buttons will appear at the top of the Wave (in place of the row of "Reply", etc. buttons) when you are typing/editing within a blip. These buttons will not be visible if you are only reading. 12. How do I start a private conversation within a public wave? Click on the arrow to the right of the date within a blip and select "Private Reply" from the drop-down menu. 13. How do I delete private replies when they have no content? This is a bug that has been brought to Google's attention. 14. What is an extension? An extension is something that can be added onto a wave. There are two kinds: bots and gadgets. 15. How do I add a bot? Bots are added in the form of contacts. Each bot has an email address that you use to add it to your contact list. To allow a bot to interact with a specific Wave, add the bot to the Wave like you would any other contact. 16. How do I add a gadget? Gadgets are found in the form of files. To add a gadget to a blip, click on the green puzzle piece button and enter the gadget URL. 17. Where can I find these extensions? Try the Google Wave Extensions List or the Comprehensive Google Wave Extensions List. You can also follow @GWaveExtensions on Twitter. 18. How do I make a public wave? In the Contacts window click the [+] at the bottom, enter the address public@a.gwave.com and press enter and add to your wave. For more information, see How to Build a Public Wave. 19. Why can some people see my avatar and others can't? Make sure that your Google Account profile settings are correct. Go to your Google Account Settings and make sure your picture is set to "Visible to everyone." 20. What is an inline reply and how do I make one? An inline reply is a collapsable reply that is made inside the text of someone else's blip. To make an inline reply, edit the message you want to make the reply to, put the cursor where you want to insert the reply and press [CTRL + ENTER]. See also the first thread of the c for more about this.
21. What does Mute do? Muting a Wave will move the Wave out of the Inbox and into the "All" section. Muted waves will not appear in your Inbox anymore. 22. What is the difference between "Mute" and "Archive"? The Mute button will move a Wave from Inbox to All, terminate its update notifications and keep it from reappearing in your Inbox. The Archive button will move a Wave from Inbox to All, maintain its update notifications and place it back in your Inbox when the Wave is updated. 23. How do you remove "Mute" from a wave? Move it back into the Inbox with "Inbox" button. To unmute it and remove from your inbox, use the "Archive" button. 24. How can I tell if a contact is currently online or not? There is a feature that puts a green dot on the avatar for contacts that are online. This is referred to as "presence". 25. What is 'ping'? To start a new Wave with one of your contacts, click on their avatar in your contact list and selectPing.When someone pings you, an icon will appear at the top of your screen next to the Google Wave Preview icon, in addition to your main list of waves. 26. How do I embed a link on my website for visitors to start a new wave with me? There has been some discussion on this in the help section. (Needs to be answered) 27. Is there a way to "lock" a blip? There is a bot that will do this. readonliebot@appspot.com (see number 15 on how to add a bot.) WARNING: USE CAUTION doing this. The readonliebot@appspot.com is currently wreaking havoc on the previous version of this FAQ. It is supposed to archive it and delete any changes. Instead, it is deleting changes made before it was added and deleting the forwarding links as well as screwing up the formatting we spent soooo much time working on. 28. How do I start a new wave with a specified user? Click on the contact you want to start a new Wave with and an option to start a new Wave will be available to you. 29. How do I empty the Trash? This functionality is not a part of Wave yet (as of 10/15). Stay tuned. 30. What is the "Requests" link for in the Navigation pane? The Requests link is for wave users outside of Google Wave who want to add you as a friend or send a message, but is not used right now since nobody else has a Wave server. (Need a reference) 31. Is there a fast way to click into a blip to start editing? Just click on the blip and use the shortcut [CTRL + E]. 32. How do I get to the end of a Wave on my MacBook (without dragging the navigation arrow)? Use [FN + RIGHT ARROW] on a Mac to move to the last blip in a wave. 33. Can I start wave with the contacts and navigation pane minimized? Yes. Make a bookmark to the address https://wave.google.com/wave/#minimized:nav,minimized:contact,minimized:search Change "minimized:" to "restored:" if you don't want that panel minimized. 34. Can I search all English speaking public waves? Yes. Search for "with:public lang:en". Other languages are supported too. 35. How do you stop others seeing what you type as you type it? It isn't currently possible to disable live typing. There are rumors that this will be a possible in the future. See Google Helpfor more. 36. Is it possible to link within a blip for jump navigation such as one would use in a true Wiki page Table of Contents? It would appear that the Table of Contents generating bot is not working correctly. In the case of this FAQ, we are using headings/titles in hopes of later TOC integration and moving some content to separate linked Waves. 37. How do we start an updated version of this Wave without losing all the participants, content, etc.? Make this thread reply-moderated and move the commenting to another Wave. This appears to be the best practice for informational waves like this. (We very shortly will need to clean this up and delete comments, etc. We only want to continue to maintain legible and relevant information within this blip without losing the following/momentum we have built up.) 38. Is there a way to 'roll up' or collapse blips to organise Waves more effectively? Only if you use inline replies (#20). 38b. Is there a way to automatically collapse all (read) inline blips? 39. Can a Wave be plugged into Google Analytics? (We are curious as to how people are finding this Wave, for starters.) 40. Is there a secret shortcut for deleting blips? (This would have been helpful while deleting my outdated comments here just now) 41. How do I create a "reply-moderated" Wave? This is only a social convention atm, so you just write that it is reply-moderated. Robots may be able to enforce this. 42. Where can I learn or read more about Google Wave? Try going to the Google Wave Help Forum, Lifehacker or Reddit. See also Other Useful Resources below. 43. How do you add friends to your Wave Contacts list? If you know their gmail address, try the same username but @googlewave.com instead of @gmail.com. Searching by first name or last name does not seem to work. 44. How do we remove bots? In the list of users find the bot, click on their name and then you can click on the Remove button. This currently only works on bots. 45. Can I select multiple Waves so I can archive/mute/spam/move them to a folder at once? Yes, but only if they are adjacent at the moment. Shift clicking does this. 46. How do I make the last blip an indented reply? Currently, the best method to achieve this is to use inline replies (#20). See also the first thread of the FAQ Discussion Board for more about this. 47. Where do I report bugs/make feature requests? There are official places for product ideas and bug reports, but there are also unofficial places. 48. Is it possible to re-order waves in the inbox (i.e dragging Waves you are most interested to the top)? Not right now. These are in order of latest updated. To get around this, you can edit your most interesting wave and then undo your edits. 49. How can you determine which gadgets or bots are attached to a wave? It seems that the Link Easy bot (link-easy@appspot.com) can print a list of bots in a wave, but not gadgets. It has many options among which the option to list all robots in a wave. For more, refer to Easy code reference. 50. How do I remove a contact from my Wave contacts list? (Weirdly, some do not appear in my regular Gmail contacts list) Clicking on "Manage contacts" in the "Contacts" menu. A list of contacts will load. Try deleting a contact from there. 50. What are the limits of Google Wave Preview that end-users should know? Actually, the end-users should know that the limits are not set yet. It's a matter of capacity of the interconnect equipments rather than triggers. See an participate in a discussion about this in What are the limits of Google Wave Preview that end-users should know? 51. How can I keep my Inbox clean? Create folders to put messages in, then use the "Move To" button to add a message to the folder. Mute the wave which removes it from your Inbox, and then create a search to show you new messages like this: is:unread past:7days. That's it, your Inbox is clean! 52. Are some Internet Browsers running Wave more smoothly than others? Yes. Word has it that Safari and Google Chrome seem to be running Wave fairly well. Firefox seems a bit buggy. Internet Explorer is workable, but you have to install Google Chrome Frame (which essentially makes it render JavaScript in the Crhome/Safari way). Internet Explorer (without gFrame) and Opera are not compatible with Google Wave, yet. (If anyone knows better, please feel free to edit this answer. Thanks.) 53. Is there a translation bot available? Yes. Aunt Rosie (aunt-rosie@appspot.com) translates blips to several languages. However, make sure you ask before adding it to public waves, as bots like this one, emoticony, and similar tend to be annoying to most users. 54. Is there a way to print waves? Or a way to print individual blips within waves? Right now Google Wave does not support Print particular wave or blips but if you are using Firefox you can print the wave using browser's print option. Maximize the wave and use print option of browser.
