Use Google Keep with a screen reader

Introduction

You can use Google Keep to create, edit, share, and organize notes and checklists.

Topics

Quick start

To create a new note:

  1. On your computer, open Google Keep.
    • The "Notes" tab automatically opens.
  2. In the "Take a note" combo box, type your note.
  3. Once you’re done, press Ctrl + Enter (Command + Enter on Mac) to save or Escape to cancel.

Tips:

  • To toggle a note with paragraphs to a checklist, press Ctrl + Shift + 8 (Command + Shift + 8 on Mac).
  • To navigate between notes, use Keep as a web application. When the focus isn’t in edit field:
    • To move focus to the next note, press keyboard shortcut j.
    • To move focus to the previous note, press keyboard shortcut k.
  • To display the keyboard shortcuts, press Ctrl + Slash (Command + Slash on Mac).

Getting started

Recommended browser & screen readers

To access Google Keep with a screen reader, it’s recommended to use Chrome and:

  • NVDA or JAWS on Windows
  • ChromeVox on ChromeOS
  • VoiceOver on MacOS

Use Keep as a web application

To use Keep as a web application:

  • Turn off the screen reader web browsing shortcuts. For details, go to Set up your screen reader.
  • To navigate and read, use the tab navigation and some Keep keyboard shortcuts instead of your screen reader’s commands. For details, go to Use keyboard shortcuts.

Tip: Occasionally, you'll need to use Keep as a web page and employ screen reader browser commands. We'll indicate these instances as they occur.

Set up your screen reader

To use Keep as a web application, turn off [toggle name].

  • JAWS:
    1. Turn off the Virtual cursor.
    2. Press JAWS + z until you hear "Off."
  • NVDA:
    1. Turn off Browse mode.
    2. Press NVDA + Spacebar until you hear a click sound like typing on a keyboard.
  • ChromeVox:
    1. Turn off Sticky mode.
    2. Press Search twice until you hear "Sticky mode disabled."
  • VoiceOver:
    1. Turn off Quick nav.
    2. Press Left + Right arrow until you hear "Quicknav off."

About the UI

There are no groups of UI exposed to the screen reader and keyboard user, but there are 3 displayed groups that are focused as you press "Tab" from the start of the page:

  • A top banner landmark that includes:
    • Main menu button
      • This expands or collapses visibility of Tab labels.
    • A Keep same page link to the initial focus, equivalent to a "Jump to main content" link
    • A Search landmark editable combo box
    • A Search button
      • This puts focus on the combo box.
    • Refresh button
    • Grid or list view button
      • This changes the visual layout of notes.
    • Settings button
    • Google apps button
    • Google Account button
  • A sidebar with these tabs:
    • Notes
    • Reminders
    • Labels you create
    • Edit labels
    • Archive
    • Trash
  • The main content area that includes:
    • The "Take a note" editable combo box inside the "Take a note" section that receives initial focus
    • New list button
    • New note with drawing button
    • New note with image button
    • Pinned notes if any
    • Other notes if any
  • Each note has:
    • The container with all of the controls and content in the note
    • Select note button
    • Pin or unpin note button
    • Each checkbox in a list, but not the text of the checkbox
    • If present:
      • The URLs in the content
      • The reminder and the Remove reminder buttons
      • The labels and their Remove label buttons
      • The names of note collaborators
    • Six buttons to organize the note

Take a note

To create a new note, you can:

  • Type at the initial focus or press Tab and select:
    • New list
    • New note with drawing
    • New note with image
  • If the focus is outside an edit field:
    • To create a new note, press keyboard shortcut c.
    • To add a checklist, press keyboard shortcut I.
  • To create a title for your note, press Shift + Tab from the start of your note to the "Title" edit field.
  • To save the note:
    • Press the Tab key until focus is on the "Close" button.
    • Press Enter.

Navigate the UI

Use keyboard shortcuts

To navigate your notes in the current tab, use the keyboard shortcuts.

  • To navigate to the next note, press keyboard shortcut j.
  • To navigate to the previous note, press keyboard shortcut k.

Tips:

  • When the focus isn’t on another note: To quickly jump to the start of the notes in the current tab, press keyboard shortcut j.
  • When focus isn’t in the edit field: To move focus to the search editable combo box, press Slash.
    • Since this is in the banner, at the top of the page, it’s also a convenient way to quickly move keyboard focus to controls near the top.

Show keyboard shortcuts

Important: To display keyboard shortcuts, press Ctrl + Slash (Command + Slash on Mac).

To read the keyboard shortcuts dialog:

  1. In your screen reader, turn on Virtual cursor or Browse mode.
    • The table with the list of keyboard shortcuts shows.
  2. Use your screen reader’s table reading commands to:
    • Navigate to the table.
    • Read the command name in the first column.
    • Read the shortcut in the second column.
  3. Once done, turn off Virtual cursor or Browse mode.
  4. To close the dialog, press Escape.

Tip: To review shortcuts in a browser tab, go to Keyboard shortcuts for Google Keep.

Read lists

Lists are unique in Keep. They are presented as check boxes followed by the name. You should use your screen reader "next item" command to read the checked state, then perform "next item" again to read the name.

Open label tabs

You can navigate to label tabs by keyboard, screen reader navigation, or the browser address bar.

Keyboard shortcuts

You can navigate the Keep UI with the Tab key from Search or the initial focus:

  • From Search, press Tab multiple times until focus moves to the first of the Tab items: "Notes."
  • From the initial focus on the "Take a note" edit field, press Shift + Tab multiple times to the last of the Tab items: "Trash."

Tip: To open the label tab and show only the notes with that label, tab within a note to the label and press Enter.

Screen reader navigation

You can use your screen reader commands to navigate to Tab items, or search for the name of the label.

Browser address bar

The default URL for Keep is keep.google.com/#home. This opens Keep to the first tab item "Notes." To show the other Tab items use the following URLs:

Tips:

  • The name of your label is called "name."
  • To return to previous label tabs in Keep, use the browser back shortcut.

Complete common tasks

Search

To search your current notes:

  1. On your computer, open Google Keep.
  2. Press Slash.
  3. Type the search term.
  4. Press Enter, then Tab.
  5. To navigate to the first result, press j.

Tips:

  • To return to the previously displayed tabs, use your browser back shortcut.
  • Frequently used search results can be saved in your web browser since it’s a unique URL.

Change settings

To change Keep settings:

  1. On your computer, open Google Keep.
  2. Press Slash, then Escape.
  3. Press Tab until focus is on the "Settings" button, then press Enter.
    • A drop down menu shows.
  4. To select "Settings," press Down arrow, then Enter.
  5. To navigate to the setting that you want to adjust, press Tab.
  6. Check or uncheck the box next to the setting that you want to adjust.
  7. Press Tab until focus is on the Save button, then press Enter.
    • To cancel, press Escape.

Recommendation: To maintain the order of checklist items after they’re checked, uncheck the "Move checked items to the bottom" setting.

Edit a note

To edit a note:

  1. On your computer, open Google Keep.
  2. Use the j or k shortcut to navigate to the note, then press Enter.
    • You can insert, delete, or replace content in the note.
    • To start a new paragraph in a note or add a new item to a checklist, press Enter.

If you paste content that includes links, the format of the links is copied but not their URLs. When you edit text, you can use standard editing shortcuts to:

  • Bold
  • Italicize
  • Underline

To switch between paragraphs in a note, or a checkbox in a list when you edit or focus, press Ctrl + Shift + 8 (Command + Shift + 8 on Mac).

This action is confirmed with the screen reader message: "Checkboxes shown" or "Checkboxes hidden."

To stop editing, press Escape. Your changes are automatically saved.

Organize notes

Move

You can move notes next to other notes:

  • To move the current note down or higher index, press Shift + j.
  • To move the current note up or lower index, press Shift + k.

If the screen reader is silent, the note can’t be moved further in that direction.

Pin

To pin or unpin a focused note, press the keyboard shortcut f. The screen reader should confirm the change and the note moves to the first of the pinned or unpinned notes. This shortcut only works when you're not editing the note.

Label

To organize related notes with a shared label, you can add a label to a note.

  1. On your computer, open Google Keep.
  2. Use the j or k shortcut to navigate to the note.
  3. Press Tab until focus is on the "More" menu button.
  4. Press Enter to expand the menu.
  5. Press down arrow to select Add label or Change labels.
  6. Press Enter.
  7. Type a new label name.
  8. To add an existing label to a note:
    • Press Down arrow until focus is on the label, then press Space to check.
    • If you press Space on a checked label, the label is removed from the note.

Tip: If a new note is created while the label tab is open, the created note will also have that label.

Delete

To delete a focused note, press the # key. The note is moved to the "Trash" tab and permanently deleted after 7 days. To restore:

  1. On your computer, go to Google Keep.
  2. Navigate to the "Trash" tab (learn how to open label tabs).
  3. Use the j or k shortcut to navigate to the note.
  4. Press Tab until focus is on the "Restore" button.
  5. Press Enter.

Archive

To archive the notes that you want to keep but want to remove from your Notes tab, press the keyboard shortcut e. If the note also has a label, you can find it at the bottom of the tab for that label.

To unarchive an archived note:

  1. On your computer, go to Google Keep.
  2. Navigate to the "Archive" tab (learn how to open label tabs).
  3. Use the j or k shortcut to navigate to the note.
  4. Press Tab until focus is on the "Unarchive" button.
  5. Press Enter.

Reminder

To add a reminder to a note:

  1. On your computer, go to Google Keep.
  2. Use the j or k shortcut to navigate to the note that needs a reminder.
  3. Press Tab until focus is on the "Remind me" button.
  4. Press Enter.
  5. In the dialog, select:
    1. Add a date
    2. Add a time
    3. Repeat options
    4. Save
  6. Optional: To cancel, press keyboard shortcut Escape.

Share a note

To share a note:

  1. On your computer, go to Google Keep.
  2. Use the j or k shortcut to navigate to the note you want to share.
  3. Press Tab until focus is on the "Collaborator" button.
  4. Press Enter.
    • A dialog box is opened with keyboard focus on the "Person or email to share with" editable combo box.
  5. Type a name from your contacts or an email address.
  6. Press Enter.
    • You can add another collaborator on the next tab.

Tips:

  • A notification email is sent to the added collaborators.
  • If you delete a note shared with you, it won’t delete the owner’s note.
  • If you delete a note that you shared with others, it also deletes their note.
  • If someone shares a note with you for the first time, a confirmation email is sent to you with the owner of the note.
    • You can get an option to "Delete note" or "Open note."
      • If you open the note, it’s added to your unlabeled notes.
      • The labels applied to shared notes aren’t shared.
  • Make sure you trust the content with the person you shared with, they can modify and share the note without your permission.
  • The dialog box also has buttons that can delete collaborators.

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