Is There a Trick to Reblogging Tumblr Posts Without a Reblog Button?

By Andrea Ruiz

Tumblr users reblog interesting posts from the users they follow.
i Jack Hollingsworth/Photodisc/Getty Images

The Tumblr dashboard contains many functional and useful buttons, links and tabs that allow you to navigate around the Tumblr back end, view your followers and customize your blog. You can easily reblog any post on your Tumblr dashboard by clicking the reblog button with your mouse. However, if you don't have a mouse or trackpad, or if your browser is having issues displaying images so that you can't see the reblog button, you can also use Tumblr keyboard shortcuts to quickly reblog any post on your dashboard.

Locating the Post

Because Tumblr posts may not take up your entire dashboard and may appear a few at a time, you may find it challenging to tell which post your dashboard currently has selected. However, you can use your keyboard to select and navigate between posts. The "J" key on your keyboard moves your dashboard forward to the next post; the "K" key moves your dashboard back to the previous post. In both cases, the post that ends flush against the top of your browser screen is the current selected post.

Reblogging With Your Keyboard

Once you've selected the post you want, you can automatically reblog it to your main blog account using keyboard shortcuts as well. You must hold down the "Shift" key, then press the "R" key to automatically reblog it. The post instantly appears on your blog, as well as on the dashboards of your blog's followers. If you're still able to see the reblog button in the post, you can tell that you've successfully reblogged it when the button turns from gray to green.

Limitations

Using keyboard shortcuts to reblog Tumblr posts has a few limitations. First, this method can only reblog posts to your main Tumblr blog. If you have multiple blogs associated with your Tumblr account, you will not be able to reblog any posts to your secondary blogs using keyboard shortcuts. Additionally, Tumblr reblogs the post automatically and exactly as it appears on your dashboard. You will not be able to add any tags or commentary to the post before reblogging it, though you will be able to edit the post and add these elements in later.

Other Keyboard Shortcuts

In addition to navigating up and down your dashboard and manual reblogging, Tumblr's interface has many keyboard shortcuts you may find useful if you are navigating the site without a mouse. For example, pressing the "L" key on a selected post allows you to like the post, while pressing the "N" key will show you all of the post's notes in a pop-up box. If the post has a lot of notes, you can use the up and down arrow keys to read all of them.

To compose a new Tumblr post, press the "Z" and "C" keys together, then use the arrow and "Enter" keys to select the type of post you want. Use the "Tab" key and the space bar to navigate to and select the post's elements. By default, Tumblr composes a new post in your main blog, so if you have more than one blog, you'll first need to navigate to the blog before composing a new post by pressing "Z-Tab" repeatedly and releasing the keys when you've selected the one you want.

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