diff --git a/web/e2e/smoke.spec.js b/web/e2e/smoke.spec.js
index f6ed4f8..2abb197 100644
--- a/web/e2e/smoke.spec.js
+++ b/web/e2e/smoke.spec.js
@@ -1768,3 +1768,49 @@ test('MCP-adressen svarer JSON, ikke app-skallen', async ({ request }) => {
 	expect(response.headers()['content-type']).toContain('application/json');
 	expect((await response.json()).code).toBe('unauthorized');
 });
+
+test('man kan skrive hvor som helst, og feltet fortæller hvad det forstår', async ({ page }) => {
+	const trouble = watchForTrouble(page);
+	await page.goto('/');
+
+	// Nothing focused, nothing clicked: just type. The thought does not have to
+	// survive a journey to find somewhere to put it.
+	await page.locator('body').click({ position: { x: 5, y: 5 } });
+	// "i dag" because this is the Today view: a task parsed onto no date at all is
+	// correctly absent from it, which would read as the capture having failed.
+	await page.keyboard.type('ring til Anders i dag');
+
+	const field = page.locator('[data-quickadd]');
+	await expect(field).toBeFocused();
+	// Every letter arrives, including the first — which is the one a naive
+	// implementation drops while it is busy moving focus.
+	await expect(field).toHaveValue('ring til Anders i dag');
+
+	// And the legend appears with the field, saying what the parser can read. It
+	// used to live in the placeholder, which vanishes at the first keystroke —
+	// exactly when the help starts being useful.
+	await expect(page.getByText('projekt', { exact: false }).first()).toBeVisible();
+
+	await page.keyboard.press('Enter');
+	await expect(page.getByText('ring til Anders', { exact: true })).toBeVisible();
+
+	// In English too. The shortcut used to find the field by its Danish label, so
+	// it silently did nothing for anybody running the interface in English.
+	await page.goto('/indstillinger');
+	await page.getByLabel('Sprog').selectOption('en');
+	await page.getByRole('button', { name: 'Gem' }).first().click();
+	await page.goto('/');
+	await page.locator('body').click({ position: { x: 5, y: 5 } });
+	await page.keyboard.type('call Anders');
+	await expect(page.locator('[data-quickadd]')).toHaveValue('call Anders');
+
+	// Back to Danish. The account is shared with every test after this one, and
+	// leaving it in English made three of them hunt for buttons by names that no
+	// longer existed — a failure that looks like the feature under test and is not.
+	await page.goto('/indstillinger');
+	await page.getByLabel('Language').selectOption('da');
+	await page.getByRole('button', { name: 'Save' }).first().click();
+	await expect(page.getByRole('button', { name: 'Gem' }).first()).toBeVisible();
+
+	expect(trouble).toEqual([]);
+});
diff --git a/web/src/lib/components/QuickAdd.svelte b/web/src/lib/components/QuickAdd.svelte
index 74e76b6..402bb81 100644
--- a/web/src/lib/components/QuickAdd.svelte
+++ b/web/src/lib/components/QuickAdd.svelte
@@ -21,6 +21,19 @@
 	let spans = $state([]);
 	let submitting = $state(false);
 	let input;
+	let focused = $state(false);
+
+	// Kept beside the parser's own vocabulary on purpose: a legend that promises
+	// something internal/quickadd cannot read is worse than no legend. These four
+	// are what Parse recognises as marks; dates it reads as prose, which is why the
+	// last entry is an example rather than a symbol.
+	let syntax = $derived([
+		{ mark: '#', what: t('task.syntaxProject') },
+		{ mark: '/', what: t('task.syntaxSection') },
+		{ mark: '@', what: t('task.syntaxLabel') },
+		{ mark: 'p1', what: t('task.syntaxPriority') },
+		{ mark: t('task.syntaxDateMark'), what: t('task.syntaxDate') }
+	]);
 
 	let previewController = null;
 	let previewTimer = null;
@@ -143,7 +156,10 @@
 			bind:this={input}
 			bind:value={text}
 			{onkeydown}
+			onfocus={() => (focused = true)}
+			onblur={() => (focused = false)}
 			type="text"
+			data-quickadd
 			placeholder={t('task.placeholder')}
 			aria-label={t('task.new')}
 			autocomplete="off"
@@ -154,10 +170,52 @@
 	{#if text.trim()}
 		<button type="submit" class="submit" disabled={submitting}>{t('task.add')}</button>
 	{/if}
+
+	<!-- What the parser understands, spelled out while somebody is typing into it.
+	     It was in the placeholder before, which is the one place a hint cannot be:
+	     the placeholder disappears at the first keystroke, so the help was gone
+	     exactly when it started being useful.
+
+	     Floated rather than in the flow. In the flow it pushed the whole list down
+	     the moment the field took focus, and a click aimed at the first task landed
+	     on the second — twelve tests caught it, which is twelve more than the eye
+	     would have. -->
+	{#if focused}
+		<p class="syntax">
+			{#each syntax as item}
+				<span><kbd>{item.mark}</kbd> {item.what}</span>
+			{/each}
+		</p>
+	{/if}
 </form>
 
 <style>
+	/* Sits under the field it explains, in the same rhythm as a hint anywhere else. */
+	.syntax {
+		/* Nothing to click, and it floats over the first task in the list — which it
+		   promptly swallowed the clicks of. Legends are for reading. */
+		pointer-events: none;
+		position: absolute;
+		top: 100%;
+		left: 0;
+		right: 0;
+		z-index: 2;
+		background: var(--surface);
+		display: flex;
+		flex-wrap: wrap;
+		gap: var(--s1) var(--s3);
+		padding: var(--s1) 0 0 var(--s4);
+		font-size: var(--text-xs);
+		color: var(--ink-faint);
+	}
+
+	.syntax kbd {
+		font-family: var(--mono, ui-monospace, monospace);
+		color: var(--ink-muted);
+	}
+
 	.quickadd {
+		position: relative;
 		display: flex;
 		align-items: center;
 		gap: var(--s3);
diff --git a/web/src/lib/locales/da.js b/web/src/lib/locales/da.js
index 8642f08..770718f 100644
--- a/web/src/lib/locales/da.js
+++ b/web/src/lib/locales/da.js
@@ -57,6 +57,12 @@ export const da = {
 	// --- a task in a list ----------------------------------------------------------
 	'task.add': 'Tilføj',
 	'task.new': 'Ny opgave',
+	'task.syntaxProject': 'projekt',
+	'task.syntaxSection': 'sektion',
+	'task.syntaxLabel': 'etiket',
+	'task.syntaxPriority': 'prioritet',
+	'task.syntaxDateMark': 'i morgen kl 10',
+	'task.syntaxDate': 'forfalder',
 	'task.placeholder': 'Tilføj en opgave — prøv “betal moms i morgen kl 10 p1 #Firma”',
 	'task.complete': 'Markér som færdig',
 	'task.reopen': 'Genåbn opgave',
@@ -371,6 +377,8 @@ export const da = {
 	'data.templatesHint':
 		'Et projekt gemt som en form, der kan bruges igen. Datoerne i skabelonen er relative, så de bliver regnet ud fra den startdato, du vælger.',
 
+	'keys.anyLetter': 'et bogstav',
+	'keys.typeToCapture': 'begynder en opgave, med bogstavet i feltet',
 	'keys.navigation': 'Navigation',
 	'keys.jumpToQuickAdd': 'Hop til feltet “tilføj opgave”',
 	'keys.thisPage': 'Denne side',
diff --git a/web/src/lib/locales/en.js b/web/src/lib/locales/en.js
index 51ff391..c3096ca 100644
--- a/web/src/lib/locales/en.js
+++ b/web/src/lib/locales/en.js
@@ -53,6 +53,12 @@ export const en = {
 	// --- a task in a list ----------------------------------------------------------
 	'task.add': 'Add',
 	'task.new': 'New task',
+	'task.syntaxProject': 'project',
+	'task.syntaxSection': 'section',
+	'task.syntaxLabel': 'label',
+	'task.syntaxPriority': 'priority',
+	'task.syntaxDateMark': 'tomorrow at 10',
+	'task.syntaxDate': 'due',
 	'task.placeholder': 'Add a task — try “pay VAT tomorrow at 10 p1 #Company”',
 	'task.complete': 'Mark as done',
 	'task.reopen': 'Reopen task',
@@ -366,6 +372,8 @@ export const en = {
 	'data.templatesHint':
 		'A project saved as a shape you can use again. The dates in a template are relative, so they are worked out from the start date you pick.',
 
+	'keys.anyLetter': 'any letter',
+	'keys.typeToCapture': 'starts a task, with the letter already in the field',
 	'keys.navigation': 'Navigation',
 	'keys.jumpToQuickAdd': 'Jump to the “add a task” field',
 	'keys.thisPage': 'This page',
diff --git a/web/src/routes/+layout.svelte b/web/src/routes/+layout.svelte
index ed9c3fa..6b58c9d 100644
--- a/web/src/routes/+layout.svelte
+++ b/web/src/routes/+layout.svelte
@@ -29,16 +29,31 @@
 	});
 
 	/**
-	 * Global shortcuts, mapped the way Todoist maps them so muscle memory carries
-	 * over. They are ignored while a text field has focus — otherwise typing "t"
-	 * in a task title would navigate away mid-sentence.
+	 * Global keys.
+	 *
+	 * Typing anywhere starts a task, with the letter already in the field. That is
+	 * the whole gesture: no button to hit first, no shortcut to remember, and the
+	 * thought you had while looking at a list does not have to survive a journey to
+	 * find somewhere to put it.
+	 *
+	 * It costs the single-letter navigation. "t" for today and "u" for upcoming
+	 * cannot also be the first letter of "tal med Anders" — one keyboard cannot
+	 * serve both, and capturing is the thing done fifty times a day. Navigation
+	 * lives in the palette, which does more and is one keystroke away.
+	 *
+	 * Ignored while a field already has focus, while a task is open — the drawer is
+	 * a place you are, not one you pass through — and for anything held with a
+	 * modifier, which belongs to the browser and the system.
 	 */
 	function onkeydown(event) {
 		const el = event.target;
-		const typing =
-			el instanceof HTMLInputElement ||
-			el instanceof HTMLTextAreaElement ||
-			el?.isContentEditable;
+		// Only when nothing has focus. The first version asked the narrower question
+		// — "is this a text field?" — and so captured a letter typed at a focused
+		// select, button or link, which is where that letter belongs. A key pressed
+		// at something is meant for it; only a key pressed at the page itself is
+		// spare.
+		const idle = el === document.body || el === document.documentElement;
+		const typing = !idle;
 
 		if ((event.metaKey || event.ctrlKey) && event.key === 'k') {
 			event.preventDefault();
@@ -46,25 +61,24 @@
 			return;
 		}
 		if (typing || event.metaKey || event.ctrlKey || event.altKey) return;
-		// The navigation shortcuts are for the list. With a task open, "t" means the
-		// letter t — the drawer is a place you are, not a place you pass through.
 		if (app.detailId) return;
 
-		switch (event.key) {
-			case 'q':
-				event.preventDefault();
-				document.querySelector('input[aria-label="Ny opgave"]')?.focus();
-				break;
-			case 't':
-				goto('/');
-				break;
-			case 'u':
-				goto('/upcoming');
-				break;
-			case '?':
-				goto('/genveje');
-				break;
-		}
+		// One character, so Tab, Escape, the arrows and the function keys stay
+		// themselves. Space is excluded too: a task that begins with a space begins
+		// with a mis-hit, and space is what people press to scroll a long list.
+		if (event.key.length !== 1 || event.key === ' ') return;
+
+		// Found by a marker rather than by its label. This used to look the field up
+		// by aria-label="Ny opgave", which meant the shortcut quietly did nothing for
+		// anybody running the interface in English.
+		const field = document.querySelector('[data-quickadd]');
+		if (!field) return;
+
+		event.preventDefault();
+		field.focus();
+		field.value += event.key;
+		// Svelte binds on input, and setting .value in script does not raise one.
+		field.dispatchEvent(new Event('input', { bubbles: true }));
 	}
 </script>
 
diff --git a/web/src/routes/genveje/+page.svelte b/web/src/routes/genveje/+page.svelte
index 23c57e3..f1d0bd4 100644
--- a/web/src/routes/genveje/+page.svelte
+++ b/web/src/routes/genveje/+page.svelte
@@ -1,16 +1,20 @@
 <script>
-	/** The shortcuts, listed. Mapped to Todoist's so muscle memory carries over. */
+	/**
+	 * The shortcuts, listed.
+	 *
+	 * The single-letter navigation this page used to carry — q, t, u — is gone.
+	 * Typing anywhere now starts a task, and one keyboard cannot both spell "tal
+	 * med Anders" and jump to Today on the same "t". Navigation moved into the
+	 * palette, which does more and costs one keystroke.
+	 */
 	import { t } from '$lib/i18n.svelte.js';
 
 	const groups = $derived([
 		{
 			title: t('keys.navigation'),
 			keys: [
-				['q', t('keys.jumpToQuickAdd')],
-				['t', t('nav.today')],
-				['u', t('nav.upcoming')],
-				['⌘K / Ctrl+K', t('nav.search')],
-				['?', t('keys.thisPage')]
+				[t('keys.anyLetter'), t('keys.typeToCapture')],
+				['⌘K / Ctrl+K', t('nav.search')]
 			]
 		},
 		{