You may have observed people who manage to navigate over a web browser without touching the mouse or even having to look at the keyboard? Even the most simplest tasks like opening a new tab or refreshing a page can be done almost instantaneously by pressing a few keys on your keyboard.
Shortcuts in Mac
When using the keyboard shortcuts given below in Mac, substitute the Ctrl key with the Command key.
Web browsers can be operated quite fluidly with several keyboard shortcuts. Be it Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari, or Opera; most shortcuts are compatible across every web browser out there.
This allows users to easily switch to different browsers without the need to learn anything new. However, there are certain browser-specific keyboard shortcuts as well, which if known are certainly beneficial, but not knowing them doesn’t affect usability.
Below, we’ve tried to cover the most common and useful keyboard shortcuts that are compatible with almost all web browsers. Take a look!
Keyboard Shortcuts That Work in All Web Browsers
Switching Tabs
Ctrl + 1-8 ― Switches to a specific tab in numerical order (from the left)
Ctrl + 9 ― Switches to the last tab
Ctrl + Tab ― Switches to the next tab
Ctrl + Shift + Tab ― Switches to the previous tab
Opening or Closing a Tab or Window
Ctrl + T ― Opens a new tab
Ctrl + W or Ctrl + F4 ― Closes the current tab
Ctrl + Shift + T ― Reopens the last closed tab
Ctrl + N ― Opens a new browser window
Alt + F4 ― Closes the current browser window
Tab Commands Using Mouse and Keyboard
Middle Clicking a Tab ― Closes the tab
Middle Clicking a Link ― Opens it in a new background tab
Shift + Left Clicking a Link ― Opens it in a new window
Ctrl + Shift + Left Clicking a Link ― Opens it in a new foreground tab
Ctrl + Mouse Wheel Up ― Zooms into a page
Ctrl + Mouse Wheel Down ― Zooms out of a page
Navigation
Alt + Left Arrow, Backspace ― Loads the previous page
F5 ― Reloads the page ( to the state when opened last )
Ctrl + F5 ― Clears the cached copy of the page and reloads it completely to show server changes if any.
Esc ― Stops loading a page
Alt + Home ― Opens the default homepage
Ctrl + Plus Sign ― Zooms into a page
Ctrl + Minus Sign ― Zooms out of a page
Ctrl + 0 ― Restores the default zoom level
F11 ― Switches to full-screen mode
Space, Page Down ― Scrolls the page down
Shift + Space, Page Up ― Scrolls the page up
Home ― Navigates to the top of page
End ― Navigates to the end of the page
Search and Address Bar
Ctrl + E ― Highlights the browser’s default search box
Alt + Enter ― Searches the typed keyword in a new tab
Ctrl + F ― Opens a search box to find words or phrases on the current page
Ctrl + G ― Finds the next matching word with the one searched for on a page
Ctrl + Shift + G ― Finds the previous matching word with the one searched for on a page
Ctrl + L, F6 ― Highlights the address bar.
Ctrl + Enter ― Adds prefix (www.) and suffix (.com) to the text in the address bar and loads the website.
Alt + Enter ― Opens the website typed in the address bar in a new tab
History and Bookmarks
Ctrl + H ― Opens the browsing history
Ctrl + J ― Opens the download history
Ctrl + D ― Bookmarks the current website
Ctrl + Shift + Delete ― Opens the ‘Clear Browsing History’ window
Other Useful Shortcuts
Ctrl + P ― Opens the ‘Print’ prompt in order to print the current page
Ctrl + S ― Opens the ‘Save As’ prompt in order to save the current page
Ctrl + O ― Opens a file from the computer (only compatible ones)
F12 ― Opens developer tools
Ctrl + U ― Opens the current page’s source code (exception in Internet Explorer)
Now that you know a lot of keyboard shortcuts, try to use of most of them to make your browsing experience even better.