Some useful keyboard shortcuts

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Browsing is a lot more fun when you know a few keyboard shortcuts. Having used desktops for quite a few years, I was ignorant of the power of keyboard shortcuts. After I switched to laptop, I found out that the touchpads and track balls are not as easy or friendly as they seem. So, I was determined to learn a few keyboard shortcuts that made life easier. I will post a few keyboard shortcuts that, hopefully, a few of you will find useful.

Before I start, these are all shortcuts that work on Mozilla Firefox, but most of them will apply to other browsers and sometimes Windows in general. It is, by no means, an exhaustive list of shortcuts.

  • Ctrl + N – New window
  • Ctrl + T – New tab
  • Ctrl + B – Bookmarks
  • Ctrl + H – History
  • Ctrl + P – Print
  • Ctrl + F – Find

Mundane, aren’t they? But there are a few more interesting ones which are handy if you spend a lot of time on the web.

  • Ctrl + J – Open download window
  • Ctrl + R – Refresh current window
  • Ctrl + U – See the source code of the current window [HTML]
  • Ctrl + D – Bookmark current page
  • Ctrl + K – Directly search the web using your default search engine (The cursor directly moves to the search tab at the top right corner of your browser)
  • Ctrl + L – Go to the address bar of your browser
  • Ctrl + W – Close the active tab
  • Ctrl + Shift + W – Reopen the most recently closed tab
  • Ctrl + Shift + N – Reopen the most recently closed window (atleast one instance of your browser should be running for this to work)
  • Alt + Space + X – Maximize your window
  • Ctrl + End – Goes to the bottom of the page
  • Ctrl + Home – Goes to the top of the page
  • Ctrl + <digit> – Moves to the <digit>-th tab of your current window. Eg. ctrl + 3  moves to the 3rd tab open on the window
  • Alt + Tab – Toggle between all the open windows
  • Ctrl + tab – Similar to alt + tab, but this works with tabs and not windows.

If you have more keyboard shortcuts in your repertoire, do share them.

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2 thoughts on “Some useful keyboard shortcuts”

  2. Bharath · Edit

    I see for every task there will be more than one shortcuts. Below are some of the shortcuts I use. Some of these perform the same operation which you mentioned.

    Alt+D or F6 – Select address bar in web browser or folder view.
    Alt+tab – Move between windows (Most of you guys aware)
    Ctrl+tab – Move between tab in same browser window.
    Alt+F4 – Closes window (Most of you guys aware)
    Ctlr+F4 – Closes tab in the window.
    Ctrl+Shift+t – Reopens closed tabs in browser window.
    Ctrl+Shift+Esc – Opens Task Manager !! (No need to access via Ctrl+Alt+Del)
    Shift+F10 – Right Click.
    Ctrl + N – New window with same link in address bar
    Ctrl + K – New tab with same link in address bar

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