10 Useful Firefox Keyboard Shortcuts You Probably Didn’t Know About
Keyboard shortcuts are often much underestimated in their helpfulness. It is true that these days we use our mouse or our finger pads for everything. The concept of using the keyboard for anything apart from typing out text and numbers seems ridiculously laborsome. And so, more and more people are forgetting how to use keyboard for functions other than typing.
But if you think about it, keyboard shortcuts can indeed be very helpful for you. For one thing, you do not get lost in case you mouse or finger pad malfunctions. It is quite irritating to sit around and wait for technical support when your mouse is not working. With keyboard shortcuts, you can continue to work on your documents with very little trouble.
Also, if you are typing quickly, it slows you down to have to move your hand from the keyboard to the mouse every time you want to save your document, minimize it, or alternate between windows without losing speed, you will find keyboard shortcuts really helpful for that purpose.
If you prefer to use Firefox, we have for you a list of ten clever little shortcuts that will make you prefer your keyboard over your mouse.
1. Automatically complete your address
Using Ctrl + Enter to add www and .com before and after anything you’ve typed into the URL bar is a common practice, but you also have shortcuts for .net and.org domains. Use Shift + Enter for .net, and Ctrl + Shift + Enter for .org addresses.
2. Open a new tab from suggestion dropdown
As you type into your URL bar, your browser will show you a dropdown list of suggested addresses, based on your previous browsing history. If you go down this list and press enter, the page will open in the current tab, but if you press Alt + Enter, it will open in a brand new tab without disturbing your current tab.
3. Go to the bottom or top of a page
If you are reading a very long page, and wish to skip all the text and straight to the bottom to leave your comment, try the End button. Alternatively, if you want to go back to the top of the page, you just have to press the Home button.
4. Open a new browser or a new tab
If you are working on one browser and urgently need to refer to another web page for some information, you can simply click Ctrl + N to open a new window. If you do not want to clutter up your browser with too many windows, click Ctrl + T to open a new tab.
5. Open a browser tab you closed
Suppose you have discovered a page after a lot of searching and are going through it, when you accidentally close the browser. Now you don’t have to search for the browser all over again. Nimply press the combination of Ctrl + Shift + T to open the last browser tab you closed.
6. Delete auto complete options
The browser search auto complete option can reveal embarrassing secrets about your browsing history to someone who asks to use your computer, or sits with you as you are browsing. If your auto complete exposes more than you like, simply go down the menu and when you reach the suggestion in question, press Delete.
7. Manage your bookmarks
When you find a really interesting or useful page that you feel you would want to visit again later, just click Ctrl + D and the page will be added to your list of bookmarks. When you want to open your bookmarked pages, Ctrl + B will open the list of bookmarks.
8. Zoom in and out
Having trouble reading the tiny text on a page? Or maybe you are looking at a huge picture, and want to see the whole thing without having to scroll sideways or up and down. Simply hold down the Ctrl key along with the + key for zooming in and – key for zooming out.
9. Navigate between tabs in one step.
You can easily navigate between tabs on a single window with Ctrl + Tab. But if you want to move directly to one of your tabs, without having to jump from tab to tab, you can just click Ctrl + <number> where <number> is the order of your tab, from 1 to 9.
10. Launch your home page on the current tab
You can open your home page on the tab currently open, by clicking Alt + Home. A combination of Alt + Left Arrow or Alt + Right Arrow will move you forward and back in your browser history respectively.
