15 Undocumented Firefox Tips

Save Time With Keyboard Shortcuts

A surefire way to improve your browsing speed is by leaving your mouse alone and controlling Firefox from the keyboard. Here are some useful (but not always obvious) keyboard shortcuts.

To enter a URL or search criterion into the address bar, press either Ctrl-L or Alt-D. If you just entered a domain name into the address bar, don't bother adding '.com'; instead, press Ctrl-Enter to insert that suffix and go to the page. For '.org', use Ctrl-Shift-Enter; for '.net', Shift-Enter.

To enter search criteria into the Search Bar, press Ctrl-K. Next, press Ctrl and the down arrow, or Ctrl and the up arrow, to cycle through the available search services. To search for text on the current page, press Ctrl-F to open the Find toolbar, or just / (the slash key) to access the Quick Find toolbar. What's the difference? The former provides a couple of basic search options; the latter, naught but a text box for entering your search term. To find the next instance of the text you just found, press F3.

Two eyesight-saving shorcuts: To toggle full-screen view on and off, press F11. And to increase or decrease the Web page's font size, press Ctrl-= or Ctrl-- (the Ctrl key together with the equal or minus sign), respectively.