The mouse may be the most intuitive way to control a browser, but it’s not the most efficient. As MLStrand56 learned on the Answer Line forum, browser shortcuts can be valuable.
I’d like to tell you that nothing can speed up your Web browsing like a few basic keyboard shortcuts. But that’s not really true. They won’t speed things up nearly as much as a faster Internet connection.
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But the keyboard shortcuts will speed it up in an entirely different way. They won’t bring up a new page any faster, but once the page is up, they can get you to the top or bottom immediately, change tabs in the blink of an eye, and toggle full-screen mode.
And unlike a faster connection, they don’t add to your monthly bills.
Here are some of the most useful keyboard shortcuts, all of which work with Firefox, Chrome, and Internet Explorer. For simplicity’s sake, I haven’t tried to include everything.
General Navigation
|
Task |
Shortcut |
|
Back to the previous page |
Backspace |
|
Forward to page you just went back from |
Shift-backspace |
|
Toggle full screen |
F11 |
Navigating the current page
|
Page down |
Spacebar |
|
Page up |
Shift-Spacebar |
|
Bottom of page |
End |
|
Top of page |
Home |
Moving between pages
|
Open new tab |
Ctrl-T |
|
Close current tab |
Ctrl-W |
|
Move to tab on the right |
Ctrl-Tab |
|
Move to tab on the left |
Ctrl-Shift-Tab |
|
Move to a particular tab |
Ctrl-number (For instance, Ctrl-3 for the third tab) |
Read the original forum discussion.