Firefox users have dozens of hotkeys at their disposal to use some of the browser's functionality. Instead of having to use the mouse to click on elements, or navigate through menu structures to get there, pressing the hotkey is all that is needed to do that.
When you open menus in the browser, you will see that some hotkeys are displayed next to the menu entries. While that's a great start into getting to know your keyboard shortcuts, it is limited to those that are displayed. If you are comparing the Firefox menu button with the old menu toolbar, you will also notice that the new menu is displaying only a handful of shortcuts, while the old toolbar displayed many more.
When it comes to hotkeys, some are more useful than others. The print hotkey for instance is not really that helpful if you never print web pages or documents in the browser, while the new tab hotkey can surely be useful if you open new tabs regularly in the browser.
Did I miss a useful shortcut that you use regularly? Then post it in the comment section below. Would you like to see similar articles for other browsers?
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CTRL + shift + t – undo close tab
Shift+w – close tab
CTRL + R – reload page
Shift + Click – Open link in background tab.
Control + 0 will reset any text sizing done with control +/-
Also, @SuilAmhain Control + W closes a tab, not Shift + W
Doh!! I was typing from my phone :-S
ctrl+k moves cursor into search bar
ctrl+b opens bookmarks
ctrl+h opens history
ctrl+f also opens find, ctrl+g moves forward
middle-click opens links in background too
When no input field is focused, why do web browsers still require the control key to issue commands? Why not use single-key commands? So many more actions could be mapped that way.
If no input field is focused, the webpage may still have Javascript hotkeys set up; for example, in Yahoo! Mail, the “k” key is mapped to “mark currently selected emails as read” (or “mark the email being viewed as read,” if you’re not browsing a folder.
To make a long story short, single-key commands may conflict with the page’s key captures.
ALT+D selects the address bar (works in one of my two copies of Firefox, and exists for IE compatibility; anyone hazard a guess as to why it *doesn’t* work in my other Firefox install?)
Try F6 function key to select the “Address Bar”
My new fav shortcut key is Ctrl+F6 (used to be just F6 before Fx12).
Ctrl+F6 puts focus onto the Tabs (the Tab Bar itself). From here you can use the arrow keys to move among the tabs but also (very kool) you can use the context-menu-key (or alternatively shift+F10) to activate the right-click menu capability of a tab. Press F6 and focus returns to the page’s content.
I use Ctrl+F6 all the time when needing to access the context menu of a Tab or wanting to use the arrow keys to move among the tabs.
Ctrl-F6 is focusing the address bar in my version of Firefox. Are you sure that is the right key?
Yes. I’m sure.
I tried four different computers at my office to check if it’s just my computer. Computers of my colleagues. Both Shift+F6 and Ctrl+F6 put focus onto the Tab Bar in Fx12 and Fx13. But only Ctrl+F6 works to do this in Fx14.
Perhaps an add-on is messing it up for you? I don’t use add-ons except for Noscript.
Alt + D selects the location even in the most freaky weirdarse crApple browsers like Safari.
Great shortcuts.
Here are some other super useful shortcuts in this vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0d2yqlaZyiE
Ctrl+Y is like the Ctrl-Shfit-Z for the Undo function.