Tech Esoterica: Keyboard Shortcuts – Web Browser

Scroll down a whole page as you’re reading: Space

Turn Full-screen Mode on and off: F11

Open a new tab: CTRL+T

Close the current tab: CTRL+F4 or CTRL+W

Open a link in a new tab: CTRL+[Left Click]

Open a link in a new tab and go directly to it: CTRL+SHIFT+[Left Click]

Open a browser tab you just closed with all its history intact: CTRL+SHIFT+T

Navigate back and forth through previous web pages you’ve visited: ALT+Left/Right

Cycle left and right between tabs: CTRL+Page Up/Down or CTRL+TAB and CTRL+SHIFT+TAB

Select a tab corresponding to the order on the screen: CTRL+[#]

Go back to your homepage: ALT+Home

Go to the web search box: CTRL+L or ALT+D

Add www. and .com to what you just typed in the web search box: CTRL+ENTER

Reload a page: F5

Reload a page that seems to be frozen: CTRL+F5

Stop a web page from loading: ESC

Bookmark a web page: CTRL+D

Bring up your web history: CTRL+H

Bring up a prompt to clear your browsing history: CTRL+SHIFT+DEL

Bring up your download history: CTRL+J

Cycle forward and backward between tabs: CTRL+TAB and CTRL+SHIFT+TAB

Paste something from the Internet with a prompt to choose what to copy: CTRL+ALT+V

Look at the source code of the web page: F12

Search Engines

Narrow the search to exact ordering of words:

  • “cleaning supplies for remote workers”

use Boolean logic to clarify concepts:

  • OR – (dancing OR singing) online courses
  • AND – (dancing AND singing) online courses
  • NOT – dancing online courses -free

Use wildcards:

  • “how to start welding in * months”

Search in a site or for a specific file type:

  • site:coursera.com management
  • filetype:pdf cleaning gutters

Search within specific TLDs:

  • site:*.edu boa constrictors
  • site:*.gov traffic citations

Search for a specific range of numbers:

  • abraham lincoln 2012..2020
  • cheap collectible porcelain dishes 20..55
  • bush opinion before:2004
  • trump opinion after:2016

Other Tricks

Drag and drop any media file like a text document, image, or video inside your browser window to open it.

Press F5 to refresh the browser to skip listening to an advertisement

  • Sometimes clicking the ad’s link and going back to the video or song can skip the advertisement.

Pin frequently used tabs by selecting it from the right click menu from the tab.

Browsers usually have an Incognito Mode or Private Window that won’t save information on your computer.

CTRL + Click on a bookmark folder to open all the bookmarks in that folder at once.