It’s often quicker to use the keyboard than to find the pointer and set it to where I need. Some examples are closing tab and opening tabs. Say I need to search for something related to a page I’m on but I don’t want to change the current page. I use these keys: Ctrl T to open a new tab, then TAB over to my search box to type my search.

Believe me, that was longer to type than to execute. And quicker than using the mouse. The reason it beats the mouse is because there’s no need to reorient yourself. I’m already on the keyboard. I don’t have to navigate anywhere to find the tab or button to add a new page. I don’t have to reposition the cursor to the search box to start typing.

My Most Used Shortcuts

It doesn’t save you a ton of time. Instead it shaves seconds in actual implementation. But seconds matter too.

Do you want to know how to move between site tabs? Ctrl TAB moves you left to right, one tab at a time. Ctrl SHIFT TAB will take you back.

Following are some that work in Firefox for sure; you’ll have to experiment with Explorer. But they are mostly windows shortcuts so some should work the same.

• Ctrl F4 closes the tab you’re on
• Ctrl + (that is plus sign) increases the font on the page you’re viewing
• Ctrl – (that is the minus/hyphen sign) decreases the font on the page you’re viewing
• Ctrl F opens a dialogue box in the lower right of your page. It works like word processing find tools to get you to the exact location of the term you need to read about.
• Ctrl H opens the history so you can search for the page you accidentally closed before you read it
• Ctrl P opens your print dialogue box
• Ctrl U reveals the web page code. (I tried this in Explorer—doesn’t work)

Do you prefer keyboard shortcuts when you can use them? Maybe you could add to my very short list. What shortcuts do you find useful?