Keyboard Mastery.

After many years working in IT, not only solo but in large teams working tirelessly in front of computer screens, it never ceases to surprise me when people don’t make use of even the most common keyboard shortcuts.

From coders to designers, we’ll endlessly research solutions to complex issues online. However, sometimes it seems the simplest things to learn are the hardest to spend a little time mastering, in order to improve your workflow and make your life easier.

At Crucial HQ, as we deal primarily with web hosting our main window to the world for our team and customers alike is the web browser, be it FireFox, Chrome, IE, Safari, Opera, or other — knowing your way around the keyboard shortcuts specific to your browser can make a world of difference!

Read on and I’ll detail some common shortcuts that work across most web browsers.

As a non-browser specific and personally embarrassing example, I may have clocked up close to 2 decades tinkering with computers but I spent many of those early years unaware of the basic Shift+Tab. Even though I remember regularly saying to myself “boy I sure wish there was a way to tab backwards!” when tabbing just too far through entry fields. It wasn’t until a particularly long stretch of keyboard only OS installations that I bothered to work it out. If I had a dollar for everytime I’ve used it since, I’d be a rich man but I’m just happy to have the time that it and other useful keyboard shortcuts save me on a regular basis.

While some of the following may be fairly entry level for some users, learning the following shortcuts will prove invaluable for browsing like a ninja. Also, they will generally work across all current web browsers.

Tab Management:
Ctrl+Tab or Ctrl+PageDown – Move to the next open tab
Ctrl+Shift+Tab or Ctrl+PageUp – Move to the previous open tab
Ctrl+T – Open new tab
Ctrl+Shift+T – Re-Open last closed tab (lifesaver)
Ctrl+W – Close current tab
Ctrl+1-8 – Move to the specified browser tab
Ctrl+9 – Move to the last browser tab
Ctrl+N – Open a new browser window
Ctrl+F4 or Alt+F4 – Close current browser window

Page Navigation:
Space or PageDown – Scroll down page
Shift+Space or PageUp – Scroll up page
Home – Top of page
End – Bottom of page
Alt+LeftArrow – Move back to previous page/link
Alt+RightArrow – Move forward
F5 – Refresh
Shift+F5 or Ctrl+F5 or Ctrl+R – Force page refresh (skipping cache)
Ctrl+F – Open search bar
Ctrl+G – Find the next search match
Ctrl+Shift+G – Find the previous search match

Address Bar:
Ctrl+Enter – Prepends & appends www. & .com to text in the address bar eg. type in domain name, press Ctrl+Enter
Ctrl+L or Alt+D – Highlights the address bar
Ctrl+LeftArrow – Move cursor to next key term in address bar
Ctrl+RightArrow – Move cursor to next key term in address bar
Ctrl+Backspace – Deletes key term before cursor in address bar

Browser Management:
Ctrl+H – Open Browsing history
Ctrl+J – Open Download history
Ctrl+D – Bookmark Current Page
Ctrl+Shift+Del – Clear Browsing History window
Ctrl+U – View Source

Zoom (Sniper Mode):
Ctrl & + or Ctrl+MouseWheelUp – Zoom in
Ctrl & – or Ctrl+MouseWheelDown – Zoom out
Ctrl+0 – default
F11 – Enter Fullscreen mode (press again to exit)

In our day to day use and troubleshooting the Crucial Support Team regularly use all available web browsers across multiple operating systems. Personally, I tend to prefer Chrome for a few reasons, one of which includes it’s extensive shortcut implementation out of the box.

Any Chrome users would do well to extend the above list with some Chrome specific shortcuts. You can find the full list at the following Google Support link: https://support.google.com/57179

Of course with a little tinkering you can customize any app and web browsers are no different. Google Chrome’s ‘ShortCut Manager‘ plugin will allow you to create your own custom shortcuts and similar plugins exist for all browsers!