Use Keyboard Shortcuts -CodeIdol

Use Keyboard Shortcuts

Driving Firefox from the keyboard is both the same as and different from other browsers.

This hack shows you which keyboard moves come standard with Firefox. There are many extensions that modify the available set of keystrokes and key chords. You can also hack the keyboard set yourself in a number of ways [Hack #77] .

Many Firefox keyboard combinations are the same as those of Internet Explorer. In particular, menu navigation uses the same combination of arrow keys and Alt as most Windows applications, and navigation within text-editing fields supports the same keystrokes as most text editors (Ctrl-left arrow to move one word left, for example). Scrolling keys such as Page Up and Page Down work as you'd expect, too. Figure shows the major keys used by both browsers.

On the Macintosh, substitute Command for Ctrl and Option for Alt.

Keyboard shortcuts common to Firefox and Internet Explorer
Key combination	Use
Ctrl-A	Select all content
Ctrl-C	Copy current selection
Ctrl-D	Add a bookmark
Ctrl-H	Display the History sidebar
Ctrl-I (and Ctrl-B)	Open Bookmarks sidebar
Ctrl-N	Open a new window
Ctrl-O	Open a file
Ctrl-P	Print current page
Ctrl-R, F5	Reload current page
Ctrl-Shift-R, Ctrl-F5	Reload current page from origin
Ctrl-V	Paste currently copied content
Ctrl-W, Ctrl-F4	Close the current tab
Ctrl-X	Cut the current selection
Ctrl-Y (and Ctrl-Shift-Z)	Redo last operation
Ctrl-Z	Undo last operation
Alt	Begin menu navigation
Alt-D, F6	Focus and highlight the location bar
Alt-F4 (also Ctrl-Shift-W)	Close current window
Alt-Home	Go to home page
Alt-Left Arrow, Backspace	Go back one page
Alt-Right Arrow, Shift-Backspace	Go forward one page
Delete	Delete current item
End	Move to bottom of page
Esc	Stop current operation
F11	Display in full-screen mode
Home	Move to top of page

Firefox also has some unique keyboard combinations. Figure shows the common ones that don't match Internet Explorer.

Keyboard shortcuts available in Firefox only
Key combination	Use
Ctrl-hyphen	Decrease text size
Ctrl-+	Increase text size
Ctrl-0 (Ctrl-Zero)	Restore text back to normal size
Ctrl-Down Arrow	Select next search engine in location bar
Ctrl-F, /	Find content by search string
Ctrl-G, F3	Repeat last find operation forward
Ctrl-J (Ctrl-Y on Linux)	Open download manager window
Ctrl-K	Search the Web using the current search engine and keyword
Ctrl-`n` (where `n` is a number)	Go to the `n`th tab
Ctrl-S	Save current page as file
Ctrl-T	Open new tab
Ctrl-Tab, Ctrl-Page Down	Move to the next tab
Ctrl-Shift-Tab, Ctrl-Page Up	Move to the previous tab
Ctrl-U	View page source
'	Find link by search term
Alt-Enter	Open URL in a new tab
F6	Move to next frame
F7	Toggle caret browsing
Shift-F3	Repeat last Find operation backward

Finally, here are some more detailed resources on Firefox keys. There's an up-to-the-minute list in the Firefox Help system, under HelpHelp Contents, Keyboard Shortcuts. Otherwise, look here for recent changes: