Seven Keyboard Shortcuts to use Inside your Web Browser

While browsing the Internet there are a number of keyboard shortcuts you may not know about or be using, yet.  Keyboard shortcuts can often save time over using a mouse, and in some situations can do things a mouse cannot.  The shortcuts below will work in most common web browsers: 

Backspace Key - Use this to go back to the previous webpage.  The previous page will be displayed in whichever browser tab is current when you press the backspace key.  Note, if you press backspace in a tab that has only had the current page, nothing will happen.  For example, if you are on a webpage and click a link and this opens in a new tab, common when opening documents or external websites, pressing the backspace key will not take you to the original website.  Instead, close the current tab and the tab for the website you clicked the link from will be displayed, or simply click the tab for the original website.

Ctrl + Shift + T - Use this combination to restore the last browser tab you closed.  This feature can be extremely helpful if you closed a webpage on accident or before realizing you needed additional information from it.  This tool opens each closed tab one at a time starting with the most recently closed tab.  You can use this combination more than once to get to the tab you need, but it will only work as long as you have not completely closed the browser window where the tab was closed.


Ctrl + F - Use this combination to find certain words or phrases on the current webpage.  This feature is helpful when you are doing research or looking for something specific or unique from a particular webpage.  The find feature highlights all matching results as you type so your results will refine with each additional letter typed.

Ctrl + T - Use this combination to open a new tab within the same browser window you are working in.  This feature is helpful when you want to look at additional webpages without losing existing open webpages.

Ctrl + N - Use this combination to open up an entirely new browser window.  This feature is helpful when you are working with different topics or simply want to open a new window to come back to at a later time.  Note, this will open a new window using the same browser you are currently working in.  

Ctrl + D - Use this to bookmark or mark a webpage as a favorite.  This brings up the bookmark or favorite menu so you can save the webpage to easily go back to it later.

Ctrl + Shift + B - Use this to bring up the bookmark or favorite bar.  This allows you to quickly access saved webpages and go to them with a single click.

Each of these keyboard shortcuts are easy to use while browsing the Internet and work within most web browsers.  Use these shortcuts in place of multiple mouse clicks or menu navigation for the same features.  Keyboard shortcuts can save time and energy by gaining access to previous webpages, highlighting search terms within a webpage, restoring closed browser tabs, opening new browser tabs and windows, saving webpages as bookmarks, and quickly accessing these bookmarks later.  Once you use some of these keyboard shortcuts we are sure you will find them invaluable.  

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