When using your web browser there are a lot of things that you can do to speed up your efficiency and productivity, particularly when it comes to keyboard shortcuts. Thanks to a comment by Inferno_str1ke it struck me that some people may not realize the different ways you can make their browser open websites in a new tab. His comment sparked some “thank you’s” from other readers, and here’s what he had to say:
For about four months I was using the Google Toolbar search box exclusively, but now I’ve even dropped that in favour of keyword searches. I just hit Alt+D to jump to the URL box, type g,w,v,i,f for Google, Wikipedia, Google Video, Google Images and Facebook respectively, type a query and hit Enter or Alt+Enter if I want it in a new tab.
Did you know that in Firefox from the Address Bar or Search Box you can hit Alt+Enter to pull up the site in a new tab? We thought that this would be a good thing to share with all of our readers, and here’s a quick rundown of the various ways you can have sites open in a new tab for each of the different browsers:
–Firefox & Internet Explorer–
- Ctrl+T – Open a new tab with a blank page loaded.
- Alt+Enter – While in the Address Bar or Search Box this will open the requested site in a new tab.
- Ctrl+Shift+Enter – When you’ve selected a link using the keyboard this shortcut will open the hyperlinked site in a new tab.
- Ctrl+Enter – When you’ve selected a link using the keyboard this shortcut will open the hyperlinked site in a new tab in the background.
- Ctrl+Shift+Click – When left-clicking on a link with the mouse hold down the Shift key to have the hyperlinked site open in a new tab.
- Ctrl+Click – When left-clicking on a link with the mouse hold down the Ctrl+Shift keys to have the hyperlinked site open in a new tab in the background.
–Opera–
- Ctrl+T – Open a new tab with Speed Dial loaded.
- Shift+Enter – While in the Address Bar or Search Box this will open the requested site in a new tab.
- Ctrl+Shift+Enter – While in the Address Bar or Search Box this will open the requested site in a new tab in the background.
- Shift+Enter – When you’ve selected a link using the keyboard this shortcut will open the hyperlinked site in a new tab.
- Ctrl+Shift+Enter – When you’ve selected a link using the keyboard this shortcut will open the hyperlinked site in a new tab in the background.
- Shift+Click – When left-clicking on a link with the mouse hold down the Shift key to have the hyperlinked site open in a new tab.
- Ctrl+Shift+Click – When left-clicking on a link with the mouse hold down the Ctrl+Shift keys to have the hyperlinked site open in a new tab in the background.
Hopefully we’ve saved you some time!
Ctrl + K – gets you to the search box
and another alternative to alt + D is F6!
ah and something else too
if you are selecting the search box clicking Ctrl + up or down arrow will scroll you through search engines you have
“I just hit Alt+D to jump to the URL box, type g,w,v,i,f for Google, Wikipedia, Google Video, Google Images and Facebook respectively, type a query and hit Enter or Alt+Enter if I want it in a new tab.”
Opera
the URL or
the search-key and searched-word (”g” for Google etc)
the alias of a bookmark (with Shift+F2 you don’t even need to hit Enter) – you can set the alias in the properties of bookmarks
just hit F2 to open an URL box and type
Huh, that is pretty awesome as well. I think I’ll use that in a followup post.
@ResearchWizard: I did cover shortcuts in the article for Opera as well.
I almost always want search results in a new tab. You can change the default so that the browser search box always opens results in a new tab and Alt+Enter opens in the same tab.
about:config
browser.search.openintab
change value to “true”
Thanks for the credit, not found many people who know about keyword searching, let alone how to open a URL in a new tab. Nice to see you spreading the word. I just hope that the keywords get synced to Weave along with everything else so eventually I can get my Firefox experience just how I like it from the moment I’ve installed the program.
That’s another good trick! Thanks.
That would be really nice to see, and I’m sure that the service is going to evolve quite well. I expect that most aspects of the user’s profile will eventually get synced.
And don’t forget, use the middle mouse button / scroller to click on a link will open a new tab in Firefox.
thanks ResearchWizard for the tons of shortcuts. really appreciated!
how to jump on the new browser tab without clicking it and vice versa
Very Helpful Thread.
Surely will same some time.