Hack 5. 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. Table 1-2 shows the major keys used by both browsers.
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On the Macintosh, substitute Command for
Ctrl and Option for
Alt.
|
|
Table 1-2. 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. Table 1-3 shows the common ones that
don't match Internet Explorer.
Table 1-3. 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
nth 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 Help Help Contents, Keyboard Shortcuts.
Otherwise, look here for recent changes:
- http://www.mozilla.org/support/firefox/keyboard
More technically, there's some newer discussion
about key changes here:
- http://www.mozilla.org/access/keyboard/proposal
You might also want to look at this older URL:
- http://www.mozilla.org/unix/customizing.html
And finally, this page provides general accessibility information for
Mozilla:
- http://www.mozilla.org/access/
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