In browsers or web browsers, the main control tool is the mouse + graphical interface. This is very convenient, but often forces you to spend extra time on elementary operations. Therefore, developers have provided hot keys, or hotkeys. This article will cover all the available keyboard shortcuts in FireFox.
Web browsing
To navigate the World Wide Web, instead of the usual Back and Forward buttons, you can use the combinations shown in the table below.
Hotkey | Action description |
Alt + Left | Opens the previous page. |
Backspace |
Alt + Right | Opens the next page after returning to the previous one. |
Shift + Backspace |
Alt + Home | Opens the start page in the current tab |
F5 | Updates web page content |
Ctrl + R |
Ctrl + F5 | Refreshes the contents of the web page, but all files are reloaded from the server |
Ctrl + Shift + R |
Escape (Esc) | Stops page loading |
Alt + D | Highlight the contents of the address bar |
Ctrl + Enter | Adds the ending .com to the entered address |
Shift + Enter | Adds the ending .net to the input address |
Ctrl + Shift + Enter | Adds the ending .org to the input address |
Delete | Deletes the autocomplete option |
The picture below shows one example:
Window and tab management
When surfing the web, you constantly need to operate windows and tabs. There are also hot keys for these operations. Their complete list is tabulated below.
Basic combination | Additional key | Action description |
Window control |
Alt | - | Shows the standard menu bar above the tab ribbon |
F10 |
Ctrl | N | Opens a new FireFox window. |
Alt | F4 | Close active browser window |
Ctrl + Shift | W | Closes all open windows. |
Q |
N | Opens the last closed window. |
Tab management |
Ctrl | T | Open Tab Hot Key |
F4 | Close active tab |
W |
Ctrl + Shift | T | Opens the last closed tab or group of tabs. |
PageUp | Move the focal tab left and right on the tab bar |
Pagedown |
Tab | Switch to the previous (first pair of combinations) or the next tab (second pair of combinations) |
Ctrl | PageUp |
Tab |
Pagedown |
Home | Place the “focal” tab at the beginning and end of the tab bar, respectively |
End |
Keys 1 - 8 | The open tab with the specified number or the last one is displayed. |
9 |
Note. A “focus” tab is a special form of highlighting an interface element. To use it, you need to press the Alt key, and then use the Shift + Tab combination to switch to the desired tab.
We should also mention the hot key Ctrl + Shift + P, which brings up a new window in the "Incognito" mode. It does not save browsing and download history. One use case is surfing the web from a public PC.
View page and operations with its contents
In addition to operating tabs, hot keys in FireFox allow you to fully work with information on a web page.
Basic combination | Additional key | Action description |
View and Zoom |
Home | - | Goes to the beginning and end of the page, respectively |
End |
PageUp | - | Scrolls a web page up to viewport size |
Shift | Space |
Pagedown | - | Same but down |
| Space (space) |
Ctrl | + | Zoom in and out |
- |
Mouse wheel rotation |
0 | Sets page scaling = 100% |
F11 | - | Full screen site browsing |
Page Operations and Editing |
Ctrl | O | Opens HTML or PDF document from hard drive |
P | Invokes the print dialog. |
S | Saves an open page in HTML format |
C | Copy, cut and paste, respectively, text or image |
X |
V |
A | Selects the entire page content. |
Z | Cancels one last text operation |
Y | Repeats a canceled action |
Search on page |
Ctrl | F | Opens the search bar on the page |
G | Returns to the last match. Alternative key - F3 |
E | Puts the cursor on the optional search line |
K |
Arrows "Top" and "Down" | Allows you to select a search engine for the auxiliary search string. It works only after using the combination Ctrl + E |
Here is another example of using combinations in practice:
History of visits, bookmarks and other tools
The list of hotkeys in Firefox for quick access to these browser elements is shown in the following table.
Basic combination | Additional key | Action description |
Browser history |
Ctrl | N | Opens a panel on the left with a history of visits |
Ctrl + Shift | N | Calls the "History" window |
Delete | Invokes the Clear History dialog box. |
Bookmarks |
Ctrl | D | Adds an open site to Bookmarks |
B | Opens the Bookmarks mini-pane on the left. |
I |
Ctrl + Shift | D | Adds sites from all open tabs to Bookmarks |
IN | Calls the Bookmark Library window |
Other |
Ctrl | J | Displays the Download Manager window. |
F12 | - | Opens the "Developer Panel" |
Ctrl + Shift | A | Shows all installed add-ons. |
TO | Switches the developer panel to the "Web console", "Inspector" and "Debugger" modes, respectively |
FROM |
S |
In reality, it looks like this:
HTML 5 media player control
The following keyboard shortcuts are assigned to this procedure in FireFox:
- Space (space) - start / pause file playback.
- Arrows "Up", "Down" - adjust the sound volume.
- Ctrl + the same arrows - turn the sound off and on.
- Rewind: Left, Right, back and forth arrows for 15 seconds respectively; Ctrl + the same arrows - move 10% of the total file time back or forward; Home - Play from the beginning; End - Rewind to the end of the recording.
Note. Many of the listed button combinations work in other browsers: Google Chrome, Opera, Yandex.Browser, Safari, Internet Explorer.
Knowing the hotkeys in FireFox significantly improves the usability of the program and saves a little time on simple operations.