Firefox Keyboard Shortcuts for Power Users

All features in Mozilla Firefox browser are accessible through the use of the keyboard. You can use shortcut keys to view and save Web pages, search the web, open new webpages, work with bookmarks, or find text on the current webpage.

Some of the most common keyboard shortcuts in Mozilla Firefox are Ctrl+N (to open a new Firefox window), Ctrl+T (to open a new tab), Ctrl+F4 (to close the current tab) and Ctrl+S to save the current webpage.

Mozilla Firefox supports many more powerful keyboard shortcuts. For instance, by pressing a simple key combination, you can manually delete autocomplete entries from the Firefox location bar or Web forms. I am sharing a list of my favorite Mozilla Firefox Keyboard Shortcuts that make web browsing with Firefox even more fun. And you also save your precious time as navigating through several layers of Firefox Toolbar menus is no longer necessary.

1. Web Search Ctrl+K moves the cursor to the Search Bar. You can then type in the terms you wish to find on the Web. Press Ctrl+Down to select the next search engine in the Web Search bar. and only works if the Search Bar is visible. If the Search Bar is hidden, this keyboard shortcut has no effect.

2. F3 or Ctrl+F or / (Slash) displays the Find Toolbar at the bottom of the browser window. Use Shift+F3 to find the previous occurrence of the entered text on that page.

3. Select text on webpages with keyboard keys. Press F7 to turn Caret Browsing on. Caret Browsing places a moveable cursor in webpages, allowing you to select text with the keyboard just like a normal text editor. Ctrl+C copies the selected text to the Clipboard. When you are done copying the texting, press F7 again to turn Caret Browse off.

4. F5 reloads the current page. Ctrl+F5 will display the most up-to date version of the webpage (overriding the browser cache). Works the same as in IE.

5. Alt+D or F6 or Ctrl+L will select the location bar. Alt+Enter will open the URL in the Address Bar in a new tab.

6. Ctrl+U will display the source code of the current webpage in a new tab or window.

7. The is my most favorite Firefox shortcut - Firefox AutoComplete feature saves previous entries you’ve made for Web addresses, forms, and passwords. Firefox also lets you delete selected autocomplete entries. When typing information in Web forms, and typing passwords, you can remove an item from the list of suggestions by clicking the item and then pressing Shift+ DELETE key.

Internet Explorer, Firefox and Opera browser share many of the same keyboard shortcuts. In particular, menu navigation uses the same combinations of arrow keys and Alt as most Windows applications, and navigation within text-editing fields supports the same keystrokes as most text editors. Only the shortcuts highlighted in bold are exclusive to Firefox.

Keyconfig - another great Firefox extension, gives you a menu of all of Firefox’s keyboard shortcuts, and lets you replace any of them with the key comibnation of your choice, or disable it entirely. It even lets you change keyboard shortcuts owned by other extensions.

You can also download and print the official Firefox keyboard shortcut chart.