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What are your favorite/useful/most used shortcuts for Firefox?

Mine: Ctrl-L and Ctrl-T

Any useful dark corners a very few know about?

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Shouldn't this be community wiki? – alex Oct 6 '09 at 4:42
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closed as not constructive by slhck, DragonLord, grawity, Gareth, Nifle Sep 2 '11 at 7:42

This question is not a good fit to our Q&A format. We expect answers to generally involve facts, references, or specific expertise; this question will likely solicit opinion, debate, arguments, polling, or extended discussion. See the FAQ.

24 Answers

i used the / a lot.

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Very useful! To think I was previously using an addon to close quick search after I had used it. – Thomas Oct 6 '09 at 3:21
+1 dude I didn't know this. – david Oct 6 '09 at 5:52
This can also be accomplished by using CTRL+F – Roland Oct 7 '09 at 12:35
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I have "Search for text when I start typing" checked in Advanded Options/Preferences which removes the need to press / to start quick searching. – Richard Oct 7 '09 at 15:14
There's a difference (in the German Fx): / opens the search bar without any control (case sensitivity etc.), Strg+F opens it with the controls. – furtelwart Oct 20 '09 at 5:59
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Ctrl+T - Open new tab

Ctrl+W - Close tab

Ctrl + Shift + T - reopen last closed tab

See a total list of Firefox keyboard shortcuts here: http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Keyboard+shortcuts

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Space & SHIFT+Space
Page down and Page up for quicker scrolling.

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thanks for the bonus on the SHIFT+space cuz that's new to me. – Good Time Tribe Oct 6 '09 at 4:17
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Ctrl+l - To go to the URL bar (location bar).

Ctrl+k - To go to the search box.

Ctrl+Shift+p - for PRIVATE browsing ;-)

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Ctrl + J to show downloads list.

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It's Ctrl+Y on Linux. – CarlF Oct 8 '09 at 14:57
It's Ctrl+Shift=Y on Ubuntu 10.04 – user39559 Sep 8 '10 at 9:15
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Alt + left and Alt + right for forward and back.

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This works in most browsing environments, including IE, Windows Explorer, Total Commander, etc. – Yuval Oct 6 '09 at 21:43
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For keyboard warriors F7 puts Firefox in Caret browsing mode.

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F6 to focus the address bar.

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Ctrl-L/Command-L (for "Location") works in all browsers I know. – Arjan Oct 7 '09 at 12:51
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Ctrl + Shift + Del Clear Private Data

check here for more

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...but not ALL private data: superuser.com/questions/1627/… – Arjan Oct 7 '09 at 12:53
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Ctrl-L opens the location bar (address bar),
(while in the address bar) I use extensively (typing the first few letters and then) scrolling through suggestions,
or just type the domain and press Ctrl-Enter (for .com) and Shift-Enter (for .net) to autocomplete it.

Ctrl-K opens the search bar,
(while in the search bar), Ctrl-Up/Down scrolls through the search engines.

Ctrl-PageUp/PageDown scrolls through tabs,
F11 gives me full screen

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Ctrl-K, then Alt+Up/Down shows the list and you can see all engines. usefull with two wikipedia/wikimedia engines! – furtelwart Oct 27 '09 at 7:36
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Alt-F4 to help me get back to work :)

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Brilliant, funny ;-) – Roland Oct 7 '09 at 19:09
WTF alt-f4 -- it closed my firefox... wow evil – Andrei Chikatilo Oct 21 '09 at 20:57
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As a web developer, I use ctrl + u to view source.

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Not exactly not well known, but I love F5 for reloading the page. Ctrl + F5 for a complete reload.

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It's Ctrl + F5 (or Ctrl + Shift + r) for a 'complete' reload. – tnorthcutt Oct 6 '09 at 23:39
@tnorthcutt - 1+. Fixed. :) – Thomas Nov 1 '09 at 7:35
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CTRL + 1 to CTRL +9 to navigate tabs in order (alternate to CTRL + TAB )

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thanks for this. i've always used alt+1 to alt+9 in Linux, but was dismayed it didnt work in windows. now your tip'll let me at least get close. – Good Time Tribe Oct 6 '09 at 4:16
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Obviously alt with anything in the menu bar, but in particular alt-t-a to show addons list.

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Slightly off-topic but might be useful to the keyboard-lovers out there:

I use the Vimperator addon for Firefox. It adds Vim-like keyboard access to 98%* of your everyday browsing tasks. IMHO it's a must-have for Vim users and keyboard addicts.
* Special cases like Flash content or convoluted (multi-frame) layouts might force you to use your mouse.

Vimperator, like Vim, tries to keep your fingers near the home row.
Here's a small sample of what it can do (preformatted text is typed exactly as shown):

Movement

j/k Scroll down/up
<Ctrl>f/<Ctrl>b Page down/up
<Ctrl>d/<Ctrl>u Half a page down/up
/ Search and highlight

Navigation

ogoogle.com<Enter> Open Google in the current tab
tgoogle.com<Enter> Open Google in a new tab
wgoogle.com<Enter> Open Google in a new window

Vimperator visually numbers all the links, buttons and controls on a page when you type f. You can then click a link by typing one of the numbers.

f30 Click on the 30th link
fcomments<Enter> Click on the first link containing 'comments'
fcomments2<Enter> Click on the second link containing 'comments'

Tabs

bgmail<Enter> Go to next tab whose title contains 'gmail'
gt Go to the next tab
3gt Go to the 3rd tab
d Close the current tab
3d Close the current tab and the next 2 tabs
u Undo close tab

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Ctrl + F5 or Ctrl + Shift + R to reload and override the cache.

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I like CTRL+SHIFT+t I always close the wrong tabs accidentally and then I need to get them open again.

CTRL+F to search in the browser text

CTRL+W to close the current tab

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CTRL + + for Zoon In and CTRL + - for Zoom Out

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And Ctrl/Command-0 for the original size. – Arjan Oct 7 '09 at 13:50
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Ctrl + Shift + T to reopen accidentally closed tab

Ctrl + Shift + N to reopen accidentally closed window

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Also Ctrl+Tab and Ctrl+Shift+Tab to scroll tabs.

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Ctrl + Enter to complete a .com address in the location bar.

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That's imho the most stupid shortcut ever... Are there only .com domains out there? NO. – furtelwart Oct 20 '09 at 6:01
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Though one could use Ctrl-K/Command-K to go to the search bar, I always use Command-L to get to the location bar, followed by Tab to get to the search bar. This works the same in other browsers, such as Safari.

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Like other web developers, I have to test on all popular browsers. So my favorite shortcuts are those which work both in IE & Firefox (& other browsers)

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