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Scenario: I hit Ctrl+T to open a new tab, but I don't want it as the right-most tab, I want to slide it a few tabs to the left.

Can I do this using just the keyboard or do I have to use the mouse?

I can't see a shortcut here: Windows keyboard shortcuts - Chrome Help.

Something like Ctrl+Shift+Left would work nicely.

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  • 33
    Ctrl+Shift+PageUp/PageDown ? Works on Linux.
    – ahilsend
    Aug 8, 2013 at 10:54
  • 4
    Unfortunately not :( Damn I miss Linux Aug 8, 2013 at 10:57
  • 4
    @ahilsend, Weird, why would it work on Linux if it doesn't work on Windows?
    – Pacerier
    Jun 9, 2015 at 8:28
  • @ahilsend I love you
    – wjandrea
    Nov 7, 2017 at 5:42
  • @ahilsend It also works on Macs (as of September 2023). More info in my comment here. Sep 1, 2023 at 22:42

8 Answers 8

91

Ctrl+Shift+PgUp

Ctrl+Shift+PgDn

9
  • Great, it works. For some reason, this is not documented by Google in their help page on Chrome shortcuts at support.google.com/chrome/answer/157179?hl=en. May 21, 2018 at 17:02
  • 27
    This only works on Linux unfortunately. You need to use the extension linked to in the other answer for Windows and MacOS.
    – paradroid
    Jun 11, 2018 at 13:36
  • Works on OpenBSD's Chromium port. Aug 5, 2019 at 5:21
  • 4
    Works on my Windows 10 OS. Aug 25, 2022 at 17:33
  • 2
    Works for me in macOS too, yay!
    – David Cook
    Jul 4, 2023 at 5:19
70

Current Solution [2019]

There aren't any built-in, but there are extensions that provides this functionality.

I'm now using this chrome extension (recommended): Rearrange Tabs

You do have to edit the settings by going to chrome://extensions/shortcuts and then changing the values as shown in this screen (if you want to match the Linux shortcuts).

How to customise your shortcuts

Happy days :)


Legacy extension (2015)

This is the original one (not updated since 2015): Keyboard Shortcuts to Reorder Tabs

You need to reload all tabs after installing it or it won't work.

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  • The extension doesn't work on macOS Sierra though. Mar 27, 2017 at 16:25
  • 5
    @LarsNyström I just added this: github.com/mohnish/rearrange-tabs works nicely on Sierra, and no need to reload your browser May 8, 2017 at 10:57
  • 4
    @MMachinegun Nice, thank you! For new people here, MMachinegun's extension is not the same as the one in slugmandrew's answer. Here's a direct link to MMachinegun's extension in the Chrome Web Store: chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/rearrange-tabs/… May 9, 2017 at 6:53
  • 3
    Except the ctrl-shift-page-up/down shortcuts seem to still only work on Linux, and the OP mentioned the Windows keyboard shortcuts help page, so that's presumably what they're looking for.
    – jdunning
    Jul 25, 2018 at 23:29
  • 1
    Default keyboard shortcuts are: Move selected tab(s) Left: Mac(Ctrl+Shift+Left) Windows(Shift+Alt+Left) Move selected tab(s) Right: Mac(Ctrl+Shift+Right) Windows(Shift+Alt+Right) Move selected tab(s) to the Left-most Position: Mac(Ctrl+Shift+Down) Windows(Shift+Alt+Down) Move selected tab(s) to the Right-most Position: Mac(Ctrl+Shift+Up) Windows(Shift+Alt+Up) The shortcuts can be customized from chrome://extensions/shortcuts
    – ChrisB
    Dec 12, 2018 at 2:04
39

If you don't want to use extensions, you can focus tabs using

  • F6, F6

Now you're in tab-selection mode, and can use the keyboard for a variety of tab-editing tasks.

  • Move cursor: Left or Right
  • Move tabs: Ctrl+Left or Ctrl+Right
  • Move to the beginning or end: Ctrl+Shift+Left or Ctrl+Shift+Right
  • Enter focuses the page.

This also works very nicely with tab groups:

  • Create new groups by pressing Menu,Down,Right,Enter,Name of group,Enter
  • You can move tabs into groups with Ctrl+Arrow
  • Expand or fold group by moving the cursor to the group label and press Enter
  • Change group settings by pressing Menu

I currently don't know of a way to select multiple tabs.

If you are remapping these shortcuts using AutoHotKey or macros, use Ctrl+L, Shift+F6 to focus tabs, and Ctrl+L, F6 to focus the page. These shortcuts work from anywhere, regardless of what is currently focused.

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  • 11
    Great, Windows solution without need for extensions. I vote to make this the accepted answer.
    – Amio.io
    Dec 22, 2020 at 7:51
  • this is the only correct answer here
    – Mithaldu
    Jan 31, 2021 at 14:52
  • 1
    Nice! I didn't know you get a different focus when you press F6 twice.
    – Redsandro
    Feb 21, 2021 at 0:16
  • Wow! Thank you.
    – Mark C
    Apr 20, 2021 at 1:39
  • Works on Linux as well !
    – Umer Abbas
    Jun 28, 2021 at 4:52
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No need to dedicate a whole extension just for this. The AutoControl shortcut manager for Chrome can do this easily.

For example, you can use Win+Left and Win+Right to move a tab to the left and right, as shown in the following screenshot:
enter image description here
You could also use the scroll wheel instead of the arrow keys, as I do. You have lots of possibilities.

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  • GREAT recommendation to eliminate one of the many quirks that make Chrome much inferior to Waterfox (IMHO). However, I still need to find why Shift is stolen from the whole Chrome system, if used with the shortcut. :-( Apr 12, 2019 at 21:09
  • 1
    @CharlesRobertoCanato, What do you mean by "stolen"? You mean you found a bug?
    – Mercalli
    Apr 12, 2019 at 21:27
  • Sorry for my poor English, @Mercalli. Yeah, there was some situation after I built my move tabs shortcut where Shift was not being recognized by any Chrome tab or window. However, I could not reproduce it. I deleted the shortcut and built it again, and all has worked as expected. Anyway, I remembered that Vimium also offers this specific feature, so for now I went back to it. But it was a great tip, really. Apr 15, 2019 at 5:29
  • 6
    @CharlesRobertoCanato, I tried vimium as well but it had too many restrictions. It doesn't work on extension tabs or chrome:// tabs or error pages or Web Store tabs and so and so on. It also can't customize existing shortcuts. It's not a reliable shortcut extension in general. AutoControl doesn't have any of those problems.
    – Mercalli
    Apr 18, 2019 at 22:30
  • Oh, I apologize I wasn't very clear - my fault, sorry @Mercalli - I went a bit off-topic. AutoControl felt like a great extension for customizing the browser itself, and does it very nicely, the action creation is great. Vimium is not restricted: it's great on customizing the browsing (where AutoControl is only reasonable), but that's just my use case (very rarely I need anything from chrome or store pages). However, AutoControl is still a great answer to the OP. Apr 20, 2019 at 16:53
6

With Vimium C extension you can move tabs to left or right using the << (Shift + ,,) or >> (Shift + ..) keyboard shortcuts.

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0

This extension does exactly that. Move tabs around with

CTRL+SHIFT+LEFT & CTRL+SHIFT+RIGHT

No frills.

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/move-tab/lioifkjmgeijapfaccompfkdhbodcpkd/related

Just one problem CTRL+SHIFT+LEFT is used for text selection : ) in an input box or text area.

0

In addition to @Zikoat's answer, on a Mac, you can focus tabs by pressing Cmd+opt+Up/Down keys (F6 couldn't do if for me).

  • Move tab to the beginning or the end: Cmd+Ctrl+Shift+Left/Right

Ps: I don't have enough reputation to comment on the said answer, that's why I had to add an answer.

0

Yet another helpfull Chrome extension: Shortkeys (Custom Keyboard Shortcuts)

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