Useful shortcuts to manage Internet browser tabs

Tutorials
November 27, 2020
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Sometimes long ago, internet browsers did not have tabs, so if you wanted to open multiple web pages at the same time, you had to open a web browser multiple times. Fortunately, that changed a long time ago and we got tabs, all open internet pages nicely packed in one place at the top of the screen.

Ever since tabs first appeared, almost 15 years ago, their functionality has been constantly improved, but many, even those who often use a computer, do not know about a bunch of tricks and shortcuts that can make it easier to work with them. Here we will show you some of the most useful and used shortcuts, mostly on the keyboard, that you can use.

Tab management shortcuts

We will start with probably the most useful and most familiar shortcut for opening a link in a new tab by clicking the middle mouse button (wheel) on the link, but did you know that you can achieve the same with the combination CTRL + left mouse click? Another handy combination is CTRL + T which opens a new tab.

When you have multiple tabs open, pressing CTRL + one of the numbers from 1 to 0 will take you to the tab that corresponds to the number pressed, while CTRL + Tab will open the next tab, and CTRL + SHIFT + Tab will open the previous tab.

You can click the X icon to close the tab or middle-click anywhere on the tab. If you accidentally close the wrong tab, by pressing CTRL + SHIFT + T you will undo the last action and open the closed tab. This can be repeated, so you can reopen more closed tabs.

If a page starts producing sound by pressing CTRL + M you can mutate the page, this shortcut, unfortunately, doesn’t work in Chrome. Add the site from the open tab to the bookmark by pressing CTRL + D, and CTRL + SHIFT + D will open a menu where you can change the name and set up the bookmark folder. To refresh the contents of the open tab, press CTRL + R or F5.

These are some of the basic commands, but there are others, so you can explore the issue in more detail. It is important to note that all of these commands work in all browsers unless noted otherwise. We hope that you will start using at least some of the above shortcuts and thus speed up and make it easier for yourself to surf the Internet.