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Hack Attack: Mouse-less Firefox

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I think there are two major shortcuts you forgot: - Ctrl/Option+G is the find next (equivalent to F3 - Ctlr+W closes a tab (no need for an extension to get that) http://surfkeys.mozdev.org/ from the author of Hit-a-Hint is nice too, it provides keys for smooth scrolling in a page without the mouse.

Highlighted by alfredwesterveld

Mouse-less Firefox

Highlighted by bernadette

Navigation from the toolbar

The address bar shortcut should be as instinctual as breathing by now, but there's a few more shortcuts to that top bar that you should keep in mind.

  • Select location bar: Ctrl/Cmd+L or Alt+D
  • Select search bar: Ctrl/Cmd+K
  • Back: Backspace or Alt/Cmd+Left
  • Forward: Alt/Option+Right or Shift+Backspace
  • Change search engine: Ctrl/Cmd+Down (Next) +Up (Previous)

The last shortcut, used to change the search engine, was a big discovery for me. I've always been interested in additional search bar plugins, but it was never worth the trip to the mouse. No problem any more.

Searching pages

The find-as-you-type feature was an epiphany. While Google is great at getting you to the right web page, Firefox's find-as-you-type feature gets you the rest of the way.

  • Find as you type text: /
  • Find as you type link: '
  • Regular old find: Ctrl/Cmd+F

The link search is very useful, especially when used in conjunction with...

Opening pages

Unless you do all of your browsing in one page, these shortcuts are huge when you don't want to go running for your mouse.

  • Open link in new window: Shift+Enter
  • Open link in new tab: Ctrl/Cmd+Enter
  • Open address/search in new tab: Alt/Option+Enter

Used together with their respective shortcuts (address and search bar shortcuts and the find-as-you-type link shortcut), the page opening shortcuts go a long way toward mouse-less browsing.

Grab bag

The following shortcuts fall into a more general grab bag of useful shortcuts.

  • Caret browsing: F7
  • Refresh: Ctrl/Cmd+R or F5
  • Refresh (override cache): Ctrl/Cmd+F5 or Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+R
  • Switch tabs: Ctrl/Cmd+Tab
  • Select tab (1-9): Ctrl/Cmd+[1-9]
  • Compose email: Ctrl/Cmd+M

The preceding shortcuts are of mostly obvious usefulness. Switching tabs and reloading pages are must-have shortcuts for any mouse-eschewing Firefox-er. A less-known feature, Caret browsing, inserts a cursor into the text of the page and is very useful for highlighting and copying text.

Highlighted by rohitratnan

  • Select location bar: Ctrl/Cmd+L or Alt+D
  • Select search bar: Ctrl/Cmd+K
  • Back: Backspace or Alt/Cmd+Left
  • Forward: Alt/Option+Right or Shift+Backspace
  • Change search engine: Ctrl/Cmd+Down (Next) +Up (Previous)

    • Highlighted by aranae

    Another essential for mouseless browsing in Firefox is the Hit-a-Hint extension. It allows you to "click" links via the keyboard; you just hit a customizable key that applies number labels to all of the links on the screen, and typing one of these numbers selects the link.

    Highlighted by alfredwesterveld