Vitaly Friedman loves beautiful content and doesn’t like to give in easily. When he is not writing or speaking at a conference, he’s most probably running …
More about Vitaly…
There is nothing more valuable than the time we need to get things done. Over a long period of time time-saving techniques and solutions can turn out to be real life-savers. The more you use them, the more essential they become. Besides, using them in your favourite software applications, you can drastically increase your productivity, enhance your time-managment and improve both your professional skills and the quality of your work.
Table of Contents
Members support Smashing
Wonderful, friendly people who keep this lil' site alive — and get smarter every day.
There is nothing more valuable than the time we need to get things done. Over a long period of time time-saving techniques and solutions can turn out to be real life-savers. The more you use them, the more essential they become. Besides, using them in your favourite software applications, you can drastically increase your productivity, enhance your time-managment and improve both your professional skills and the quality of your work.
One of such time-saving features are Hotkeys (or keyboard shortcuts), which offer a powerful tool to get the result instantly - with a single keys combination. We’ve collected the most useful of them - for the most popular applications out there. Some shortcuts are trivial and well-known, but hopefully not all of them.
This post covers the most useful keyboard shortcuts for essential software applications users and web-developers can/should use on a daily basis - OS, Browsers, Music Players, Communication Tools, File Management and Coding. You will also find references to related resources - there you’ll find more specific shortcuts for your needs. See also:
Please note that a global hotkey can be used only by one application at a time. Some defined hotkeys might not work properly used with different active application windows.
Mac OS users should use Cmd instead of Ctrl and Option instead of Alt.
Windows & Windows-Applications
1
Switches between minimizing all open programs and showing them all.
Win + D
2
Opens the Run Window
Win + R
3
Open System Properties
Win + Break/Pause
4
Copy the selected item
CTRL while dragging an item
5
Select / highlight a block of text
CTRL+SHIFT with arrow key
6
Browse through windows in the order that they had been opened
Use global hotkeys in Mac OS: Mac OS X keyboard shortcuts
Use global hotkeys in Linux: Linux Keyboard Shortcuts You Should Know About
Browsers: Firefox & Co. (Eng version)
16
Remove CSS styles
Alt + V + Y + N (or CTRL + Shift + S with Web Developer’s Toolbar)
17
Restore CSS styles
Alt + V + Y + B
18
View the source code
Ctrl + U
19
View the source code of a selected code fragment
Select the section, Shift + F10 and select “Show source code”
20
Start DOM Inspector
Ctrl + Shift + I
21
Start Firebug
F12
22
Add bookmarks
Ctrl + D
23
Bookmarks
Ctrl + B
24
History
Ctrl + H
25
Reopen Previously Closed Tab
CTRL+SHIFT+T
26
Bookmark all tabs
CTRL+SHIFT+D
27
Back
Alt + Left Arrow
28
Forward
Alt + Right Arrow
29
Go one page back in your history
Backspace
30
Add a keyword to a bookmark
Go to your bookmarks much faster by giving them keywords. Right-click the bookmark and then select Properties. Put a short keyword in the keyword field, save it, and now you can type that keyword in the address bar and it will go to that bookmark. [Add Shortcuts]
31
Jump to Address Bar
Ctrl + L or F6
32
Go To Homepage
Alt + Home
33
Decrease Text Size
Ctrl + -
34
Increase Text Size
Ctrl + +
35
Go To Homepage
Alt + Home
36
Quick Search
/
37
Jump to Search Bar
Ctrl + K
38
Navigate in the tab history
ALT + Left Arrow (back), ALT + Right Arrow (forward)
39
Open New Tab
Ctrl + T (keyboard), Double Click on Tab Bar (mouse)
40
Close Current Tab
Ctrl + W (keyboard), Middle Click on Tab (mouse)
41
Jump To Next Tab
Ctrl + Page up or CTRL + Tab
42
Jump To Previous Tab
Ctrl + Page Dn or Ctrl + Shift + Tab
43
Open link in a new tab
Ctrl + Left mouse click
43
Select a Tab
Ctrl + [1 - 9]
45
Move to a next link
Tab
46
Move to a previous link
Shift + Tab
47
Display all previous text entered in a text box and/or available options on drop down menu.
Alt + Down arrow
Browsers: Internet Explorer 7
48
Open link in new background tab
CTRL+left mouse button or middle mouse button
49
Open link in new foreground tab
CTRL+SHIFT+left mouse button or CTRL+SHIFT+middle mouse button
50
Open Quick Tab View
CTRL+Q
51
View list of opened tabs
CTRL+SHIFT+Q
52
Select the Address bar
Alt + D
53
Open the website address that is typed in the Address Bar in new tab
Alt + Enter
54
Jump to Search Bar
Ctrl + E
55
Open New Tab
Ctrl + T (keyboard), Double Click on Tab Bar (mouse)
If you’ve used them once you’ll never be able to work without them. Bookmarklets (or Favelets) are tiny Javascript-Snippets, which are stored within a bookmark and add particular functionalities to the browser you’re using.
We have collected the most useful of them. And listed them in a comprehensive post Bookmarklets, Favelets and Snippets. You might be willing to check them out.
