Keyboard Shortcuts For Firefox

keyboard shortcuts for firefox by jamie stanosWhen it comes to Internet browsers, people get personal.  Those who use Safari or Internet Explorer are hide-bound traditionalists, and staying with those browsers by this point is almost a statement in itself.  One of the most popular browsers is Firefox.  If you’re looking to improve your Firefox-ing skills, then you’re in luck; I recently read an article that shared some great keyboard shortcuts for Firefox, allowing you to do all your design work on the keyboard without even having to touch the mouse.  And the best part?  A lot of these work for Google Chrome too!  Here are just a few of them for Mac:

Open browser console: (command + shift + J) This integrated tool helps developers understand certain aspects of a web page, including code-related issues, bugs and web page elements.  You would typically have to go through the Firefox menu and click a few times before opening the browser console.  Yet this keyboard shortcut allows you to do it instantly.  

Re-open previously closed tab: (command + shift + T) In case you accidentally close a tab before finishing your work, and don’t want to go through your browsing history to find it, then this shortcut is for you.  

Bookmarking all opened tabs: (command + shift + D) Imagine if you’ve got your work and a bunch of important tabs up, but you need to close your laptop quickly.  How can you save all of that?  Simple, with this trick!  It’s a whole lot easier than going one-by-one to all your tabs and bookmarking them.  

Go back/forward pages: (command + ← or →) It’s often tough to go back to previous pages when you’re browsing a website and end up visiting several pages on the same tab.  It means moving your mouse cursor all the way up and clicking on that “back” button however many times.  Luckily, this shortcut lets you navigate back and forth on your visited webpages with your arrow keys.  

Minimize window: (command + M) Coding your website designs often means using a separate code editor and then opening Firefox again to see the website preview.  Going back and forth is tedious, but can be done quickly with this minimize trick.  

Navigate tabs with the keyboard: (command + 1-8) If you have 8 or fewer tabs opened, you can move between them without having to click on the tabs themselves.  Just hit command and any number between 1 and 8, depending on which tab you want to open.  

Close current tab: (command + W) It typically takes time to close tabs, since the tiny X mark on the left hand side of the server can be tough to land.  Luckily, you can use the keyboard to do it quickly and accurately.  

Open responsive design view: (command+ alt + M) This feature for Firefox lets you test a web page on different screen resolutions, a particularly useful tool for graphic designers.  

Reload and clear cache: (command + shift + R) When you’re making changes to a website design and want to preview changes, the changes you make to a live website often won’t appear unless you fully reload the page and clear the cache.  This is a waste of time to do with your mouse, especially when you can do it with the stroke of a keyboard.