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Here are a few keyboard shortcuts which is applicable for Google Chrome only.

Google does it again

After getting tremendous response with the article on the Google search tips and tricks article I got many requests asking about Google Chrome browser and some of the tips related to the browser. So here is my answer to those. Some really useful google chrome keyboard shortcuts. 

1. Play with Google Chrome Bookmarks

Sometimes you need to make a note of a page which you like or which you would like to visit at a later point of time. Almost all the brosers provide the “bookmark this” option for the same. Chrome also allows you to do the same thing. Towards the left of your address bar, there is a star symbol which allows you to bookmark a site. If you need to see the websites in your bookmark list, google chrome allows you to view it using a short cut. The Ctrl+B keyboard shortcut allows you to toggle between the bookmark bar on and off. When you use this the first time, a small bar will appear below your URL address bar which has a list of your bookmarked sites. If you repeat the shortcut again, the bar will disappear.

2. A task manager only for Google Chrome

You might know the windows task manager you call every time your system hangs or when you want to check the system resource utility etc. Well, Google chrome comes with its own task manager. To invoke this task manager, you will have to use the keyboard shortcut “Shift+Escape”. This will open up a small window with the task details. For each tab you have opened, it will tell you the memory utilized, the cpu time utilised and the network utilised. Now, if you are a real nerd, then you are going to love this. Google has got a link in its Task manager which will allow you to have a closer and more detailed look at the task manager. I leave that for you to ponder.

3. Be the invisible man using the “incognito Mode”

There will be times when you have to browse in stealth or invisible mode, for example, to plan surprises like gifts or birthdays, Google Chrome offers the incognito browsing mode.  The web pages that you open and files downloaded while you are incognito won’t be logged in your browsing and download histories. All  new cookies are deleted after the incognito window is closed. One can browse normally and in incognito mode at the same time by using separate windows. Ctrl+Shift+N opens a new window in “Incognito Mode.”

Useful Global browser keyboard shortcuts applicable to Google Chrome

4. Jump to your address bar

Sometimes while browsing, you need to go to the address bar to type a new website. Usually people use their mouse to point to the addrss bar, click it to hightlight it and then type in the new website url which you need to visit. Well if you use this next shortcut, you will never use the mouse for that again. The keyboard shortcut “Ctrl+L” will allow you to jump to the address bar no matter where you are.  This way you can save a few milli seconds, but while browsing, every second counts. This keyboard shortcut has made my life easier as i am too old to use the point and click option.

5. “Google it” using Google chrome

Well, this was quite obvious when google came up with the new browser. It has done a neat little trick which allows you to do a google search without going to google home page. This shortcut allows you to do just that, ie do a google search without going to the www.google.com home page. Ctrl+K allows you to do a google search from chrome. Just like the “jump to address bar” shortcut, this short cut takes you to the address bar. But it does one extra thing. That is to put a question mark (?) in the begining. Now if you enter a key word and press enter, instead of searching for a website, chrome treats that as a google search key word and displays the google search results for the same. Try it out,  you will love it.

6. Open or close a new Tab

Ok, dont shout at me. I know that most people already know that the short cut i am talking about is “Ctrl+T“. But without this shortcut, this list will not be complete. This was one of the first shortcuts which caught my imagination when tabbed browsing was first introduced. I dont know who introduced tabbed browsing first but i had my first experience with firefox. Prior to that i used the Ctrl+N for opening a new page. But i found it difficult to keep track of related pages. But ever since tabbed browsing was introduced, you can logically group all the tags and keep it together. You can even drag and rearrange the tabs. 

So, how do you close a tab when you are done with it. Dont even think of putting your hand over that mouse. In chrome (or in many other tabbed browsers) you can do it by Ctrl+W shortcut. It will close the tab which you are currently in and move the control over to the tab which is immediatly lef to it. If it is the only tab which is open, then this shortcut will close the chrome window itself.

7. OOps i did it again. I have to type in the url of the tab which I accidentally closed just now. right?

Wrong. We all make mistakes. And before i knew that there was a shortcut to open the last tab which you closed, i really wished there was one. Most of the time i reach a page through a google serach and i dont necessarily remember the URL or the links which led me to the site which i just closed. So this shortkey was a real blessing for me. Ctrl+Shift+T opens the last closed tab while you were browsing. Remember that it is only applicable when you have not closed the main google chrome window. If you have closed the main window, this shortcut key cannot help you.

8. Cycle through the open tabs

Ok, this one is also pretty familiar to you guys right? Ctrl+Tab will cycle through the open tabs which you have in chrome. Geeks, you can move on to the next one if you want. Let me tell my “new to tabbed browsing readers” a thing or two about this short cut. If you have opened 20 tabs and finding it difficult to locate one particular tab in those 20, you dont need to point and click your mouse on each tab and check  it out. You can use this short cut instead. You will have to press your Ctrl button and while you are pressing it, you will have to press the tab button multiple times. Each time you press the button, it will take you to a tab which is open under your main chrome window. The order is from left to right and when it reaches the last tab, it jumps back to the first tab again. If you want to reverse this effect, you will have to press Ctrl+Shift+tab which will allow you to cycle from right to left.

9. From sequential to direct access. Go directly to the Nth tab

If there are 10 tabs open and if you want to go to the “N” th tab (where n is a number between 1 to 9) then you can do it by using the Ctrl+ 1 through 9. For example if you want to go to the 5th tab, then you will press Ctrl+5. You cannot press Ctrl+0 or any number greater than 9. It will not simply work. I dont use it much often. But different people have got different styles of browsing. You can use this if you find this suiting your style of browsing.

10. Size does matter

Sometimes you will reach a website or a blog which is using a very small font type which is imposible to read without a microscope. In such cases, the following shortcuts will come handy. If you want to increase the font size of the text in the website, use Ctrl +++ . If you want to reduce the size, then use Ctrl —. That is right, the plus sign (+) will increase the font size and the minus sign(-) will decrease the font size when used with the control key. If you want to restore the page font size to the default as it was when it was created, you can use Ctrl + 0.

Hope these keyboard shortcuts will enhance your browsing. If you have any shortcuts which you found really useful and want to share, you can share it through the comments section. Please make sure that you pass on this website to anyone who you feel does not know about the wonderful world of tabbed browsing.