Quickly Switching Between Tabs in Firefox and IE

When you have multiple tabs open in Firefox or IE, you can switch between them quickly using control + tab.

Everyone knows that you can quickly switch between programs (for example, Firefox and Word) using command + tab (in a Mac) and alt + tab (in Windows). But it used to bug me that I couldn’t switch between tabs within my web browser with similar efficiency.

Turns out I just didn’t know how. Finally, the other day I discovered this by mistake. Probably most of you already knew this — it’s a bit humbling to acknowledge that I didn’t know that already! But for any of you who, like me, hadn’t yet figured out that control + tab switches between tabs, hopefully this can save you some time.

Related posts:

December 1, 2008 | Filed Under Productivity | 11 Comments 
Email This | Delicious | Digg

Comments

11 Responses to “Quickly Switching Between Tabs in Firefox and IE”

  1. Bryan DeWire on December 1st, 2008 9:18 am

    And if you hold shift while using control + tab or alt + tab, you go backwards!

  2. Brance on December 1st, 2008 9:49 am

    What am I doing wrong? ctrl+tab just selects different elements of the Safari window (back button, refresh button, etc.), it doesn’t switch between tabs.

    I would like to be able to do this though.

    I’m using 10.4.11 and Safari 3.2

    Thanks

  3. Bryan DeWire on December 1st, 2008 9:51 am

    The only ones that Matt mentioned were IE and Firefox, so maybe that’s why.

  4. Matt on December 1st, 2008 10:02 am

    Brance,

    I just checked into Safari. In Safari, do command + shift + left arrow or right arrow.

    Not as simple as the control + tab in IE and Firefox, but good to see it can still be done in Safari.

    See http://www.mactips.org/archives/2005/12/01/switch-between-safari-tabs-with-keyboard/.

    Matt

  5. Brance on December 1st, 2008 11:57 am

    Thanks Matt!

    I should have noticed you didn’t mention Safari. Duh!

    Not to self: read more carefully!

  6. Brance on December 1st, 2008 11:57 am

    NOTE to self: type more carefully! :-)

  7. Tim Schaaf on December 1st, 2008 12:00 pm

    Thanks Matt! I didn’t know this either and it will save me a ton of time. By habit I often hit alt+tab when I’m working in Firefox and get frustrated that I’ve jumped programs.

  8. John Lumgair on December 1st, 2008 1:29 pm

    Thanks matt
    This is brilliant, I didn’t know this either.
    I knew you could do command + 1 (or what ever number you choose) and it will go to that number tab, but this is much more useful.

  9. Caleb on December 1st, 2008 4:08 pm

    I also find it helpful to use ctrl + t for a new tab, ctrl + n for a new window, ctrl + shift + t to undo a closed window (a FF3 feature!), F6 to jump to the URL (already highlighted).

    Also, I recommend doing an entire post on Firefox’s new Ubiquity tool. It’s so easy to use and speeds things up so quickly! Not only that, you can do some things that were previously impossible.

    http://labs.mozilla.com/2008/08/introducing-ubiquity/

  10. Pat on December 1st, 2008 7:33 pm

    I use Google Chrome (it’s so much cleaner!) and it has the same features. You can use ctrl + pg up and ctrl + pg down to do the same things.

  11. Peter on December 2nd, 2008 11:45 am

    And, if you happen to be using Linux, you also need to use CTRL + pg up or CTRL + pg down to switch tabs in Firefox (CTRL + tab switches between multiple desktops and ALT + tab switches between applications on the desktop you’re on — at least in KDE).

Leave a Reply