Google Chrome is arguably the most popular browser in the world.
In fact, based on GlobalStats data in June 2021, Chrome is claimed to be the best-selling browser in the world with a market share of around 65 percent, ahead of Safari with 18 percent and Mozilla Firefox with 3 percent.
Chrome itself is equipped with a number of features that are claimed to make the experience of surfing the internet faster and more comfortable.
Well, did you know that various browsing activities on the internet and various features in Chrome can be accessed using a number of keyboard shortcuts without having to access them using a mouse?
Instead of clicking the “+” icon to open a new tab, for example, users can press Ctrl + T on their keyboard to access a new tab in Chrome.
Then, users can also press the F5 or Ctrl + R keys to reload a web page that is currently being accessed, instead of right-clicking on the mouse and selecting the “Reload” menu.
For complete keyboard shortcuts, you can listen to the following list of Windows and macOS versions of Chrome shortcuts from the SupportGoogle page.
Shortcut keys in the Windows version of Chrome
1. Chrome tab and window shortcuts
- Ctrl + N: opens a new Chrome window
- Ctrl + Shift + N: opens a new window in Incognito mode
- Ctrl + T: opens a new tab
- Ctrl + Shift + T: open previously closed tab
- Ctrl + Tab / Ctrl + Page Down: move to the position of the next tab that is currently open
- Ctrl + Tab / Ctrl + Page Up: move to the position of the previous tab that is currently open
- Ctrl + 1 – Ctrl + 8: move to tabs in number order
- Ctrl + 9: move to the far right tab in a window
- Alt + Home: access the Chrome home page in the tab you’re on
- Alt + left navigation key: return to the previous page in the current tab
- Alt + right navigation key: access the next page in the current tab
- Ctrl + W/Ctrl + F4: closes the currently open tab
- Ctrl + Shift + W/Alt + F4: Close the currently open Chrome window
- Alt + Space, then pressing the N key: reduce the size of the Chrome window
- Alt + Space, then pressing the X key: increase the size of the Chrome window
- Alt + F, then pressing the X key: exit Google Chrome
2. Google Chrome feature shortcut
- Alt + F/Alt + E: opens the Chrome menu
- Ctrl + Shift + B: hide or show the Bookmarks column
- Ctrl + Shift + O: opens the Bookmarks Manager window
- Ctrl + H: open browsing history
- Ctrl + J: opens the Downloads window
- Shift + Esc: opens a Chrome Task Manager window
- Shift + Alt + T: see the first order in the Chrome toolbar to refresh
- F10: see the last order in the Chrome toolbar
- F6: access the URL/address bar field
- Ctrl + F/F3: access the Find Bar search field on the current page
- Ctrl + G: see the next search result in the Find Bar
- Ctrl + Shift + G: see the next search result in the Find Bar
- Ctrl + Shift + J/F12: opens the Developer Tools page
- Ctrl + Shift + Delete: clear data stored when surfing in Chrome
- F1: Open the Chrome Help Center page
- Ctrl + Shift + M: login as another user account or guest account in Chrome
- Alt + Shift + I: opens the page for submitting feedback (feedback)
- F7: enable Caret Browsing feature, or use Chrome using the keyboard
3. URL/ address bar column shortcuts
- Type what you want to search for + Enter: search for a topic with the default search engine
- Type search engine name + Tab: search for topics with other search engines
- Type the website name + Ctrl + Enter: add “www.” and “.com” on a website you want to access
- Type what you want to search + Alt + Enter: open a new tab to access Google search page
- Ctrl + L/Alt + D/F6: access the URL/address bar field
- Ctrl + K/Ctrl + E: search for topics on the page being accessed using a search engine
- Down navigation key + Shift + Delete: remove website predictions from address bar
4. Shortcuts when accessing websites
- Ctrl + P: opens the webpage printing window
- Ctrl + S: saves the webpage being accessed
- F5/Ctrl + R: reload the currently viewed webpage
- Shift + F5/Ctrl + Shift + R: reload the web page without including any previously saved data
- Esc: stops a web page from loading other content
- Tabs: browse to the next column in a clickable/fillable webpage
- Shift + Tab: scrolls through the previous column in a fillable web page
- Ctrl + O + select file: open a file saved on the computer
- Ctrl + U: access the HTML source code of the web page being accessed
- Ctrl + D: saves the URL of the webpage being accessed into a bookmark
- Ctrl + Shift + D: save all currently open tabs to a bookmark
- F11: access full-screen view
- Ctrl and +: make the web page view bigger
- Ctrl and -: make the web page display smaller
- Ctrl + 0: returns the webpage to its original size
- Spacebar/Page Down: scrolls the web page view down
- Shift + Space/Page Up: scrolls the web page view up
- Home: moves to the top position on a webpage
- End: goes to the bottom of a web page
- Shift + mouse wheel: scroll the web page view left or right
- Ctrl + left navigation key: move the text cursor to the previous position
- Ctrl + right navigation key: move the text cursor to the next position
- Ctrl + Backspace: delete the previous word in a text field
5. Shortcuts using the mouse
- Shift a link to a row of tabs: opens a link in a new tab
- Ctrl + click link: opens a link in a new tab without switching from the webpage you are viewing
- Ctrl + Shift + click link: open a link and go directly to it
- Move a tab out of a Chrome window: open/move the currently accessed tab to a new Chrome window
- Move a tab to another Chrome window: open/move the currently accessed tab to the currently open Chrome window
- Shift + click link: opens a link in a new Chrome window
- Shift tab + Esc: return the current tab position to its original position
- Move a link to the Bookmark Bar: saves the current webpage in the bookmarks bar
- Alt + click link: download a link
- Right-click on Back button/Next button: show Chrome browsing history
- Double click in an empty toolbar area: zoom in/out of Chrome window
- Ctrl + mouse wheel scroll up: make the web page view bigger
- Ctrl+ scroll mouse wheel down: make webpage display smaller