Firefox is now the number 2 web browser currently in use. While Firefox only holds 25% of the market share, it is gaining more and more every day. As Firefox is my favorite browser, I wanted to share a few of my favorite shortcuts. Even if you use a different browser, give some of these a try and see if they work for you.

All of these shortcuts are a combination of keystrokes, so when you read ‘Ctrl + C’, simply press the ‘Ctrl’ key and the ‘C’ key.

My Favorite Keyboard Shortcuts

• Ctrl + L Go to the address bar.
• Ctrl + K Go to the search bar.
• Alt + left arrow Navigate back one page.
• Alt + right arrow Navigate forward one page.
• Ctrl + R Reload the page.
• Esc Stop the page from loading.
• Ctrl + + Zoom in.
• Ctrl + – Zoom out.
• Ctrl + T Opens a new Tab.
• Ctrl + W Closes current Tab.
• Ctrl + Tab Move to the next Tab.
• Ctrl + Shift + Tab Move back to previous Tab.
• Alt + 1 through 8 Move to the 1st through 8th Tabs.
• Alt + 9 Move to the last Tab that is open.

My Favorite Mouse Shortcuts

• Middle click on link Open that link in a new Tab.
• Middle click on a Tab Close that Tab.
• Ctrl + Scroll up Zoom in.
• Ctrl + Scroll down Zoom out.
• Shift + Scroll up Navigate forward. The number of times you scroll equals the number of pages you scroll through.
• Shift + Scroll down Navigate backward. The number of times you scroll equals the number of pages you scroll through.

This is not the whole list of Firefox shortcuts by any means (the complete list is here). There are many many more, however, these are the shortcuts I tend to use every day. Also keep in mind that there are other shortcuts that do the same thing, for example, backspace will navigate you back one page and shift + backspace will navigate you forward one page. I know this, yet I still always use Alt + left arrow and Alt + right arrow.

3 Extra shortcuts

When typing in a web address, the following shortcuts will auto-complete the address for you. For example, type wlmtips into the address bar and then press

• Ctrl + Enter This will auto-complete .com address. So wlmtips will become wlmtips.com
• Shift + Enter This will auto-complete .net address. So wlmtips will become wlmtips.net
• Ctrl + Shift + Enter This will auto-complete .org address. So wlmtips will become wlmtips.org

Have you ever been reading an email or surfing the net and come across a word you wanted to lookup, but didn’t because it takes too much time?  Even with Dictionary widgets and websites like Dictionary.com it still takes too long to have to copy and paste the word or wait on the internet.

So, I have the solution for you Mac users out there.  This quick little tip will allow you to lookup the definition of any word in any Mac native program (Coco).  The best part is the Dictionary application does NOT need to be open or even running in the background.

All you need to do is hold down Control+Command+D with your mouse hovering over the word you wish to lookup.  You can even continue to hold down the keyboard shortcut and move the mouse from one word to another.  The dictionary description will automatically update for each word.

If you are not sure what programs this will work with, here is a small list: Safari, Mail, TextEdit, Text Wrangler, Comic Life, iWeb and some other native Mac programs.

However, this shortcut will NOT work with programs that are not written in Coco.  So even your favorite programs like Firefox, Thunderbird, Opera, Camino and Flock wont work with this shortcut.

I like to use keyboard shortcuts mostly because I find that it’s faster. Since I keep my keyboard on a tray and my mouse on the desk above it, I find that if I use my keyboard to do as much as possible, I don’t have to reach up and use the mouse too much. So, here’s how to make a keyboard shortcut to open any of your favorite programs.

Step 1: Go to the start menu and navigate to your favorite program, then right click and select properties.

Step 2: In the properties menu, select the shortcut tab at the top.

Step 3: Where it says Shortcut Key you will be able to choose your own key combination. The system only allows you to choose a key combination in the form of ‘ctrl-alt-letter you choose‘. Just click in the box and then choose a letter. It should then say ctrl-alt-your letter. For example, I am making a shortcut to thunderbird in the picture below. I am using the letter T for thunderbird:

Step 4: Click apply and then OK. Now, test it.

Ok, I know most of you probably already know how to take a screenshot on your Mac, Cmd+Shift+3 right? The only problem with this is it takes a screenshot of the whole screen and saves it to a file on your desktop.

What if you only wanted to capture a certain window or section of your screen?  What if you want the image copied to your clickboard instead of saved on the desktop?

Here are some other screen capturing shortcuts that you probably did not know about.

Screen capturing shortcuts that save the image in a file on your desktop:
Cmd+Shift+3: will capture the entire screen (this one most people already know)
Cmd+Shift+4: You can capture any part of the screen you want by dragging cross hairs
Cmd+Shift+4 then press spacebar: You can capture any window by clicking on it. (see picture below)

Screen capturing shorcuts that copy the image to your clipboard:
Cmd+Control+Shift+3: will capture the entire screen
Cmd+Control+Shift+4: You can capture any part of the screen you want by dragging cross hairs
Cmd+Control+Shift+4 then press spacebar: You can capture any window by clicking on it. (see picture above)

Screen capturing file formats:
You can capture the screen on any version of Mac OS X.  The only difference between versions is the format in which the image is saved (if you didn’t copy it to the clipboard).
Mac OS X 10.2 (Jaguar)- .jpg
Mac OS X 10.3 (Panther)- .pdf
Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger)- .png

However, you can change the default screen capture file format by typing the following code in the terminal:

defaults write com.apple.screencapture type image_format
killall SystemUIServer

Change image_format to the file format you want the screen capture to be in.  Some examples are jpg, tiff, pdf, png, bmp or pict.

Alternative screen capturing software:
If you don’t like using the screen capturing that is built into OS X, there are plenty of good 3rd party programs you can use.

For example, Jing is an excellent screen capturing program for Mac and Windows.  With Jing you can even record a video of your screen with audio.  One of the best features of Jing is how easy it is to share your screenshot/video.

For more information about Jing, check out this article: How to Make a Great How-To Video.