5 Shortcuts to Maximize Firefox Browsing Speed: Part 2

Use keyboard shortcuts provided by Firefox to maximize your navigation speed. Rather than fumbling around for your mouse and clicking buttons on the window, use the following one or two button shortcuts. If you enjoyed my last article "5 Shortcuts to Maximize Firefox Browsing Speed", here are an additional five tips to help further your Firefox skills!

Enjoy and memorize the following:

1. F5 - Refreshes/Reloads the current web page

Sometimes you will load a web page and only 3/4s or less of it will load. Other times you may get an error message for whatever reason. If a page does not load completely or you get an error, try this trick out: simply press the F5 key and the web page will refresh. Hopefully you will get a fully working page. This is also useful for updating current weather or getting the latest scores of your favorite games.

2. CTRL+D - Bookmarks the current web page

Save yourself from fumbling around with the mouse, again. Press CTRL+D, and the window for bookmarking will automatically appear.

** On a side note, I recommend Delicious to organize your bookmarks. This is a popular website which features social bookmarking. This is a great way to find interesting websites.

3. Backspace - Reverses to the last page in Firefox 's browsing history

Here's another trick to avoid that troublesome mouse usage. Hit the "backspace" button and the last page that you were viewing will load. This is especially useful for those who have an older two button mouse.

4. F11 - Expands the Firefox window to full screen view

Ever find yourself needing more viewing area? Not able to view an entire webpage at once and missing items? Press F11 to add a quarter more viewing area to your Firefox window. F11 will hide the status bar, address bar, menu bar, and title bar. Pressing F11 once more will revert back to the original view.

5. CTRL+K - Automatically places cursor onto Google search bar

To the right of your URL bar, you will see that there is a Google search bar built into Firefox . Press "CTRL" and "K" to quickly place the cursor there, and then type in whatever you are looking for.

**Side Note: The power of Google is built right into Firefox , with the new Firefox 3.0 you can also use the URL bar to type in keywords to search with Google.

If you enjoyed this tutorial, be sure to check out my Firefox tutorial which teaches you how to manipulate the about:config file. The about:config file teaches your computer to handle Firefox in the most efficient manner. Click here to check it out.