Some great browsing keyboard shortcut suggestions

[vamp07]

I was thinking of posting this in the AutoHotkey but there is nothing specific to AutoHotkey about this.  I'm not much for using the mouse if I can avoid it. I always find that what I use the most in a browser is back, forward and close active tab or the browser. When browsing you rarely if ever need the `, Esc and F1 keys. What I have done is assigned ` to do an alt-LeftArrow, Esc to do a crtl-w and F1 to do an alt-RightArrow. Whats cool about using these keys is that it is a natural place to have your hand on a laptop and while browsing you can quickly accomplish most of what you do beyond clicking on links. I actually have AutoHotkey to be a little more sophisticated since if I am not in firefox I have ESC issue and alt-F4 with some exceptions. In firefox the crt-w will close the browser if it is the last open tab.

I highly recommend this setup. Once you get used to it it really cuts down on your use of the mouse and quickness with which you can move around in the browser. Using the firefox extension mouseless browsing http://www.rudolf-noe.de/MouselessBrowsing.htm is another great trick especially if you tie it to the capslock key but I'll through that tip into the favorite firefox extensions thread.

Steve

[Betsy]

I just downloaded "mouseless browsing."  Thank you for the suggestion.  I had no idea such things were available.  So far I think I like it, but of course I'm still getting used to it.

[vamp07]

There are a couple of great things you can do with mouseless browsing. You should turn on automatic execution and change the delay from 500 to maybe 750. You also should set it to no show ids only on demand. Finally change the key used to toggle visibility of keys. The numpad0 key is great but the real benefit of this extension is on laptops where you may not want to use the cursor to select a link. I’m currently on the Mac and I am using the single quote key next to the enter key to toggle visibility of the keys.

[Deozaan]

Every browser that I know of already lets you use the Backspace key to navigate back. Also ctrl-w seems to be the default for closing the current tab (among other things in other programs).

I've never really had a use to navigate forward, but my All In One Mouse Gestures for Firefox makes that easy, allowing to merely right-click and drag to the right to go forward. Of course, that kind of defeats the purpose of not using a mouse at all, but it still makes it easier on laptop users having to use that stupid touchpad.

[jgpaiva]

still makes it easier on laptop users having to use that stupid touchpad.

-Deozaan (March 22, 2006, 08:06 PM)

You wuoldn't believe it, but between browsing the forum and writing in irc, i'm actually faster using my laptop's keyboard and touchpad than using my external keyboard + mouse, because in the laptop, the mouse is closer