Hidden keyboard shortcuts for Internet Explorer!

Question

Do you know any of the hidden keyboard shortcuts in Internet Explorer? I am an old DOS guy that prefers to use the keyboard over the mouse!

-Rob

Answer

This question was answered on January 29, 2001. Much of the information contained herein may have changed since posting.

Keyboard shortcuts are built into virtually every Windows based program on your computer. Some of them such as Alt-F4, which will close any application, are universal and will work in any program. Others are specific to the program that you are using.

Keyboard shortcut commands are often listed to the right of the menu command in most programs. For instance, in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, if you click on the File menu, the list of commands appears with the keyboard shortcuts listed just to the right (New Window = Ctrl+N, Open = Ctrl+O, etc.).

Some of my favorite Internet Explorer keyboard shortcuts include the following:

F11 - Toggle between Full Screen and regular view. If you want to see more of a website, this shortcut will temporarily remove the Toolbars, Status bars, etc. until you press F11 again.

Tab and Shift-Tab - When filling out a form on-line, Tab will take you to the next box and Shift-Tab will take you back to the previous box. Can also be used to jump from the web page to the Address bar.

Esc - Stop downloading a page

Alt-Home - Goes to your Home page.

Alt+Right Arrow – Takes you to the next page

Alt+Left Arrow or Backspace – Takes you to the previous page

Ctrl+F - Find words on the page you are viewing

F4 - Display the Address bar history

F5 or Ctrl+R – Refresh or reload the current Web page. If you visit a website often, it is a good idea to use this command to make sure that your computer is not showing you an older cached version of the site that is on your hard drive.

Ctrl+P - Print the current page or active frame

Ctrl+Enter - Adds "www." to the beginning and ".com" to the end of the text typed in the Address bar. Instead of having to type “www.computerproblems.com” you can simply type “computerproblems” then press Ctrl-Enter.

Ctrl+D - Add the current page to your favorites

If you would like to see all the available shortcuts in Internet Explorer or virtually any Windows program, go to the Help menu then to the Index and type “shortcuts”.

Author

Posted by Ken of Data Doctors on January 29, 2001

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