Today we look back at some previous Keyboard Kung Fu lessons and use them in an exercise to consolidate our understanding of browsing the web using tabs.
Revision: Three Previous Lessons
Let’s quickly refresh our memories with three recent posts involving tabs in the web browser.
Go to back to the previous page, go forward to the next page
In Previous, Next Page we learned how to go back to the previous page by holding your thumb on the ⌘ key and tapping the [ key with your index or middle finger.
Return to the page you were on by moving the next page with the ⌘ key and the ]
Moving back and forward in the browser’s history in the way provides a fast and easy way to navigate through pages that you’ve already visited.
Opening additional tabs
The Open a New Tab lesson demonstrated how to have multiple websites open in one window by opening additional tabs in the browser.
⌘T = open a new tab
⌘W = close the current tab
Open a link in a new tab
We can also open any links we see in web pages in separate tabs. Instead of clicking on the link in a webpage, hold down the Command key first and then click the link.
⌘-click = open the link in a new tab
Switching between open tabs
The Switching Tabs post taught us how to use the Command key and any number key to switch between tabs that we currently have open.
⌘1 = move to 1st browser tab
⌘2 = move to 2nd browser tab
⌘3 = move to 3rd browser tab, etc.
Using the arrow keys to switch tabs
We also saw how you can use the left or right arrow keys to switch tabs in the Safari browser: ⌘⇧← & ⌘⇧→ and that the same can be done in the Chrome browser by using the ⌘⌥← & ⌘⌥→ keys.
Alternatively, you can cycle through the open tabs in most browsers with the universal tab-switching keyboard shortcut: ⌃`.
Exercises: Tabbed Browsing
Now that we’ve recapped a few previous keyboard shortcut lessons that enable us to work with tabs in the web browser, let us apply these techniques to some real life simulations.
Exercise 1: Grasshopper Level
In this scenario you currently have your web browser open with a single tab loaded with this page that you are reading right now. While reading this sentence you see this link to the main Keyboard Kung Fu page and would like to visit it to read some of the past lessons.
Task: Visit the Keyboard Kung Fu page by clicking the link above, then click on a link on that page to visit one of the past lessons. Now return to this page using only the keyboard.
Exercise 2: Master Level
A similar scenario: you currently have your web browser open with a single tab loaded with this page that you are reading right now. While reading this sentence you see this link to the main Keyboard Kung Fu page and would like to visit it to read some of the past lessons.
However, this time you would like to load a few of the previous lessons in separate tabs without leaving the main Keyboard Kung Fu page.
Task: Visit the Keyboard Kung Fu page by clicking the link above, then open three links in three new tabs. Now visit each tab and then return to this page using only the keyboard.
Exercise 3: Sage Level
A different scenario this time: You are reading a page that just has a URL, it’s not clickable. https://www.vintuitive.com/keyboard-kung-fu/
Task: Highlight the link above. Now using only the keyboard, copy the link, open a new tab, paste the link into the address bar and visit the page. Close that tab to return to this page, again using only the keyboard, no mouse.
