Firefox Quick Tip : Using Keyboard to Navigate Between Pages

I was stunned at the positive reception my last Firefox tips post received so when I discovered a new tip today, I decided to share it on Make Use Of. It’s obvious you guys like Firefox tips so here’s another one for your arsenal – navigating between pages with your keyboard.

arrowbuttonsff.png When you want to go back to a previous page or go forward to another page, most of you would probably immediately reach for the mouse and use the arrow keys on your browser.

But there is a way to do it with the keyboard!

Just press the ALT key and then the left arrow key on your keyboard to go back a page. Or press the ALT key and then the right arrow key on your keyboard to go forward a page.

Now you can remove the arrow keys from your Firefox browser to save space and use the keyboard instead which is much easier and faster.

For more Firefox keyboard shortcuts, check out ‘Speed up Firefox browsing with keyboard shortcuts‘. For tips on making your Firefox smaller and more compact, here’s a Make Use Of article I did on that very subject.

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Mark O'Neill

Mark O'Neill is the managing editor of MakeUseOf.com

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  • sbw07

    You could also use Backspace to go back a page and Shift+Backspace to go forward.
    By the way, both your shortcuts and mine both work for IE7 too.
    In fact your shortcuts even work in Windows Explorer. So does Backspace,but not Shift+Backspace.

    • http://makeuseof.com Aibek

      …shortcuts even work in Windows Explorer. – That’s excellent … Thank you.

  • Nacho

    For Mac OS X Firefox users: replace alt with the command key.
    cmd + left arrow: back
    cmd + right arrow: forward

    Thanks!

  • Anon

    Z: back
    X: forward

    no need to enter two simultaneous keys
    Opera only

  • Arjan

    To avoid loosing text when hitting Delete/Backspace or Cmd-Left in Firefox, see “Disable Firefox’s Command-Arrows page jump shortcuts” on http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20090118145518767