Moving Through Tabs
I’ve mentioned this other places, but it’s definitely worth repeating. In some applications with tabs you can cycle through the tabs with a simple keystroke: Ctrl and Page Up or Page Down. Page Up will cycle you left, and Page Down will cycle you right.
I want to create a “definitive” list of applications where Ctrl-PU or PD switches tabs, so I’ve started that here. If you have an application to add to the list please leave it in the comments, and I’ll make sure it gets added to the list.
- Excel
- Firefox
- Windows Settings forms (try it out on Display Properties)
- Gaim v2 beta (tested only on Windows)
- All Gnome apps (e.g. Epiphany, GNOME-terminal) according to Anonymous Coward - added 3/21/2007
- Konsole - added 3/21/2007
- xfce4-terminal - added 3/21/2007
- Vim - added 3/22/2007
This is one of those features that I’d love to see designers standardize across all platforms. I recognize, however, that this is a request that will probably never come true. I can still dream of UI utopia. Not to leave out the other applications that use a different keystroke to move between tabs, this second list is for them.
- Adium (Mac only) uses Cmd-Left Arrow or Right Arrow
- Safari uses Cmd-Shift-Tab - added 3/28/2007
- Camino uses Cmd-Option-Tab - added 3/28/2007
- Mac Opera uses Option-Tab - added 3/28/2007
Ok, my initial list is a little sparse. Show some love and help fill this thing out.
EDIT: Here is a new list based on Brett’s comment, for applications where Ctrl-Tab cycles through tabs.
- Firefox
- IE7
- Notepad++
- Gaim v2 beta (tested only on Windows)
- Win Opera - added 3/28/2007
Mar 19th 2007
Actually, Ctrl + Tab works on Windows, most Linux window managers and OS X (Ctrl + Shift + Tab to cycle backward).
I’m a big fan of single-hand key chords, so these are my preferred method
Cheers!
Mar 19th 2007
@Brett:
I just tried Ctrl + Tab in Safari and Opera (Mac), and it didn’t work with either. It did work with Firefox. I learned my Ctrl + Page Up and Page Down initially in Excel, so I default to that out of habit. I’ll have to keep trying Ctrl + Tab out to see where it works.
Mar 20th 2007
Firefox on Mac uses Cmd+
Adium on Mac also uses Cmd+
Mar 21st 2007
It also works across all GNOME applications. That includes Epiphany, GNOME-terminal, and Gaim. There are too many to count really. Although the concept of tabs exist in all platforms, but they are implemented differently, which leads to a different experience. For example, Ctrl-tab doesn’t work in GNOME and pressing Ctrl-PageDown at the end of the list doesn’t go to the first tab.
Mar 21st 2007
I forgot to mention Geany, Gedit, Streamtuner, Konsole, xfce4-terminal, and many many many others.
Mar 22nd 2007
This trick (Control-PageDown/ -Up) works in Vim as well.
Mar 27th 2007
@ JASon
I tried ctrl + tab in Opera (Windows) and worked fine. Really hard to see though. But that could just be the skin?
Mar 28th 2007
Any ideas for Camino?
Mar 28th 2007
@K:
After much searching I have found you an answer: cmd-option-left/right arrow. I did some more searching and came up with cmd-shift-left/right arrow for Safari. And through random testing I found that option-tab/option-shift-tab works for Mac Opera.
Apr 24th 2007
You can use these keys in Opera as well.
Go to Tools->Preferences->Shortcuts, click on Opera Standard in the Keyboard section then click on Edit…
Find the existing entries that use Ctrl+Page Up and Ctrl+Page Down by typing PageUp (without spaces) in the search box at the top of the box and looking for the entry that has PageUp ctrl as its shortcut, then delete it by clicking on them and clicking the Delete button. Do the same for the PageDown ctrl shortcut.
Then find the existing entries to “Switch to previous page” and “Switch to next page” and change their shortcuts to PageUp Ctrl and PageDown Ctrl.
Jun 12th 2007
I know this is late in the game, but I thought I’d point this out for users of Notepad++. At least in the latest version, you can activate the ctrl-PGUP/PGDOWN behavior. First you go to settings->Preferences, then the global tab, and make sure the Enable Document switcher checkbox is checked, and that the Enable MRU behavior checkbox is UNchecked. Then, go to settings->Shortcut Mapper, find the actions that have Ctrl-Tab and Ctrl-Shift-Tab as their shortcuts, and change those to your preferred method.
Oct 5th 2007
Thanks for this, I was just googling for how to switch between excel tabs with a keyboard shortcut and got this. very helpful
Dec 13th 2007
CTRL + PGUP/PGDOWN needs 2 hands
CTRL + TAB / CTRL + SHIFT + TAB just needs 1 hand
I absolutely prefer the 1-hand-shortcut - its available in many apps - if not, then there’s a plugin (”LasTab” in FireFox, “RecentTab” in JEdit etc.pp.)
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