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Favorite mouse action: Right click on any download link.
 technofile
Al Fasoldt's reviews and commentaries, continuously available online since 1983

T e c h n o f i l e
Favorite (and sometimes little known) keystrokes and mouse clicks for navigating with your browser


April 23, 2006


By Al Fasoldt
Copyright © 2006, Al Fasoldt
Copyright © 2006, The Post-Standard

   Getting from one place to another on the Web is easy. You navigate by clicking your mouse.
   But did you know your browser has other ways to help you get around? This week I'll describe five of my favorites for the Internet Explorer and Firefox browsers on Windows and Mac OS X and the Safari browser on OS X.
   Best keyboard shortcut ever invented: Backspace. In your Web browser, pressing Backspace makes your browser back up one page. It shows you the page you were just looking at before you opened the current page. Press it multiple times to keep going back. (By the way, Apple's keyboards call the Backspace key "Delete," but it's the same key.)
   Distant cousin of the best keyboard shortcut: Shift-Backspace. This is the big undo for Backspace. It takes you right back to where you were.
   Best mouse click by far: Right click on any download link. (Add a normal mouse to your Mac if you can't do a right click. Or use Ctrl-Click instead.)
   When you right click, you get a choice of where the download goes -- just navigate to another location in the file system if you don't like the location shown in the little window -- and you get a chance to see the name of the file you're about to bring into your computer. (It might not be what you think, and it might even be a mystery file. I never download stuff I can't identify, and you shouldn't, either.)
   Best "almost nobody knows this" tip: The "Back" button on your browser has a secret history. Click the "Back" icon and hold your mouse button down to see a list. Or click the little triangle some browsers have next to the "Back" button. Then slide your pointer to the link you want to go to.
   Coolest way to save time: Press Ctrl-F (Windows) or Cmd-F (OS X) to find specific text in the Web page that's currently open. Type the word or phrase and press Enter (Windows) or Return (OS X). I do this a lot, and I don't even pause; I press Cmd-F and type my search phrase, then press Return without looking up. My browser catches up with me in a second.
   Those are my Top Five. But I have a bonus tip. In both Windows and OS X, the file-and-folder browser -- called Explorer in Windows and Finder in OS X -- has the same kind of navigation tools as your browser. In fact, pressing Backspace in Explorer (the file-and-folder browser) works just like Backspace in Internet Explorer (the Web browser). (Now you see why their names are so similar.)
   In the OS X Finder, go back by pressing Cmd-Left Bracket (next to the P) and forward by pressing Cmd-Right Bracket. A bonus in OS X is the ease with which you can navigate into and out of nested folders. Press Cmd-Down Arrow to enter a folder that's selected; press Cmd-Up Arrow to back out of it.