Tips & tricks

Space scrolls one screen at a time

Shift+Space

Space moves the page down by one screen, Shift+Space moves it back up. The most comfortable way to read long text without a mouse.

Ctrl+J: your list of downloaded files

Ctrl+J

Where's that downloaded file? Ctrl+J opens your downloads with a “Show in folder” button.

Custom search shortcuts: “w query” searches Wikipedia

Teach your address bar to search specific sites directly — Wikipedia, Maps, your internal wiki. One letter, a space, your query.

Tab groups: a cleanup for chronic tab hoarders

Tabs can be grouped under a colored label and the group collapsed. Research for a project takes one click instead of twelve open tabs.

Incognito window: a clean browser for testing and logins

Ctrl+Shift+N

Incognito mode is useful well beyond privacy — a second account, testing a site without cache, lending your computer to a coworker.

Ctrl+F: don't read the page, search it

Ctrl+F

Looking for a specific piece of information on a long page? Ctrl+F and a few letters get you there in two seconds.

Search tabs, history, and bookmarks with @

Type @tabs, @history, or @bookmarks into Chrome's address bar — and you're searching only open tabs, history, or bookmarks.

Pinned tabs: mail and calendar always in the same spot

A pinned tab shrinks to an icon, stays on the left, and can't be closed by accident. The foundation for a stable browser setup.

Switch tabs from the keyboard: Ctrl+Tab and the numbers

Ctrl+Tab

Ctrl+Tab moves through tabs in order, Ctrl+1 through 8 jumps to a specific position, and Ctrl+9 jumps to the last tab.

Closed a tab by mistake? Ctrl+Shift+T brings it back

Ctrl+Shift+T

Reopens the last closed tab — and pressing it again brings back the ones before it. Works for whole closed windows too.

Ctrl+L: straight to the address bar, no mouse needed

Ctrl+L

Jumping to the address bar is the foundation of fast browsing — start typing an address or a search right away.