How to Navigate the Web Using Only a Keyboard

You can do almost everything on the web without a mouse. It's essential for many disabled people, faster once you know the keys, and handy when a trackpad stops working. These shortcuts are for Chrome on Windows; on a Mac, use Cmd instead of Ctrl.

Moving around a page

• Tab: next link, button or form field. Shift + Tab: previous one.
• Enter: follow a link or press a button.
• Space: press a button or tick a checkbox. On the page itself, it scrolls down; Shift + Space scrolls up.
• Arrow keys: scroll, or move within menus, lists and radio buttons.
• Home and End: top and bottom of the page.
• Esc: close a menu or pop-up.

Many sites show a Skip to content link when you first press Tab, which jumps past the menus.

Jump straight to a link

Press Ctrl + F, type part of the link's text, then press Esc. The found link is now selected, and Enter opens it.

Tabs and windows

• Ctrl + T: new tab. Ctrl + W: close tab.
• Ctrl + Tab: next tab. Ctrl + 1 to 8: jump to a tab.
• Alt + Left arrow: back. Alt + Right arrow: forward.
• Ctrl + L: address bar. F6: move between the address bar, bookmarks bar and page.

Forms

• Tab between fields; type to fill them in.
• In a dropdown, use arrow keys or type the first letters of the option.
• Enter usually submits the form, so check your entries first.

Reading with the keyboard

• Caret browsing (F7): move a text cursor through the page and select text with Shift and the arrow keys.
• ADHD Reading Focus shows one paragraph at a time and moves with the arrow keys; Alt + R turns it on and off.

Extensions that help

Vimium and similar extensions put a letter on every link, so you press F, then the letters, to click it. Screen readers such as NVDA add keys to jump between headings, landmarks and links.

When a site doesn't work

If you can't see where you are, the site may hide its focus outline. If a menu or button can't be reached with Tab, the site isn't built accessibly. Report it to the site. If you build sites, see accessibility testing tools and accessibility vs usability.