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Shortcut Keys You Might Not Know About

Today’s tutorial might be a bit quick, but that fits along with the tips included. Speed up your work by using keyboard shortcut keys. Below I’ve listed some of the shortcut keys I use within during my day-to-day. If you have any more to offer please drop in a comment or blog about them yourself and ping back here.

nautilus / gnome:

ctrl-h : show hidden files
ctrl-t : move to trash f9 : toggle side-pane alt-home : jump to home folder alt-enter : file / folder properties alt-f1 : launch applications menu alt-f2 : launch "run application" dialogue ctrl-alt - right/left arrow : move to the next virtual desktop
ctrl-alt-shift - right/left arrow : take current window to the next virtual desktop

firefox:

ctrl-k : firefox search field
ctrl-l : firefox address bar ctrl-pgup : next tab (left to right) ctrl-pgdn : previous tab (right to left) ctrl-t : new tab ctrl-r / f5: reload page
ctrl-u : view page source

If you see any that I’ve missed share them below. These are the main ones that I use on a fairly regular basis and I’m sure the list isn’t complete. I know it isn’t an all-encompassing list of shortcut keys, just those that I have found the most helpful. Anything you can add?

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Post a comment — Trackback URI RSS 2.0 feed for these comments This entry (permalink) was posted on Tuesday, February 20, 2007, at 9:15 am by Christer Edwards. Filed in GNOME.

43 Comments

a7p

You forgot to mention ctrl-w to close views (tabs or windows) in Firefox.

Posted on 20-Feb-07 at 9:50 am | Permalink
Floris

“ctrl-t: move to trash”

What’s the difference with the delete key? It does just that here, move files to trash. If I want to bypass the trash and really delete a file in one go, I can press shift+delete.

Posted on 20-Feb-07 at 9:51 am | Permalink
D10

In firefox F6 also functions the same as ctrl+l

ctrl+b opens the bookmark side pane
ctrl+h opens history side pane, and
ctrl+y (ctrl+j in windows) will open the download window

Posted on 20-Feb-07 at 10:13 am | Permalink
aleska

I know this is probably too obvious to make the list, but since you mention ctrl-alt-(left or right arrow) might as well add the very commonly used alt-tab to cycle through active programs.

Posted on 20-Feb-07 at 10:27 am | Permalink
Simón A. Ruiz

In Firefox:

Ctrl-Shift-T re-opens last closed tab.

invaluable…

Posted on 20-Feb-07 at 10:32 am | Permalink
Paul Kishimoto

In Firefox:

F6 is also useful to rotate between the search/address bar and the current website.

Ctrl-Tab and Ctrl-Shift-Tab also cycle through tabs, one-handed (take a sip of coffee!)

Esc stops the current page load.

In the search field, Ctrl-Up and Ctrl-Dn cycle through the different search engines.

Posted on 20-Feb-07 at 10:32 am | Permalink
Michaël

ctrl+t in nautilus sounds dangerous indeed… people might try to create a new tab, and loose a file

Ctrl-L is definitely the most useful shortcut. I get very nervous when I see people who don’t know about this, try to point their mouse pointer at the end of the current URL, hit backspace 20 times, and start writing: http://www.etc... Then they take their mouse, go to the “Go” key, and then they wait…

Posted on 20-Feb-07 at 10:33 am | Permalink
Robert Devi

Thanks.

I’m not at my Linux computer, but the comment that “you may not know” means that they are not easily discoverable in Nautilus. If that’s the case, perhaps some suggestions should be forwarded to the Nautilus team so that they could be discovered.

Personally, I think that’s a weakness of Nautilus. Thankfully, the location button now exists, but I don’t remember any Nautilus feature that makes Ctrl-L an obvious shortcut. My own suggestion is to have a time-delayed mouse-over that says “View Full Location Path (Ctrl-L).

Could someone forward this comment to the right people?

Posted on 20-Feb-07 at 10:35 am | Permalink
James Gray

If you haven’t already check out the Firefox “cheat sheet”:
http://lesliefranke.com/files/reference/firefoxcheatsheet.html

There is a utility in gnome to change the hot keys. You can use this to find out what keys are already setup.

Posted on 20-Feb-07 at 10:38 am | Permalink
Marius Scurtescu

Robert, have a look at Go / Location…, Ctrl+L is documented there. But you are right, it should also be added to the tooltip.

Other Nautilus shortcuts:
- ctrl+a – select all
- ctrl+n – new window
- ctrl+shift+n – new folder
- f2 – rename

and Firefox:
- ctrl+f – find
- ctrl+g – find again
- alt+left – back
- ctrl+i – page info
- f11 – full screen

Posted on 20-Feb-07 at 11:57 am | Permalink
ivoencarnacao

How about when youre on a hurry and you need to Lock Screen?

On Windows i used a lot the Win Key + L, but in Gnome i have to mouse press Menu, Quit, Lock Screen, and it takes a lot of time…

Does anyone know this one?

Posted on 20-Feb-07 at 12:04 pm | Permalink
Anders

Konqueror:

F9 – show sidebars
F12 – show hidden files
CTRL + Home – go to home directory
ALT + Up – go up a level, both in a file system and on web pages
CTRL + SHIFT + F – toggle full screen
CTRL + M toggle menu visibility

Apart from that, a lot of the shortcuts mentioned for other apps works in konqueror as well.

Posted on 20-Feb-07 at 12:30 pm | Permalink
Chris T.R.

To go back and forth in navigated directories in Nautilus use Alt+Left and Alt+Right respectively. Use Alt+Up to go to the parent directory.
Ctrl+S selects files with a given patter. Very useful.

While using the Open File dialog in Gnome, type Ctrl+L and you get a location bar that supports auto completion. Very useful for navigating .hidden directories, since the Ctrl+H shortcut for showing hidden files is not available in this dialog.

For ivoencarnacao (see comment above): I think there’s no default key binding for locking the screen, but you can go to the Keyboard Shortcuts configuration dialog. There you’ll find an entry for Lock Screen, configure it at will [:

Posted on 20-Feb-07 at 2:04 pm | Permalink
Juan

Gnome:
CTRL+ALT+TAB: cycles focus through desktop and each panel.

About the lock screen key shortcut: my Ubuntu installation has “CTRL+ALT+L” for default.

Posted on 20-Feb-07 at 2:17 pm | Permalink
ivoencarnacao

About the lock screen key shortcut: my Ubuntu installation has “CTRL+ALT+L” for default.

Very nice on that one!
Ubuntu FTW!

Posted on 20-Feb-07 at 2:28 pm | Permalink
hardskinone

/ – let search in currente folder (Nautilus) or current page (Firefox)

Posted on 20-Feb-07 at 3:35 pm | Permalink
thejinx0r

Ctrl+pgup/down is a pain in the ass since it’s a 2 handed process.

Ctrl-Tab / Ctrl-Shift-Tab does exactly the same thing.

Posted on 20-Feb-07 at 4:53 pm | Permalink
ak

I always use Alt+D to reach Firefox’s Address Bar instead of Ctrl+L. Must be one of the old shortcuts I remembered from my IE days.

Ctrl+K is nice, I didn’t know about that. I usually use Alt+D Tab.

Posted on 20-Feb-07 at 6:17 pm | Permalink
Steve Stalcup

Sw33t!

Posted on 20-Feb-07 at 10:19 pm | Permalink
ivoencarnacao

Is there any shortcut by default to launch the gnome-terminal/terminal?

Thanks,
Ivo!

Posted on 21-Feb-07 at 12:52 pm | Permalink
Marupa

@ivoencarnacao Yes, there is, but you have to install a new program called yakuake, then the shortcut is F12!

Posted on 26-Feb-07 at 2:20 pm | Permalink
Lexikos

Marupa, that isn’t a default shortcut.

On my Ubuntu installation, I configured a shortcut key to open a terminal window, via System->Preferences->Keyboard Shortcuts.

For anyone else that has a Keyboard Shortcuts applet hidden away, I recommend you go through all the shortcuts. It has log out, lock screen, home folder, e-mail, web browser, calculator, run application, media/volume controls, toggle fullscreen, desktop-switching keys, and plenty more. Those are just the ones I use, LOL.

Posted on 18-Mar-07 at 4:40 am | Permalink
Ernz

@ivoencarnacao + Marupa

Marupa – Good suggestion, but you stand corrected. ivoencarnacao – To make a shortcut in Gnome, run gnome-keybinding-properties or goto System > Properties > Keyboard Shortcuts.

At the bottom of the Desktop section there is an option to “Run a Terminal”. This launches gnome-terminal. I find a good hotkey for this to be the Pause/Break key on my kb, because it’s easy access and doesn’t require combos. Good luck!

Posted on 19-Mar-07 at 3:08 am | Permalink
Roland-Lopez

Ctrl+Shift+T should be your default terminal shortcut. Another quick thing that may help is to Go to “Applications –>Accessories–>” right click on Terminal icon and click on “Add this launcher to panel” This will create a shortcut icon at the top panel.

Posted on 08-Apr-07 at 10:15 pm | Permalink
rain

i love ubuntu!

Posted on 04-Jun-07 at 1:08 am | Permalink
Linuxer

hello,
mention “ctrl + d” and you switch between your desktop and the currently opened applications.

Posted on 08-Oct-07 at 12:11 pm | Permalink
JCM

A Firefox (konqueror, safari and even IE) shortcut that a lot of people don’t know about is ’space bar’ for page down and ’shift + space bar’ for page up.

Posted on 28-Feb-08 at 11:06 am | Permalink
darth prince

@JCM: You’d be surprised how many people use that one…

Posted on 09-Mar-08 at 9:32 am | Permalink
Nicolas Marchildon

I was looking for a keyboard shortcut that opens the folder in list mode, kind of showing tree branches, without actually going into them.

shift-right opens the folder
shift-left closes the folder

Is there an authoritative list of Nautilus shortcuts?

Posted on 09-Apr-08 at 8:27 pm | Permalink
Nicolas Marchildon

shift-right opens the folder in list mode, shift-left closes it

Posted on 09-Apr-08 at 8:29 pm | Permalink
Vincent

I love Firefox

Posted on 26-Apr-08 at 6:21 am | Permalink
doodman mcgee

1000 cheers to the ubuntu team

Posted on 21-Jun-08 at 7:05 pm | Permalink
adred

how about sc-key for search file in nautilus? anyone?

Posted on 22-Jun-08 at 8:12 am | Permalink
kon

Are there any mouse shortcuts? I know if make a selection and press the second mouse button, the selection will be pasted. Is there a way of replacing some certain text?

Thanks in advance!

Posted on 14-Sep-08 at 4:44 am | Permalink
mgsreddy

ctrl + alt + l locks the user screen.

Posted on 01-Dec-08 at 3:44 pm | Permalink
Bernhard Kraft

Alt+Enter switches every (?) window to “fullscreen” …

You can configure many keys of Ubuntu in: System > Preferences > Keyboard Shortcuts

Posted on 29-Dec-08 at 2:24 pm | Permalink
kiran

i want all shortcuts by using terminal(command prompt) in ubuntu linux

plz send terminal commands in my mail id ch.kiran24@rediffmail.com

Posted on 14-Jan-09 at 7:28 pm | Permalink
caner

thanks for the tips but there is one more thing i want to ask. do you know any good way to make ea key binding for gnome-terminal. you recommended yakuake but i am not much into kde and want to use plain gnome-terminal bu there is ther problem. when i bind a key to launch g.terminal it opens new sessions for every button press unlike yakuake. is there any wasy to use the same session, maybe a button like hide/show . ??

Posted on 13-Feb-09 at 4:40 am | Permalink
Gerhard

Run Terminal. On the menu select Edit/Keyboard Shorcuts.

Posted on 01-Mar-09 at 2:09 am | Permalink
Xacur

F6 works much better because is just one key, so that's the most useful XD.

Posted on 12-Apr-09 at 5:03 am | Permalink
Max Nanasy

I believe you have the firefox tab switchers reversed. It should be:

ctrl-pgdn : next tab (left to right)
ctrl-pgup : previous tab (right to left)

Posted on 30-Apr-09 at 12:04 am | Permalink
Tony

The super key (Windows Logo on most keyboards nowadays) and M, inverts all the colours of GNOME.

Try it Windows + M ( Super + M)

Posted on 08-May-09 at 6:44 pm | Permalink
KnifeySpooney

In Firefox, you can press F5 to reload the page.

Posted on 20-Jun-09 at 5:02 pm | Permalink

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