Subscribe (via Feedburner)
Ctrl+L: Open Location Bar/URL bar in Internet Explorer and Firefox
This week we’ll focus on browser shortcuts which work in both Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox.
The first one is Ctrl+L. In Firefox, this jumps your cursor up to the URL bar, where you can type in a URL such as “www.google.com.” In Internet Explorer, an Open dialog box appears and you can type in a URL such as “www.google.com.”
If you want to jump your cursor up to the URL box, press Alt+D. (Thanks to Tony and Igg for the tip!)
Bonus Tip: Once your cursor is in the URL box, if you type in a word like “google” and press Ctrl+Enter, the browser will automatically expand it to the full URL name, “http://www.google.com,” (Sadly, this doesn’t work in IE’s Open dialog box.)
on March 26th, 2007 at 10:58 am
I like to use Alt+D rather than Ctrl+L. It works in both IE and Firefox. It is used because back in the good ole days, the letter ‘d’ of Address for the address bar in IE was underlined and could be reached just like your other tips.
on March 26th, 2007 at 2:05 pm
Let me second Alt + D. Not only does it work in IE and Firefox, but it also brings you to the address bar in Windows Explorer. I also think it’s a quicker combo than Crtl + L.
on March 26th, 2007 at 6:10 pm
Joseph thats an awesome tip. I was familiar with the Control + L shortcut, but i like how in Internet explorer Alt + D goes straight to the location bar.
Thanks a lot.
on March 26th, 2007 at 7:23 pm
Very nice! Wasn’t familiar with this one. I updated the original article.
on March 27th, 2007 at 6:20 am
In firefox, in addition to ctrl+enter for www & .com, you can use shift + enter for www & .net, or ctrl+shift+enter for www & .org.
Adding alt into any of those opens them in a new tab too. So Alt+D microsoft Ctrl+Alt+Enter gives you microsoft.com in a new tab while youre existing one remains untouched!
on March 27th, 2007 at 12:39 pm
Thanks Bean.
I guess since we’re on the topic, I should mention that F6 is another way to jump your cursor up to the address bar.
In IE, you can press F4 to jump to the address bar and display the recent history of URLs entered.
In Firefox, F4 displays the URL history only when your cursor is already in the address bar (so press F6, F4 to get history). Or press Ctrl+L and then press Alt+Down Arrow.
on March 27th, 2007 at 5:11 pm
C’mon, let’s not forget Opera.
Ctrl + L and Ctrl + Enter work with Opera. (However, Alt-D doesn’t).
Awesome shortcuts though. Didn’t know about either.
on March 28th, 2007 at 3:47 am
In Internet Explorer 7, Ctrl + Tab no longer takes you to the address bar, it advances you through your open tabs. (And Shift + Ctrl + Tab takes you backwards through your open tabs.)
on March 28th, 2007 at 9:53 am
Ah, thanks Igg. Still on IE 6 here. I’ll edit the post.
Hi Shawn — sorry, don’t use Opera and didn’t have time to load it to test. Great that they work!
on June 19th, 2007 at 2:24 am
Similarly, Ctrl+E will open the search bar. This works for the Explorer bar, Search bar in both IE & Firefox.
very handy!
on June 20th, 2007 at 8:55 am
I use Ctrl+K for that, but I like your version even better.
on November 21st, 2007 at 3:01 pm
also you can get the URL box in firefox with F6 (in IE also works), in opera is with F8
on July 10th, 2008 at 7:09 am
Does anyone know how to create a customized shortcut for the address bar like the Ctrl + Enter one which adds the www and .com? e.g I want to create one which adds the www & .co.za at the end. Would save me lots of time. Thanks
on July 10th, 2008 at 10:35 am
What browser do you use? If you have Firefox 3, and bookmark your site, you can just enter the main part of the site name and it’ll automatically figure out the bookmark you’re referring to.
Otherwise, for non-bookmarked sites, I bet there is a way to change Firefox’s behavior for Ctrl+Enter and make it use .co.za instead of .com