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Ctrl+Page Up and Ctrl+Page Down: Change tabs

Posted in Applications, Microsoft Excel, Firefox by estephen on April 5th, 2007

If a program or dialog box has tabs (different divided sections or pages with a label at the top), chances are that Ctrl+Page Up and Ctrl+Page Down will change tabs.

Try this out with Firefox and Excel to start off.

In Firefox, remember from yesterday that you can create a new tab with Ctrl+T. Now use Ctrl+Page Up to rotate through the pages (or Ctrl+Page Down to rotate the other way).

In Excel, you’ll start out with three sheets (Sheet1, Sheet2, Sheet3) when you start a new document. Ctrl+Page Down will move from Sheet1 to Sheet2 and Sheet2 to Sheet3. Ctrl+Page Up will move from Sheet3 to Sheet2 or Sheet2 to Sheet1.

For dialog boxes, if Ctrl+Page Up and Ctrl+Page Down don’t change tabs for you, try Ctrl+Left Arrow and Ctrl+Right Arrow, or Ctrl+Up Arrow and Ctrl+Down Arrow. Unfortunately, applications aren’t always as consistent as we’d like.

6 Responses to 'Ctrl+Page Up and Ctrl+Page Down: Change tabs'

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  1. Tony said,

    on April 5th, 2007 at 7:27 am

    On the Firefox tab kick, if you use Ctrl+Tab, it will cycle you through your recently used tabs. Gets kind of confusing sometimes if you have a lot of tabs open so it might be more useful to just stick with the Ctrl+Page Up and Ctrl+Page Down options.

  2. iuqiddis said,

    on April 5th, 2007 at 7:41 am

    in firefox, you can also use Ctrl + 1, Ctrl +2, etc to toggle tab 1, tab 2, etc. Its pretty cool

  3. Igg said,

    on April 5th, 2007 at 7:58 am

    Ctrl+Tab also works to cycle forward through tabs in IE7, though Ctrl+Page Up and Ctrl+Page Down do not. In addition, in both IE7 and Firefox, Ctrl+Shift+Tab will move you backwards through your open tabs.

  4. katie said,

    on April 5th, 2007 at 12:07 pm

    Ctrl-Tab works in most tabbed applications. And I like it better because it’s a one-handed operation.

  5. estephen said,

    on April 6th, 2007 at 8:49 am

    Fair enough — I do use Ctrl+Tab a lot in Firefox. But if you’re using Excel, only Ctrl+Page Up and Ctrl+Page Down work for changing tabs.
    The Ctrl+1 trick for Firefox is new to me, iuqiddis, thanks!

  6. кpacoткa said,

    on August 25th, 2009 at 5:04 pm

    На Ваш блог знакомый в аську ссылку кинул. Оказалось ,что не зря :) Понравилось. Тепрь постоянно читать буду :)

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