How do you quickly scroll to the top or the bottom of a webpage?  While we might often think of the mouse’s scroll wheel as a pretty default “duh-like” answer – there are other and maybe better ways to get the job done in Firefox.

Keyboard Tip – The first scrolling tip I have to share with you is related to the pictures you see above.  You can hit the Home key on your keyboard to go to the top of a webpage, and the end key on your keyboard to navigate your way to the bottom of a webpage very quickly.

Now, for the super handy extension to save the day.

The Scroll to Top/Bottom add-on for Firefox gives you a few more ways to do this same task.  You can either do it from the buttons in Firefox’s navigation toolbar or you can go up and down from the right-click menu.

You can pick up the Scroll to Top/Bottom add-on for Firefox from the Firefox Add-ons website.

So, now it is your turn.  Tell me how you quickly go from the top of a webpage to the bottom (or the other way around) in the comments.

This is a handy browsing trick I just learned about recently.  Usually in my Firefox browser, I have the menu bar hidden, to save on screen real estate.  However, there comes a time (every so often) when I need to get it back.  Rather than un-hiding it, getting what I need, then hiding it again – I have found a much quicker way to bring the menu bar back for just a minute.

Let me start first with the steps you will need to take to hide the menu bar in the first place.  You will want to right-click on the navigation toolbar, then uncheck the menu bar.

Menu Bar Recovery Secret

Now that the menu bar is out of the way, I can share with you my resent keyboard shortcut I found.  To pull the menu bar back up for a few seconds, all you have to do is hit the Alt key on the keyboard. To hide it again, click anywhere else on the screen.

There you have it.  Now you can hide your menu bar and bring it back whenever you need it.  Have another interface tweaking tip to share?

Page zooming is a Firefox feature that is often overlooked.  It was a new feature added to Firefox 3, which in turn allowed you to increase or decrease the size of a web page to help improve the readability. So, how can you take advantage of this magnificent feature inside of Firefox?

The most common way would be to hold down the Ctrl key and then scroll up on your mouse wheel to zoom in, and scroll down on the mouse wheel to zoom out.

You can also get the same effect with just the keyboard too.  To zoom in, press and hold the Ctrl key on your keyboard and then press the + key. To zoom out, press and hold the Ctrl key on your keyboard, then press the – key.  To reset the view back to normal, all you need to do is press and hold the Ctrl key on your keyboard and then press the 0 key.

The last way you can zoom in and out via Firefox is through the menu.  You will want to go to View > Zoom.  You can select “Zoom In”, “Zoom Out”, or “Reset” from there.  If you choose “Zoom Text Only” then only the text will change size, and the rest of the web page elements will stay the same.

It should also be said that most of these shortcuts will work on a Mac too. Just substitute the Ctrl key for the Cmd key instead. I hope this refresher in Firefox’s awesome zoom feature comes in handy then next time you find a website with tiny print.

There is a lot you can do with Firefox when it comes to the mouse.  Now, most of the time people focus on all the keyboard shortcuts you can do with Firefox – however, the mouse shortcuts are equally as cool. 

Here are six of my favorite Firefox mouse shortcuts for you to remember:

• Middle click on a link (will open in new tab)
• Holding the Shift key and scrolling down (takes you to the previous page)
• Holding the Shift key and scrolling up (takes you to the next page)
• Holding the Ctrl key and scrolling up (increases text size)
• Holding the Ctrl key and scroll down (decreases text size)
• Middle clicking on a tab (closes that tab)

Have any other Firefox mouse shortcuts you hold near and dear to your heart?  Leave them in the comments and let us know your favorites that you use in your everyday browsing.

Oh undo function, what would I do without you? 

Well, I would probably be forced to do it again – but that is beside the point.  I love being able to reopen a closed tab or window in Firefox.  It has saved my rear end many times.  This is just one of those Firefox tips you really should memorize.

Tab Restore Shortcuts

If you accidently close a tab, you can bring it back by pressing the following keyboard combination:

Ctrl + Shift + T

The great thing about it, is the newly restored tab keeps all the surfing history too.  You can can keep doing it to, to browse backwards through all the tabs you have closed in your current browsing session.

You can also bring back closed Firefox tabs or windows by clicking on “History” in the menu bar.  At the very bottom, you should see selectable menus for:

• Recently Closed Tabs
• Recently Closed Windows

There you have it.  This tab and window restore tip will help you get out of a pinch more than a few times, so it is a good one to memorize.  This is one of my favorite keyboard shortcuts and Firefox browsing tips, second only to Ctrl + T to open a new Firefox tab.

Don’t you hate it when you visit a web site and the web site’s text is so small, you can barely make out what you are reading?  Here are a few ways you can work around that everyday issue.

Three Ways to Enlarge or Shrink Text

You can enlarge text per web site you are visiting by holding the Ctrl key on your keyboard and scrolling up to enlarge text, and down to shrink text.  If your mouse doesn’t have the scroll wheel, then you can also do this by holding the Ctrl key and hitting the “+” key to enlarge text, and the “-” key to make text smaller.  The third way to enlarge text via Firefox would be to go to your menu bar, go to View > Zoom, and then choose to zoom in (to make things bigger) or zoom out (to make things smaller).

Reset a Web Page to Normal (after Zooming)

Now if you have messed around with the font size so much, your not sure what the default size should be – you can reset that too.  Just go to the menu bar, then click View > Zoom and then  Reset.  This will reset the web page to it’s normal viewing size.

So there you have a few more accessibility options to play with from within Firefox, so you can stop squinting at web pages you are trying to read.

So, for those of you who live the Apple lifestyle, here is the way you can navigate around the navigation bar without having to ever lay your fingers on your one button mouse.  If you know of any more (because as you can see, I am not a big Apple user) please share in the comments.  Would love to build up a database of more keyboard shortcuts for everybody to use.

Navigation Bar Keyboard Shortcuts

Choose Your OS: Windows | Linux | Mac OS

Cmd + [ or Cmd + Left Arrow or Delete = Go Back a Page

Cmd + ] or Cmd + Right Arrow or Shift + Delete = Go Forward a Page

Opt + Home = Go to your Homepage

F5 or Cmd + R = Reload a Page

Cmd + . or Esc = Stop a Page from Loading

Cmd + P = Bring up the Print Options

Cmd + J = Launch the Download Window

Cmd + Shift + H = Open Your History in the Sidebar

Cmd + B = Open Your Bookmarks in the Sidebar

Cmd + T = New Tab

Cmd + N = New Browser Window

Cmd + X = Cut

Cmd + C = Copy

Cmd + V = Paste

For the Apple fans out there, here are a few more bonus keyboard combinations, that should help assist you in getting your browsing done a little faster.

• Cmd + F = Find
• Cmd + Home = Go to the Top of a Web Page
• Cmd + End = Go to the Bottom of a Web Page
• Cmd + Shift + T = Reopen the Last Closed Tab

Know of anymore Firefox keyboard shortcuts that would be useful for your fellow Apple fans to know?  Drop in a comment and share!

Navigation Bar Keyboard Shortcuts

Choose Your OS: Windows | Linux | Mac OS

Alt + Left Arrow or Ctrl + [ = Go Back a Page

Alt + Right Arrow or Ctrl + ] = Go Forward a Page

Alt + Home = Go to your Homepage

F5 or Ctrl + R = Reload a Page

Esc = Stop a Page from Loading

Ctrl + P = Bring up the Print Options

Ctrl + Y = Launch the Download Window

Ctrl + H = Open Your History in the Sidebar

Ctrl + B = Open Your Bookmarks in the Sidebar

Ctrl + T = New Tab

Ctrl + N = New Browser Window

Ctrl + X = Cut

Ctrl + C = Copy

Ctrl + V = Paste

As a bonus, here are a few of my other favorite keyboard combos that you might want to memorize.

• Ctrl + F5 or Ctrl + Shift + R = Reload the Page (overriding the cache)
• Ctrl + F = Find (then use F3 to find again)
• Alt + (1-8) = Select a Specific Tab (if you have eight or less open)

Have a favorite that didn’t make it onto the list?  Leave a comment and share it with the rest of us.

To launch, all you have to do is hit Ctrl+Space (or for the Mac users Ctrl+Alt).  If you want to use it without the graphical launcher above, use Shift+Alt (or Shift+Ctrl for the Mac users).

Some of the best features include the ability to customize the appearance, set the launcher to open in current or new tabs, set the launcher up as your homepage and you can add as many sites to it as you need to.

You can get more information about it via the official web site, and download it via the Firefox Add-ons site.  It is nice to see a good looking and well thought out extension – and this one fits the bill.

Searchy, a new experimental add-on for Firefox will allow you to do that in a very stylish and unique way.  Once you get it installed, just hit Ctrl+Shift+K to bring up the Searchy search box, then type in what you are looking for.  You will get the results in real time as you type.

Also, another neat tip is that you can use “@” before your search to just search the web site you are on at the time.  If your not in love with the keyboard combo you must use to get it to search – that can easily be changed in the options.

It might not re-invent searching, however Searchy does give a pretty (and unique) new face to something we all do every single day.  To learn more about the development of the extension, be sure to check out the Searchy’s official web site.