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What is the Keyboard shortcut to go back to the previous tab (I mean most recent tab)?

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I normally work on Firefox with more tabs than one open. I want to switch between two open tabs frequently. Is there any shortcut to do so? eg. "Alt+Tab" to open most recent window on Windows OS.

I normally work on Firefox with more tabs than one open. I want to switch between two open tabs frequently. Is there any shortcut to do so? eg. "Alt+Tab" to open most recent window on Windows OS.

Isisombululo esikhethiwe

That probably only works if you enable Control Tab Preview.

You can set the pref browser.ctrlTab.previews to true on the about:config page.

To open the about:config page, type about:config in the location (address) bar and press the "Enter" key, just like you type the url of a website to open a website.
If you see a warning then you can confirm that you want to access that page.

  • Use the Filter bar at to top of the about:config page to locate a preference more easily.
  • Preferences that have been modified show as bold(user set).
  • Preferences can be reset to the default or changed via the right-click context menu.
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All Replies (5)

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There are quite a few keyboard shortcuts

Navigating Open Tabs
The keyboard shortcuts Ctrl + # where a number is 1 to 8 work as intended and expected, and I often use them.

The Keyboard shortcuts The keyboard shortcuts list include Ctrl+ Arrow shortcuts but at least when I try those at the moment

  • only seems to work with Num Lock engaged and the number arrows
  • seems rather unpredictable where they actually direct to
  • The keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Home / End for me work within the document instead as a Home/end - and not on tabs focus

Also

Note the location bar now highlights open tabs in its dropdown giving a switch to tab option,
and the Aurora channel Firefox 8 now has animated tab moving & tear off.

Navigating Closed Tabs
Use the History menu or the related shortcuts that has for instance Ctrl+Shift+Tab to open the previous tab you closed. (Menu shows Ctrl+Shift+T as does KB article)


It would be interesting to know if others can get the shortcuts working or not, and if you do have problems which OS & Firefox version & whether you have tried in Safe mode. It may be that the KB article needs reviewing.

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  • CTRL + Tab key -> for Switching to Next tab
  • CTRL + SHIFT + Tab key -> for Switching Back to Previous Tab

Check and tell if its working.

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Thanks for answering.

My question may not be clear enough for you to answer exactly.

I know that we can use "Ctrl+Tab" key combination to visit the open tabs in sequence and "Ctrl+#" (#-tab number)to visit a specified tab, but what I wanted to know is how to switch from the current tab to the last visited tab directly. eg. Suppose I visited tab 6 and then switched to tab 2 by a mouse click, then how to go back to tab 6 without scrolling through all the opened tabs(Ctrl+Tab) or remembering the tab numbers(Ctrl+#).

I hope you understand my question clearly now.

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Close the current tab, it will switch to your previously used tab :-P

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Isisombululo Esikhethiwe

That probably only works if you enable Control Tab Preview.

You can set the pref browser.ctrlTab.previews to true on the about:config page.

To open the about:config page, type about:config in the location (address) bar and press the "Enter" key, just like you type the url of a website to open a website.
If you see a warning then you can confirm that you want to access that page.

  • Use the Filter bar at to top of the about:config page to locate a preference more easily.
  • Preferences that have been modified show as bold(user set).
  • Preferences can be reset to the default or changed via the right-click context menu.