Today's Keyboard Shortcut - Getting To Your Web Browsers' Location Bar - For Windows & Mac Users.

If you want to cut down on time spent using your computer's mouse to navigate through your computer's desktop for example, then you need to know what is known as "keyboard shortcuts". A keyboard shortcut enables you to use a combination of your computers' keyboard keys while your hands are still on the keyboard. Using keyboard shortcuts saves you time and increases your efficiency in navigating your way through your computer's Desktop, files, folders and so on. I love keyboard shortcuts! I know you will too.

So, for today's keyboard shortcut, we will learn how to get to your web browser's Location Bar or Address bar using a combination of keys, instead of using your mouse, try this:


Windows Users:       alt key + D key   or  control key + L key

Mac Users:               command key + L key

The plus sign (+) above means to press down on one or more keys at the same time. So for Windows users, you would either press the alt key and the D key at the same time or the control key and the L key at the same time.

For more keyboard shortcuts, you can visit this link:

http://www.shortcutworld.com/en/win/Firefox_3.html#link_0

Enjoy!

So what is that thing again on the browser, where you type the website address?

In my first article, yesterday ( 05May11), I introduced a Firefox web browser Add-On called "Browse By Name". I also mentioned a few words that could've thrown off the average user, getting them to try and figure out what the heck I was referring to. There's always Uncle Google of course to answer your problems, but then again that would be defeating the purpose of having this blog. My apologies for this, I will try to explain as simply as possible in the future, since your time is of the essence. Take for example, the phrase 'location bar', you may be wondering, "now what is that?". Well, it all comes down to knowing a few basics about the features or components of your web browser.

Here are a few basics about the components of your web browser (viewing your web browser from top to bottom):

Menu Bar 
- where your menus are located, usually above the Webpage Title, but placement of the Menu Bar can vary in different implementations of web browsers and operating   systems (Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X and Linux).

Webpage Title
- this is usually a short title about the website or webpage you are currently visiting. Note that the browser does not automatically put in this title for you, it is the designer of the website who enables this on their webpages - this can be another topic for another day. The Webpage Title is usually located at the top of the website's webpage that you are viewing.
                           
Location Bar
 - this is where you usually type a website address.

Personal Toolbar or Bookmarks Toolbar
 - this is a handy place for your favorite or useful websites that you visit most frequently.
                                                                        
 Content Area
- the main content or information of the website.

Scrollbar
- this is used for viewing content that spans beyond your computer's screen size. Just use your mouse to click on it and drag vertically downwards to see the rest of the content.
                   
Status Line
- this is useful to see the progress of your connection to a website. If your web connection is slow for some reason, this would be a good place to check visually.
                 
A picture tells a thousand words, so here's a snapshot of my Firefox web browser on my Apple Macbook, with the few basic components that we just learned about:

If you want to learn more about your browser and have the time, you can visit the following:

Firefox:  http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/features/

Internet Explorer:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Explorer_8

Safari: http://www.apple.com/safari/features.html

Chrome: http://www.google.com/chrome/intl/en/more/index.html

Today's tip for Mozilla Firefox Web Browser Users.

Why stress yourself out by either searching for a website on your web browser's Google toolbar or going to the Google website directly and then having to click the website's name again in Google's search results when you can just save time by typing in the name of the website on your web browser's Location Bar and have the web browser intuitively guess your website?

Well, there is a Firefox extension or Add-On called "Browse By Name" that you can download and install, that does a pretty good job most of the time. This is one AddOn that I definitely appreciate using again and again. Kudos to the creator of this App, Ehsan Akhgari. Be sure to download the latest version for your Firefox web browser.

So, as an example, let's say I want to visit the Bank of South Pacific's website. Instead of typing the full web address http://www.bsp.com.pg, I can just type in the browser's location bar these two simple key words: bsp pg. Voila!!! The browser takes you straight to the correct website!!!

Try this for the second example: unitech pg

This works most of the time, however be warned that you may be occasionally re-directed to a default Google search results page if the AddOn can't disambiguate the website you are trying to connect to. It works most of the time for me so I can't complain. :)

Examples of re-direction, type the following and try it out: telikom pg.


You can download it from here:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/browse-by-name

Please note, the above examples were not intended for any PR purposes related to those entities. :)