Chrome's omnibar shortcut, F6 vs Alt-D vs Ctrl-L?

17

6

Google Chrome's omnibar can be accessed using either:

  • AltD

  • CtrlL

  • F6

  • (list others in comments if you know of any)

What's the difference between these options?

Pacerier

Posted 2011-05-15T16:57:50.170

Reputation: 22 232

2

Is 77.16% of the internet your definition of "localized"?

– Pacerier – 2015-04-28T09:46:41.600

This is a kind of localized question, since those shortcuts, at least not Alt+D and F6, works on Chrome on Mac. On Mac, you have to use ⌘+L (Cmd+L). – Lasse V. Karlsen – 2011-07-25T21:20:43.073

Answers

17

Made a quick overview of the shortcuts! The difference is small but it does exist:

All keys do almost the same thing, they get the cursor's focus on the address bar but with the following differences in behaviour:

  • Alt+D works in all situations focusing on the address bar.

  • F6 Circles through the following:

    Address Bar, Bookmarks, New Tab Button, Current Window and Console (if open)
    
  • Ctrl+E adds a question mark and if a domain is entered it gets searched in Google instead of directly accessing it. It is also intended for other type of entries - see this post.

  • Ctrl+L works as the 'Clear Console' in the console, if open, or focuses the cursor on the address bar otherwise

Vasilis Bankov

Posted 2011-05-15T16:57:50.170

Reputation: 186

Oh, btw I found a similarity between them: when the tab is lagging (loading), neither of them works. Only the mouse-click works. – Pacerier – 2015-04-28T10:10:04.247

What do you mean by "Clear Console"? – Pacerier – 2013-12-22T03:06:19.040

1Just try the following: Press F12, Navigate to the Console tab, type anything and then press Enter, pressing Ctrl+L will now clear your console log – Vasilis Bankov – 2014-01-25T19:18:41.250

6

Chances are that there is no difference at all and they just made so many shortcuts so that people who are familiar with other browsers would be able to guess right the first time.

Michael Dillon

Posted 2011-05-15T16:57:50.170

Reputation: 899

I believe that F6 originally comes from Windows Explorer, while Ctrl+L has its origins in Unix/Linux. So it's perhaps a platform issue. – DisgruntledGoat – 2011-05-20T12:03:58.880

What does F6 do in Windows Explorer? (doesn't do anything for me) – Pacerier – 2011-09-25T17:00:02.637

@Pacerier In Windows, F6 and Shift+F6 are standard shortcuts for going to the next or previous pane of a window. Try out F6 in an Explorer window with both the Folders pane and the Address bar turned on. For me, it cycles between them. – Bavi_H – 2011-09-25T18:09:30.993

@Bavi_H Isn't it the same functionality as what <kbd>Tab</kbd> does ? – Pacerier – 2011-09-25T19:30:03.107

@Pacerier In Explorer, yes, Tab and F6 do the same thing. But, for example, in a text editor that lets you split the document into panes (like Visual Studio), F6 will cycle through the panes, but Tab will type a tab character. – Bavi_H – 2011-09-27T00:36:13.553

5

I know another one :Ctrl+K ( or Ctrl+E )

It adds a "?" in the ominibox.

The "?" means your following input will be treat as keywords for search after pressing Enter.

Another key that adds a "?" in the omnibox is F3.

Sigma

Posted 2011-05-15T16:57:50.170

Reputation: 177

F3 opens "search on the page" entry field for me – Ruslan – 2015-03-25T11:23:06.617