With the introduction of Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 all major browsers now support tabbed browsing. Below are various tips to improve your browsing using tabs.

Clicking any link with your middle mouse button or wheel opens that link in a new tab. Alternatively, you can hold down Ctrl in IE and Firefox, and click a link to open that link in a new tab.

Closing tabs

Clicking an open tab with your middle mouse button closes that tab.

Open previous page in a new tab

Middle-click the back button to open a previous page in a new tab.

Open a new empty tab

Pressing Ctrl+T opens a new tab in all browsers.

Undo any closed tab

Pressing Ctrl+Shift+T re-opens the closed tab. Alternatively, right-clicking a portion of the tab bar also displays this option.

Quickly switch between open tabs

Hold down Ctrl and press 1 through 0 on the keyboard to open that respective tab.

You can press Ctrl+Shift+T multiple times to re-open all last closed tabs.

View tab options

Right-clicking the active tab gives you an option to close all other non-active tabs.

You can also press Ctrl+Tab to switch between tabs left to right, or press Ctrl+Shift+Tab to switch between tabs right to left.

  • How to create a link that opens a new web page window or tab.
  • How to open a new tab in an Internet browser.
  • See our browser and tab definition for further information and related links on this term.