Master these and then find your own favorites.To permanently set the zoom level on Internet Explorer 9 some registry know how is required. In this article, I’ve outlined the IE9 keyboard shortcuts that I use most, but there are dozens more. Keyboard shortcuts can speed up your daily journeys on the Internet super highway, transforming an average IE user into a power user. But in testing, I couldn’t reproduce the effect for these two much older versions. Some web forums say that pressing Alt + 5 or Alt + 6 will force the browser to render in IE5 or IE6. To see how a particular page will look in an older IE, click F12 to open developer tools then hold down the Alt key and press 7, 8, or 9 to render the current page as IE7, IE8, or IE9 respectively. While IE9 cannot go out and destroy every instance of IE6 through IE8, it can give you an idea of how your page will look in those older browsers. So web developers and site owners typically have had to purchase additional software, use virtual machines, or use tools like the IETester browser to learn how their sites look in, say, IE7. For example, one longstanding challenge with Internet Explorer is that several old and dilapidated versions of the browser are still in use, and each successive version of IE renders web pages very differently. F12, Then Alt + (7 to 9) : Change Rendering ModeĬompared to earlier versions of Internet Explorer, IE9 is extremely friendly to web developers and website owners and marketers. This is especially helpful for researching topics on content-dense web pages. This key combination will open a search box in IE9, allowing you to search for a keyword on page. One fairly common keyboard shortcut is Ctrl + F. So typing “google” and using this shortcut will take you directly to “Ctrl + F : Search the Current Page for a Keyword It will even take you to the web address. IE9 will automatically place a “after what you typed. Instead, type just the site name, like “google” or “practicalecommerce” and hold down the Ctrl key while you press the Enter key. So ask yourself, how often in a given day do you type “” or “” or any of a dozen or more other URLs into your browser’s address bar? A lot of times, right? Ctrl + Enter : Get “Keyboard shortcuts are all about saving time and motion. So just focus on the one tab you want to keep and this shortcut will close the rest. When it’s time to clean up your tabs, holding down the Ctrl key and the Alt key and then pressing F4 will close all of the tabs except the active one. Similar to the shortcut mentioned above, this one is great for leaping to the end of the line, so to speak. Ctrl + 9 : Makes the Last Tab ActiveĪnother helpful shortcut, holding down the Ctrl key and pressing 9, will make the very last tab active. This is especially helpful if you are working on a task that requires you to switch back and forth between two specific tabs. IE9 will leap directly to the tab you select. If the tab you want to switch to happens to be one of the first eight, simply hold down the Ctrl key and press the corresponding number key. In IE9, this will step through all of the open tabs, helping you to jump quickly from one page to another. What to do? Try holding down Ctrl and pressing the Tab key. You still need most of these, but moving between tabs is starting to be a struggle. Ctrl + Tab : Step Through TabsĪs the day wears on, you may find yourself with dozens of tabs open. So when you want to look up something on Bing or Google, or if you want to check something on Wikipedia, use this shortcut to open a new tab without having to move your hand to your mouse. For example, your ecommerce store’s admin panel, Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, and your product management system (think Basecamp or JIRA) are probably all open at once. If you’re like many modern Internet users, you often have several browser tabs open and in use. Hold down the Ctrl button, mash the “T” key, and IE9 will open a new browser tab. Some are unique to a specific browser, but every shortcut will save you time and help you navigate the web more quickly. Some shortcuts are universally recognized. Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 9 is a modern, fast, and efficient web browser that will speed up the web for its users.īut, if you really want to get the most out of this new and vastly improved web browser, you’ve got to take advantage of keyboard shortcuts.