Keyboard shortcut for moving to the address (URL) bar in IE (7 and earlier)
If you (like me) have over time come to use the Ctrl-F4 key in IE 6 (and before) to move the cursor to the browser address (URL) bar, you may notice that as of IE 7, that now closes the window instead (or the current tab, if more than one is open). Actually, it does makes sense in the multi-window tabbed interface of IE 7 that this keyboard combination, which always closes windows in most other interfaces, does now do its more natural duty.
But what to do if you want to use the keyboard to move to the address bar? The good news is that there are indeed alternatives. I know, some will want to say, "and this is news to you?". Well, yes it is. I never needed anything but ctrl-F4.
The good news is that these alternatives work in both Internet Explorer 7 and before:
- F4
- alt-d
- f6
Actually, the first seems really identical to how ctrl-f4 works. The second differs in that it does NOT call up the browser history list at the same time, as the f4 variants do. Never really noticed, but I prefer it, to be honest. (You can just hit f4 twice to make the history go away.)
Finally, f6 does the same as alt-d, but has the added benefit that if you hit it again, it should take the focus to the explorer toolbar and then to the page body again. It did that for me in IE 7, but not in IE 6. My machine could be a little funked up, so your mileage may vary.