A commenter on my recent article about a Firefox add-on that made it possible to open search results using the keyboard let me know that he would like to see a similar article about Opera. It sometimes takes a while but I always try to help my readers by finding solutions for them. During that research I stumbled upon Opera’s keyboard shortcuts which are way more advanced than the ones for Firefox. If you compare both keyboard shortcut lists you will notice that Opera’s is probably three times the size as the Firefox list.
But back to the topic. The following keyboard shortcuts are all that is needed to use Opera without the mouse in most situations including the aforementioned way to open search results in Opera without having to use the mouse. This way is unfortunately not as precise but it is speedy enough to use it instead of the mouse.
It is possible to flip through links in Opera using the Shift + Arrow Keys shortcut. The up and down arrow keys switch to the first link in the previous or next line while the left and right keys jump to the previous or next link no matter where it is located. The first result of a Google search can be selected by using the Shift Arrow Key Down shortcut three times. The link can then be loaded with the Enter key which would open the link in the same tab, the Shift Enter combination which would load it in a new tab or the CTRL Shift Enter combination that opens the link in a background tab.
Here are the important shortcuts for keyboard only navigation in Opera:
- Shift + Arrow Key UP - Jumps to the next line above the current cursor position that contains a link selecting the first link in that line
- Shift + Arrow Key DOWN - Jumps to the next line below the current cursor position that contains a link selecting the first link in that line
- Shift + Arrow Key LEFT - Jumps to the first link before the current cursor position.
- Shift + Arrow Key Right - Jumps to the first link after the current cursor position.
- Enter - Load the selected link in the same tab.
- Shift + Enter - Load the selected link in a new tab.
- Ctrl + Shift + Enter - Load the selected link in a background tab.
- Ctrl + Shift + S - Save the selected Link Target.
- F2 - Enter a URL
- Ctrl + Tab - Cycle to next tab.
- Ctrl + Shift + Tab - Cycle to previous tab.
Maybe Tobey our Opera geek can comment on other options or a faster way to open the search results in Opera just with the keyboard.
Tags: browser, opera, opera-tips
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