Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Control Where Chrome and Firefox Open Links with Modifier Clicks


The Official Google Chrome Blog highlights three simple but useful shortcuts for controlling exactly what happens when you click a link in Chrome. Incidentally, they also work exactly the same in Firefox, so whichever you prefer, read on for the refresher.

The first, above, opens any link in a new window (not tab) when you hold shift and left-click. (The one modifier click not explicitly mentioned is Ctrl+Click, which opens the link in a new background tab just like middle clicking does.)

Shift+Middle Click (or Shift+Ctrl+Click, since Ctrl+Click is the same as a middle click) will open the link in a new tab, but automatically switch to that tab.

Finally, Alt+Click downloads whatever the link is anchored to directly to your Downloads folder. As I mentioned above, these aren't exactly new—especially if you're a Firefox user (Opera, Safari, and IE all have similar modifier clicks, but they're not all the same)—but it's a good refresher for both the Chrome and Firefox crowd.

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