Let me ask you a personal question: How many tabs do you have open on your browser at one time? For me it’s about 10 tabs, rarely below 5 or above 15. Everyone has a different tab approach, but most people don’t use tabs to their full potential. Here’s some useful tab tricks and extensions for optimal browser organization.
Numbered Tabs: Some believe the ideal amount of tabs in your browser should be 8 or 9 because of “numbered tabs”. To access the tab you want, Hold Control + (1 through 9) on Windows, and Command + (1-9) on a Mac. Control/Command + 9 will automatically direct you to the last tab. This works on Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Safari.
Access Tabs Quickly: Cycle through tabs easily by holding Contol + Page Up/Down on Windows. For a Mac, hold Function + Control + Up/Down arrows. This does not work in Internet Explorer.
Refresh All Tabs: To do a refresh of all tabs, simply hold Control + F5 on Windows. For a Mac, Hold Control and click on a tab. Scroll down the menu to “Reload all Tabs”.
Close & Reopen Tabs: Here’s a quick shortcut to close a tab you don’t need anymore. For Windows, hold Control + W and for Mac, it’s Command + W. If you did not mean to close that tab, simply hold Control + Shift + T in Windows and Command + Shift + T on a Mac and the last tab you browsed will reopen automatically. This incredibly useful feature will let you open the last 10 closed tabs.
Send Tabs to Your Smartphones: If you want to send your Chrome tabs to your Android, use the Chrome to Phone extension or use Site to Phone for iPhone and other smartphones. Site to Phone works for Firefox as well.
Tree Style Tab Extension: This nifty extension works best in Firefox, as the Chrome version is buggy and still in Beta. Tree Style Tab organizes tabs based on the order they were opened and the pages they came from. For instance you may have 200 tabs open, but it looks more like 20. This is an easy way to retrace your steps for research purposes.
Sidewise Tree Style Tabs Extension: This extension shows a tree like hierarchy of open tabs, and also lets you store notes in certain tabs. Sidewise Tree Style Tabs is still in Beta for Chrome. Give tabs a group name, put certain groups in hibernation, and search through all tab titles quickly. Only the tabs you need at the moment will take up memory.
TooManyTabs Extension: This Chrome and Firefox extension manages your tabs and reduces the dreaded “tab overflow” problem. You will see a birds eye view of all your opened tabs. Instantly search through these tabs and sort by creation time, domain, or title. Click tabs days or weeks later and still recover the page you want.
There’s plenty of tab extensions and hacks that haven’t been covered. What do you use to organize and simplify all your open windows?
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Jared Smith is Surpass’ Technology Writer. Follow him on Twitter.