How to switch between tabs in IE7 using shortcut key

Posted on March 28, 2007 at 12:01 pm

Here’s a quick post on how to switch between tab in the new Internet Explorer 7! This problem had bothered me for a while because I used the great ALT-TAB all the time to switch between various IE windows, but when I started using IE7 for some reason my mind kept making me press ALT-TAB in the hopes that it would change between the tabs in one Internet Explorer session!

Well if you are having this same problem and are lazy like me and don’t feel like reaching for your mouse that’s only inches away to click on another tab, you can instead press CNTRL-TAB on your keyboard and that will allow you to switch between tabs INSIDE of one Internet Explorer window!

Using ALT-TAB will still switch you between any active windows on the dekstop. I wish I could use the Windows hotkey along with the TAB because I have found pressing CNTRL-TAB is just not as easy as ALT-TAB was! Now I have slide my thumb ALL the way to the left side of the keyboard to get to the CNTRL key, which is a pain in the butt! Anyone else know of a better way to switch between IE tabs, let me know!

» Filed Under Internet Explorer Tips

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Comments

51 Responses to “How to switch between tabs in IE7 using shortcut key”

  1. ben said on : August 7th, 2007 at 8:27 pm

    thank you so much i was worried there for a while


  2. santhosh said on : February 8th, 2008 at 6:29 am

    Thanks very much for your tip. i was facing the same problem.


  3. liz said on : March 3rd, 2008 at 9:14 am

    Thank you! I knew there was a shortcut, I had done it accidentally one time and I’ve been trying to find a way ever since. I am a keyboard shortcut-aholic.


  4. Andy said on : April 14th, 2008 at 5:16 am

    Thanks, I had finally lost my patience with clicking the tabs today. Googled a shortcut found yours an now my faith in ie7 is restored


  5. shivank said on : May 6th, 2008 at 9:38 am

    thanks a lot mate, it was so helpful, but i think, i should have guesses, as cntl+t opens a new tab


  6. Volker Wegner said on : May 16th, 2008 at 4:32 pm

    Another solution that re-enables ALT-TAB is to turn off multiple TABs in the same IE window… :-)


  7. Mike said on : May 22nd, 2008 at 11:27 pm

    Freakin’ awesome, man! Thanks a bunch fir sharing that! I’d been doing the same thing as you ever since I changed to IE7.

    Thanks a lot/:D


  8. KrushR said on : July 15th, 2008 at 11:58 am

    Amazing. I kept saying “oh, I’ll google it one day” but never did. I finally got tired of not being able to switch between tabs, and here we are. Thank goodness for tip page, eh?


  9. jivjot said on : August 1st, 2008 at 12:24 pm

    thanks very much it was very difficult to switch b/w tabs earlier. now its very easy thanks ,…


  10. Christine said on : August 19th, 2008 at 5:26 pm

    Thank you! I have one more trick to add to this: Ctrl + Tab is great for going one direction. BUT did you know that if you hold down the Shift key you can reverse the direction of the tab?

    Ctrl + Tab = go right
    Shift + Crtl + Tab = go left

    :)


  11. JP said on : August 20th, 2008 at 4:12 pm

    Don’t think the following method is any better/quicker but you can also use CTRL + 1 or CTRL + 2, etc to go directly to a tab. Basically, depending on the number of tabs you have opened, press CTRL + the appropriate tab number to go to it.


  12. Krishna said on : October 15th, 2008 at 12:06 am

    Thanx.


  13. Dude said on : October 15th, 2008 at 8:11 pm

    Thanks alot for the IE tip! Been trying to figure out how to swtich tabs and not shift my hand to touch the mouse:) Good start to the day knowing I can now switch tabs, although shifting my thumb to the left for the CTRL button ain’t that comfortable but it’s still good…


  14. Ratheesh said on : November 6th, 2008 at 6:39 am

    Its very helpful…!!!! tnks alot.


  15. Majid M Khan said on : November 23rd, 2008 at 7:51 pm

    Thanks very much… Great shortcut… Really saved a lot of time… Thanks for the the great research.. These small things not only saves a lot of time but also free your mind for a fraction of second which is Good in this Hactic world…. Cheers Mate……….


  16. AlexR said on : December 3rd, 2008 at 2:19 pm

    Thanks, I was getting frustrated too.


  17. Computer Queen said on : December 9th, 2008 at 1:03 pm

    Thanks for this! I’ve been using ALT+TAB & it doesn’t work. You’ve made my life so much easier!


  18. yayu said on : December 20th, 2008 at 8:45 pm

    great tip!
    you won’t believe it, but i just found another shortcut myself, using that tip!

    if you press CTRL + ALT + F4 it will close all the tabs except the one your’e watching right now!
    try it!


  19. Narayan said on : March 30th, 2009 at 5:12 pm

    Thank you very much………

    Cheers,
    Narayan


  20. Ann said on : July 8th, 2009 at 4:45 pm

    omg this made my day! thanks for the info! :D


  21. possible said on : July 24th, 2009 at 6:35 pm

    Thank you soooo much!


  22. Lela said on : August 13th, 2009 at 8:48 am

    Thank you so much. I have hated tabs for the very same reason. Still don’t like ‘em but now at least I can relatively fast switch between them.


  23. just want to say THANK YOU said on : November 18th, 2009 at 7:31 am

    JUST WANT TO SAY THANKS FOR THE INFORMATION! Nice IE 7 tip!


  24. Niko said on : January 5th, 2010 at 9:52 pm

    Oh that is beautiful! I still, after 2 years, kept screwing that up! this is great!!!


  25. js said on : January 23rd, 2010 at 2:26 pm

    thanks! very useful! So much simpler to switch tabs using only the keyboard.


  26. Xavier said on : February 12th, 2010 at 12:47 pm

    This is great. I was looking for this for more than a year and finally got the answer. Many thanks,


  27. mike said on : February 12th, 2010 at 5:10 pm

    ctrl + Shift + tab lets you switch between tabs in the reverse direction.


  28. Abby said on : February 20th, 2010 at 7:47 am

    thanks a lot for this information! So much easier to flip through tabs this way.


  29. Natasha said on : February 24th, 2010 at 12:53 pm

    Thank you for sharing this information! This is a great tidbit!


  30. Seal said on : March 8th, 2010 at 1:08 pm

    Short post, but awesome tip! I always use the tabbed feature in IE and other browsers as well and switching between tabs is so much easier via the keyboard. This also works in Firefox and Chrome.


  31. DaveT said on : March 12th, 2010 at 2:20 am

    Awesome tip, not that for Firefox 3.6 and for OfficeTab (tabbed documents for Office 2007) this works as well. Excellent tips


  32. Mike D said on : March 12th, 2010 at 6:17 pm

    You know this keyboard shortcut has been around for years…

    firefox does it,
    google chrome does it,
    safari does it,

    pretty much any web browser you can think of uses the same key binding for tab switching….


  33. Mike D said on : March 12th, 2010 at 6:55 pm

    Whoops….I didn’t realize the date on the article, my bad


  34. Posse said on : March 30th, 2010 at 12:18 am

    great ! now i can watch multiple “love” videos & switching it with my left hand, while my right hand do the job !!


  35. James said on : April 6th, 2010 at 7:55 am

    Thanks that was bugging me for ages :)


  36. goku82 said on : April 7th, 2010 at 8:57 am

    Excellent IE tip!!! Thanks!


  37. Incrediman said on : April 8th, 2010 at 4:32 pm

    Awesome!!!… thanks for this. It was amazing how many people seemed just as desperate as me to find a solution to such a minor problem (not being able to switch tabs fast enough)…. WOW!


  38. boro said on : April 9th, 2010 at 4:56 am

    Thx….:-)


  39. PG said on : April 14th, 2010 at 2:44 am

    Awesome!!!… thanks for this.


  40. fapperman1423 said on : April 18th, 2010 at 3:09 pm

    Wow this is great for when you’re looking at p**n and ur parents walk in! Before you start surfing just open a tab with the google homepage and if anyone walks in just push ctrl+tab! Brilliant!


  41. nicole said on : April 21st, 2010 at 8:15 am

    the only thing that sucks is that it doesnt tab straight to the last used tab… it starts from beginning to end… but it is a great tool to use when you use only 5-6 tabs and more than one browser.


  42. Adeel S said on : April 21st, 2010 at 11:46 pm

    Thanx. This really helped me!


  43. Jules&Hoags said on : April 24th, 2010 at 9:02 pm

    AWESOME!! I was having an epic fail trying to figure this out!


  44. ToTheRiver said on : May 10th, 2010 at 10:12 am

    I normally use my thumb for the ALT button too. To get to the CTRL button, use your pinkie.


  45. Ehteshaam said on : May 13th, 2010 at 11:59 pm

    Good. Thank you.


  46. Rajesh said on : May 20th, 2010 at 4:21 am

    Good!! Thanks for sharing!!


  47. vamshi said on : May 25th, 2010 at 6:55 am

    thanx a lot for the IE tip which was first submitted in march 2007. Wow, it’s been helping people for 3 years! Good job!


  48. Robin said on : September 10th, 2010 at 7:28 am

    OMG, you have no idea how long I have put up with this before I finally Googled your tip! Thank you!


  49. Harry said on : October 25th, 2010 at 3:18 pm

    Thanks for posting this. you have made my life so much easier.


  50. Vivien said on : November 4th, 2010 at 6:54 am

    FANTASTIC!!!!


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