Control Safari Windows With Keyboard Shortcuts

Learn how to use Safari without a mouse

By
Tom Nelson
Tom Nelson
Writer

Tom Nelson is an engineer, programmer, network manager, and computer network and systems designer who has written for Other World Computing,and others. Tom is also president of Coyote Moon, Inc., a Macintosh and Windows consulting firm.

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Updated on September 11, 2020

Apple's web browser supports keyboard shortcuts to open new window tabs on a Macbook without using your mouse or trackpad. Learning how to use Safari window shortcuts for tabbed browsing makes for a more streamlined browsing experience.

Instructions in this article apply to Safari 10 and later for macOS and Windows.

Safari Window Shortcuts

Safari supports the following keyboard shortcuts for multi-window and tabbed browsing:

For Windows users, replace the Command (⌘) key with the Ctrl key.

  • Command+T: Open a new tab with a blank page.
  • Command+N: Open a new window.
  • Command+Shift+N: Open a new window in Safari's private browsing mode (Mac only).
  • Control+Tab: Move to the next tab on the right and make it active. Performing this shortcut on the right-most tab will move you back around to the left-most one.
  • Control+Shift+Tab: Move to the tab on the left and make it active. Performing this shortcut on the left-most tab will move you to the right-most one.
  • Command+W: Close the current tab and move to the next tab on the right. If you only have one tab open, this command will close the window.
  • Command+Shift+W: Close the current window.
  • Command+Option+W: Close all windows (Mac Only).
  • Command+Shift+Z: Reopen the last tab you closed (Mac Only).

There are many more keyboard shortcuts for Safari that utilize the Mac modifier keys.

How to Enable Command + Click Shortcuts

Command+click in Safari can perform two different functions, depending on how you set the tab preferences in Safari. Here's how to find and adjust those options to decide which shortcuts are available:

  1. Select Safari > Preferences, or use the shortcut Command+comma ( , ).

    On Windows, select the settings gear in the top-right corner and choose Preferences.

    Safari Preferences in menu

  2. Select the Tabs heading.

    Safari Preferences > Tabs

  3. The first box you can toggle affects what happens when you hold Command (or Ctrl) and select a link. If it's checked, Command+click will open the linked page in a new tab. If it's not, the page will open in a new window.

    Command+click preference in Safari

  4. The third option unlocks some other useful keyboard shortcuts. Check the box to combine Command with the numbers 1 through 9 to switch between up to nine tabs (numbered left to right).

    This option is not available for the Windows version of Safari.

    Tabs preferences in Safari with the Command-number option box highlighted

  5. Close the window to save your changes.

Command + Click Options in Safari

Holding Command while you select a link in Safari will always do something, but the specifics depend on whether you checked the box in your Preferences.

  • Command+Click: The link will open in a new Safari tab/window in the background.
  • Command+Shift+Click: The link will open in a new tab/window, which will then become active.

Page Navigation Shortcuts for Safari

The following shortcuts help you quickly navigate active web pages:

  • Up/Down Arrow keys: Move up or down a web page in small increments.
  • Left/Right Arrow keys: Move left or right on a web page in small increments.
  • Spacebar or Option+Down Arrow: Moves the page down by one full screen.
  • Shift+Spacebar or Option+Up Arrow: Move the page up by one full screen.
  • Command+Up or Command+Down Arrow: Moves directly to the top or bottom of the current page (Mac only).
  • Command+[ or Command+Left Arrow: Go to the last page you visited.
  • Command+] or Command+Right Arrow: Go to the next page (if you'd previously used the back command).
  • Command+L: Move the cursor to the address bar with the current URL selected.
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