Common keyboard commands

Learn the common keyboard commands that people use to navigate and operate web content.

Navigating web content

Tab key

The Tab key enables a user to jump to subsequent interactive elements on a web page, such as:

• links
• buttons
• form controls.

Pressing Shift + Tab does the same in reverse, moving focus to the previous control. This is often called ‘tabbing’.

If you are using macOS, you’ll need to change a system preference and a setting in your browser, whether that’s Safari, Chrome, or Firefox. To learn more, see Quick Tip: Browser Keyboard Navigation in macOS — The A11y Project.

Arrow keys

The ← ↑ ↓ → keys:

• scroll the page left, right, up or down by small increments
• move through the options in a dropdown menu.

Space key

The Space key scrolls the page down one screen at a time.

Pressing Shift + Space scrolls the page up one screen.

Operating web content

Enter key

The Enter key activates links and buttons.

Space key

The Space key:

• activates a button (but not a link)
• toggles the state of a checkbox
• opens dropdown menus (such as a <select> element)
• selects an option in a dropdown menu.

Arrow keys

The ← ↑ ↓ → keys can:

• select the desired radio button (<input type="radio">) in a set
• change the value of a slider
• select and display the different panels in a tabbed interface.

Esc key

The Esc (Escape) key closes dialogs and dropdown menus.

Caret browsing and selecting text

Most current browsers (Chrome, Edge and Firefox) include a feature called ‘caret browsing’ or ‘caret navigation’. A caret is the often-blinking text cursor that’s visible when a user is interacting with text.

Some places where you might see a caret blinking are in a:

• text field that has focus
• word processor
• text-based computer terminal interface.

Caret browsing enables sighted people that rely on a keyboard to use the ← ↑ ↓ → keys to move the text cursor, or caret, around the page. Then, using the arrow keys with the Shift key, a user can select text and other content using just the keyboard, as opposed to using a mouse.

In most browsers that have caret browsing, it can be toggled on and off by pressing the F7 key.

For more information, see Caret navigation — Wikipedia.