The latest Chrome update, now in version 56 which has no significant news except an improvement in the reloading speed of the already open sites, we take this opportunity to discover all the ways to open, close and move the Chrome tabs on the computer, PC and Mac . Tabs are now the heart of every browser, giving the possibility to open multiple sites at the same time in order to switch from one to the other with speed.
Knowing how to use the cards means knowing how to quickly reopen a card that has just been closed perhaps by mistake, knowing how to close everything in one click, knowing how to give more space to the most important ones and how to unlock those that remain locked and seem impossible to close.
Opening and closing tabs in Chrome is easy with the mouse, just click on the button of the new tab which is always the one to the right of the last tab opened.
In Windows and Mac you can open a new tab also by pressing the CTRL-T keys together (in the Mac instead of CTRL you use the Command key)
To close a tab, however, just click on the X of each tab or press the CTRL-W keys on Windows or Command + W on a Mac.
This is very simple, but what if trying to close a tab it does not respond to the command "> restart Chrome with a click if it crashes
To move the cards and put them in your order, you can click on the title, hold and drag it to the right or left around your needs.
Similarly, if you want a tab to be open in a new Chrome window, you can drag it out of the current browser window, and drop it on the desktop.
This is useful if you want to keep two sites open on the screen side by side.
Clicking with the right mouse button on the title of a card opens a list of options among which the one to reload the web page, the one to duplicate the card, the one to mute the audio and the one to block the card are important.
Locking the card means it attaches to the left side and is reloaded the next time you start Chrome.
In practice, by closing Chrome and reopening it, the locked tabs are reloaded and remain locked until they are closed or unlocked.
This option is particularly useful for sites like Facebook or Gmail, those that always open each time the browser is started.
Muting a site's sound on Chrome is very useful in order not to be disturbed by sites with autoplay videos and advertisements.
When a Chrome card is broadcasting audio, a speaker icon appears next to it and you can also mute the card using the ALT-M keys
Other useful options of the menu that appears by pressing the right mouse button on the title of a tab is to close all the tabs to the right of the current one or to close everything except the tab you are viewing.
Finally, always from this menu it is possible to reopen a closed tab, which is essential when you accidentally close a site that you were reading.
For this particular action, the keyboard shortcut, Ctrl-Shift-T on Windows and Command-Shift-T on Mac, which can be pressed several times to reopen the last closed tabs, is convenient.
Finally, if you have a group of open tabs that you want to keep, then you can use the option to add all the web pages to your favorites, perhaps creating a new folder to be able to find them easily.
To open close and move the tabs it is essential to know the keyboard shortcuts of Chrome, among which we remember above all, on Windows and Mac (on Linux it is the same as Windows).
- Open a new tab
Windows: Ctrl + T
Mac: Command + T
- Reopen the last closed tab
Windows: Ctrl + Shift + T
Mac: Command + Shift + T
- Go to the next open tab
Windows: Ctrl + Tab or Ctrl + PgDn
Mac: Command + Option + Right Arrow
- Go to the previous tab
Windows: Ctrl + Shift + Tab or Ctrl + Pag Up
Mac: Command + Options + Left Arrow
- Switch to a specific tab
Windows: Ctrl + number 1 to 8
Mac: Command + number 1 to 8
- Move to the last tab
Windows: Ctrl + 9
Mac: Command + 9
- Open the home page in the current tab
Windows: Alt + Home
- Open the previous page from the history on the current tab
Windows: Alt + Left Arrow
Mac: Command + Left Arrow
- Open the next page from the history on the current tab
Windows: Alt + Right arrow
Mac: Command + Right Arrow
- Close the current tab
Windows: Ctrl + W or Ctrl + F4
Mac: Command + W
- Close all open tabs and Chrome
Windows: Ctrl + Shift + W
Mac: Command + Shift + W
From the Chrome settings you can choose which tabs to open when you open the browser .
To access these settings, click on the three dots at the top right of the browser window, go to " Settings " and then make your choice in the On startup option.
You can choose whether to open the standard page of the new tab, which also contains the thumbnails of the 8 most visited sites for quick access, you can continue where you left off last time and then always reload the tabs left open before closing. or you can ask to open one or more specific sites.
For this last option, click on the link " Set pages " and then write the addresses of the sites to be opened automatically.
The " Use current pages " button is used to automatically set the sites currently open.
Chrome tabs can be further enhanced through extensions and in this blog we have seen a bit of all kinds for:
- organize tabs into groups in Chrome
- Tile sites, tabs and windows on Chrome
- Extensions to suspend inactive tabs in Chrome
- Extensions to improve the initial card
- Extensions to manage many open tabs more easily
Finally, it is worth noting that Chrome on PC has a very efficient card management system, dedicating a separate process for each of them so that the error of a site does not cause the browser to crash and so that the use of memory of the cards not in view is less.
