How can I change Firefox switching tabs shortcuts?

Question

I was used to press Control+1, Control+2 and so on to switch between tabs in Firefox. Now, in Unity, I have to use the Alt key instead. How can I change that?

Thanks!

Solution 1

There is a nice add-on you can try called KeyConfig available from here. Unfortunately the author hasn't added this to the official Mozilla Addons.

If you still want to try this "untrusted" add-on, click on the keyconfig.xpi and install it. Then go to your firefox addons to display various keybindings offered by the addon

Click on the box shown by the arrow and choose your key combination - CTRL + 1.

This will change the value in the box to CTRL+1. Click the Apply button

Repeat for the rest of the "key_selectTab" values.

Solution 2

It's easy to change manually:

http://www-archive.mozilla.org/unix/customizing.html#keys

You can also search for addons that may do it more easy, but changing the accelKey number in about:config is not that hard.

Solution 3

I've added support for this to my Windows Shortcuts extension (version 0.2).

It's a trival extension with no options.

It sets these shortcuts:

• Ctrl+J = Downloads
• Ctrl+E = Search
• Ctrl+number = Switch to tab number (e.g. Ctrl+1 = switch to first tab)

Solution 4

Going off of @Aron's answer, simply perform the following steps:

1. Go to about:config in the URL bar
2. Search for accelKey
3. Change the value to 17 for CTRL or 18 for ALT
4. Restart Firefox

Solution 5

As time progressed, some solutions may not work anymore, for example because extensions mentioned are not compatible anymore with current Firefox versions (Quantum et al).

The "Ctrl+Number to switch tabs by Abigail" extension is released more-recently (Nov. 2017), and worked for me:

Adds keyboard shortcut Ctrl+1 to switch to the first tab, Ctrl+2 to switch to the second, and so on. Ctrl+9 switches to the last tab.

Thank you, Abigail.

View more solutions

Comments

[Eric Carvalho]

Welcome to Ask Ubuntu! Whilst this may theoretically answer the question, it would be preferable to include the essential parts of the answer here, and provide the link for reference.

[Mo2]

Hey @Mikel, I was actually looking to do the exact opposite of what your extension does (use ALT+# to change tabs on Windows). I replaced the "accel" key with "alt" key in your extension and installed it locally. Please let me know if you would like me to send it to you so that you can release it as a separate addon, or if you would like me to do so. Thank you.

[underscore_d]

link only answer, but props for going to the source and actually showing why this difference exists, not just other clumsy ways around it. i feel enlightened - after being irritated for months by the lack of ctrl-#, then finding alt-# but not seeing any reason for the difference until now. thanks!

[Coderer]

This didn't work for me. Changing the setting altered the menu shortcuts (CTRL+Q vs ALT+Q to quit, for example) but nothing makes the tab switching use CTRL.

[lolesque]

Under Linux, I already have the value 17 by default but have to use Alt to change tabs. I'm afraid your solution is only for other shortcuts like Ctrl+Q to quit.

[Mo2]

@lolesque interesting. It was working at the time of posting this. I'm not sure if they've changed something with the new updates.

[Sander Verhagen]

This extension is not compatible anymore with current Firefox versions (Quantum et al). The "Ctrl+Number to switch tabs" extension is released more-recently, and worked for me. I added an answer to that effect.