Tabbing round a web page using the keyboard

Explains how you can navigate a web page, fill in online forms and use drop down boxes designed for a mouse using the keyboard.

Access Keys

Where access keys are available you can use the following keys in your Linux browser:

  • Firefox: Alt + Shift + Access Key
  • Google Chrome 3 and higher: Alt + Shift + Access Key

Tabbing round a web page using the keyboard

Using the keyboard to browse the web can be a useful alternative to using the mouse, and to some people is the only way they navigate a page.

Pressing the ‘ Tab ‘ key while on a web page will select the next link on the page. You can press ‘ Tab ‘ repeatedly to get to the chosen link. The selected link is indicated by the dotted border around the link.

Once your chosen link is selected, you can trigger it by pressing the ‘ Enter ‘ key on your keyboard. You can move backwards through links by pressing ‘ Shift ‘ + ‘ Tab ‘ together.

Filling in forms with the keyboard

In forms there are specific keys for selecting radio buttons and checkboxes.

Radio buttons

When you ‘ Tab ‘ into a form section with a choice of radio buttons you can change your choice using the ‘ up ‘ and ‘ down ‘ arrows or ‘ right ‘ and ‘ left ‘ arrows (see Fig 1 ) to move to the next section after making your selection hit the ‘ Tab ‘ key.

Note: if you hit the ‘ Enter ‘ key by mistake the form is often ‘ submitted ‘ before you want to because the ‘ Enter ‘ key is set to trigger the form ‘ submit ‘ button.

Example radio buttons

Fig 1

Checkboxes

You navigate between checkboxes using the ‘ Tab ‘ key, to select a checkbox you press the ‘ Spacebar ‘ and then press ‘ Tab ‘ to move onto the next checkbox (see Fig 2 ). To cancel or deselect a checkbox press the ‘ Spacebar ‘ again and the ‘ tick‘ or ‘cross‘ will be removed.

Example checkboxes

Fig 2

Drop down combo box menus

Many websites use drop down combo box menus as ‘ quick links ‘ to other sections of a site (see Fig 3). often however they are not designed with a keyboard user in mind and tabbing into them and pressing the ‘ down arrow ‘ to select an link in the list typically results in the first link in the list being triggered rather than the intended link, which can be very frustrating for a keyboard user. Ideally this type of combo box should have a ‘ go ‘ button next to it so a keyboard user can select the link that interests them and then press the ‘ go ‘ button.

Example combo box

Fig 3

Fortunately there is a work around to this problem; after tabbing into a combo box press ‘ Alt ‘ + ‘ down ‘ arrow together which brings up the list of links then use the ‘ up ‘ and ‘ down ‘ arrow to make your choice then press the ‘ Enter ‘ key to trigger the selection.