Change Keyboard Commands Offered By Extensions

Many browser extensions offer keyboard commands to easily perform their certain tasks. For example, users of Facebook Share Button extension can use the keyboard command Alt + S to easily share any webpage on Facebook.com. Developers of such extensions can decide the appropriate keys combinations for their extensions using the browser.commands extensions API.

Moreover, the browsers allow users to change these keyboard commands set by the extension developers. If you want to change the keyboard command offered by any extension, or if any such keyboard command is not working and you want to verify or customize it, follow these steps.

Chrome and Edge Browsers

The following steps are applicable for Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge and other Chromium-based browsers. To see and change the default keyboard commands offered by the installed extensions, open the command shortcuts settings page by typing the following URL in address bar:

  • chrome://extensions/shortcuts for Chrome
  • edge://extensions/shortcuts for Edge

This page lists all installed extensions with their default custom keyboard commands, as shown in the screenshot below:

chrome-extension-keyboard-command-shortcut

You can now see and change the keyboard commands for various actions offered by the extensions. To change any shortcut keys combination, just click on the command field and press the desired keys combination.

Supported keys: A-Z, 0-9, Comma, Period, Home, End, PageUp, PageDown, Space, Insert, Delete, Arrow keys (Up, Down, Left, Right) and the Media Keys. All key combinations must include either Ctrl or Alt. Combinations that involve Ctrl+Alt are not permitted, but Shift can be used in addition to Alt or Ctrl, though it is not required.

While users can set any allowed key combination with CTRL or ALT and SHIFT keys, one shouldn’t use the common key combinations to avoid conflicts with system commands or other installed extensions. For example, CTRL + T is used by Chrome to open a new tab, so users shouldn’t use this combination for any extension.

Firefox

For Mozilla Firefox browser, follow these two steps to change the default keyboard commands offered by the extensions:

Step 1: Open Add-on Manager page by pressing the Ctrl + Shift + A command or typing about:addons in the address bar.

change-firefox-extensions-keyboard-shortcuts-command

Step 2: Click on the gear icon in front of the “Manage Your Extensions”, and select the option “Manage Extension Shortcuts” (see the #3 in the above screenshot).

firefox-extension-keyboard-commands

This would load the commands management page, where you can see and change the keys combinations similar to the Chrome and Edge browsers.

7 thoughts on “Change Keyboard Commands Offered By Extensions”

  1. I’ve used Chrome on a wide variety of computers ((and Chromebooks) over the years, but my wife just bought me a Macbook, and I find it maddening the way that Apple has rearranged the functions of the keys to th eleft of the space bar. VERY hard to navigate.
    Is there any way to redefine their use to put them in line with almost every other computer line on the market?
    (It also irritates me that Apple appears to be unaware of the concept of a touch screen, but that’s a different issue.)
    Thanks

  3. @Arpit is wrong, the default shortcut for switching tabs in Google chrome is —–Ctrl + Tab—–

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