Chromebooks have the MS-Windows carry-over windows-switching ALT TAB feature, but what if you want to quickly switch between windows of the same app? If you have an intermediate or advanced Chromebook with 4GB or more of RAM, you can open up all sorts of windows at the same time. And if you have many windows, it can be hard to find that Chrome browser window or that file manager window.
So here’s a quick shortcut I discovered accidentally while fumbling on the keyboard: there is an easy and quick way to switch between windows of the same app, faster than ALT-TAB if you don’t care for what’s happening in the other active ChromeOS apps!
HOW TO DO IT
- you must put all the apps you want to do this for in Toolbar positions 1 through 9. These are the ones that are quickly accessed by the keyboard shortcut ALT 1, ALT 2, up to ALT 9
- put the apps you use the most in positions you can remember, 1 and 9 being the bookends, or any other combination that works for you
- to quickly test it, open 2-3 Chrome browser windows, open 2-3 File Manager windows, and so forth. Then use ALT-TAB and you’ll switch between all of them. But if you put the Chrome browser in position 1, pressing ALT 1 repeatedly will only switch between the Chrome browser windows. If you put the File Manager in position 6, pressing ALT 6 repeatedly will switch only between the File Manager windows
- it even works with shortcuts, for example, I put an Evernote web shortcut in position #3, and ALT 3 rotates only between all the Evernote browser windows, not all the Chrome browser windows
- this feature does not seem to work with Android apps
I did this with my beloved Samsung Chromebook PLUS [review is coming], running ChromeOS version 63, and with the Android apps feature activated.
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