How to set up a keyboard control interface in Chrome [Tip]

Ferro is an extension for Google Chrome comparable to gleeBox covered in this article, but isn’t entirely the same. It enables you to browse by entering keyboard shortcuts into a command console. With the extension you can access your bookmarks, history items, tabs and more besides by entering hotkeys.

Firstly, add Ferro to Google Chrome from this page. There press the + Add to Chrome button to install. Press the Ferro button on the toolbar to open the command console in the shot below.

To begin, open a few website pages with Ferro. Press the Ferro button and enter website domains such as Google, Bing, dotTech, etc. Ferro will then display indexed results from your tabs, bookmarks and history as below. Select a page from the list with the arrow keys and press Return. Press Esc to close Ferro without selecting a page.

Now try out some other options. For instance, select a tab to close in your browser window and then open Ferro. Enter close into Ferro text box, and then press the Return key. That will close the selected page tab.

Alternatively, pin a tab with Ferro. Select a tab, enter pin the Ferro text box and press Return. That will then pin the tab.

You can open your bookmarks with Ferro. Enter bookmarks into Ferro and press Return. The bookmarks manager will then open in a new tab.

You can also save browser sessions. To save a session, open Ferro and press the period (.) button; and then enter a title for the session in the left text box on the Ferro console. Press the Tab key, type save, select Save and press Return.

The Ferro Options page includes saved sessions. You can reopen any browser session by entering their title in the Ferro popup. Then select the session from the list as below.

There’s a variety of hotkeys you can enter into the Ferro command console. For the full list, right-click the Ferro button and select Options. That will open the tab in the shot below which includes a list of hotkeys you can enter into Ferro.