Facebook keyboard shortcuts you didn’t know existed

April 20, 2017

By Kim Komando

The mouse-and-keyboard combination for controlling computers has been around for decades, and so far, we haven’t found anything better. Despite the tech industry’s best efforts, touchscreens, motion control and other alternative controllers haven’t caught on. They often require too much energy, aren’t as precise or aren’t as versatile.

Of course, even though the mouse-and-keyboard combo works great, sometimes computer users favor the mouse when they would be better off using the keyboard. We’ve talked about keyboard shortcuts and how they can save you time and energy over moving the mouse around. For example, here are five keyboard shortcuts every computer user should know.

While there are a ton of shortcuts that are great for general computing, what about ones that are more specialized? Many programs and websites have them, and today we’re going to tell you about keyboard shortcuts you can use on Facebook.

These can help you more easily browse your Facebook News Feed, create posts faster and do more with just a few key taps. Keep reading to find out what you can do, or watch this quick video on the Kim Komando YouTube channel.

Scrolling through your News Feed (j, k)

The News Feed is where you can catch up on what your friends are doing and post your own items. For most, every time they log into Facebook, there are many items to scroll.

If you’re just skimming, your mouse’s scroll wheel works great; however, if you take a more deliberate approach, or if you don’t have a mouse with a scroll wheel, just hit the letter “j.” Each time you hit it, you’ll jump down to the next post.

Want to go back a story? Hit the letter “k.” You’ll see a blue border showing which post you’ve selected (it will gradually fade). Once a story is selected, you can use a few other shortcuts.

Hint: If you’re using the mouse, you can also click at the top of a post next to the poster’s name to select it (you’ll see a dotted border around the post).

Interacting with a post (l, c, s, o, enter)

When a post is selected (i.e., it has a blue or dotted border around it), just hit “l” (as in “like”) to like it. The first time you do this, it will ask for confirmation. You can approve it and turn off future confirmations.

To comment on a selected post, tap “c” to bring up the comment box, then tap “c” again and start typing. Hit Enter to post your comment, then hit “j” to move to the next post. If you want to move on without leaving the comment, hit the Esc key, then press “j” to go to the next post.

To share a selected post, press the “s” key. Press the “s” again to select if you want to “Share Now (Friends),” “Share” or “Send as Message.” When you highlight the option you want, just hit Enter to confirm.

Although it’s rare, some people attach files to posts. Pressing the letter “o” (as in “orange,” not a zero), will open the attachment. If it’s a long post that has a “See more” link, press Enter to see the full thing.

If there’s a link to a story in the post and you want to visit it, you can grab the mouse and click. Or, if you want to stick with the keyboard, hit the Tab key. You’ll see a dotted border around the options arrow at the top right of the post. You can hit Enter to open the options, or hit Tab again.

Each time you press Tab, you’ll see the dotted box move to the next item in the post. When you hit the link you want, press Enter to open it. If you go past it, hit Shift + Tab to go back. This sounds complicated, but it’s actually fast once you get used to it. Oh, and the Tab trick works in just about any program for moving between items — especially fields in online forms.