For over a year I have used ChromeOS on an HP Chromebook 13, and more recently a Google Pixelbook, as my work operating system. I was apprehensive at first to use a Chromebook after using Mac laptops personally and professionally for over 10 years. However, I have been pleasantly surprised with ChromeOS because of its simplicity, cloud integrations, ease of updates, and I have started using it more and more over macOS.
To be truly productive with any operating system, you need to know the keyboard and trackpad shortcuts. This post will be an ever growing list of ChromeOS keyboard and trackpad shortcuts I use most frequently.
Keyboard Shortcuts
Show keyboard shortcut overlay
Ctrl + Alt + ?
Lock the screen
Search Key (Caps Lock) + L
Close window or Chrome tab
Ctrl + W
Go to beginning of a line of text
Ctrl + Alt + Up arrow
Go to the end of a line of text
Ctrl + Alt + Down arrow
Highlight entire word of text
If the cursor is to the right of the word you want to highlight:
Ctrl + Shift + Left arrow
If the cursor is to the left of the world you want to highlight:
Ctrl + Shift + Right arrow
Highlight entire line of text
If the cursor is at the beginning of the line of text:
Ctrl + Alt + Shift + Down arrow
If the cursor is at the end of the line of text:
Ctrl + Alt + Shift + Up arrow
Switch between logged in profiles
You will need to have multiple profiles logged into ChromeOS for this to work.
Ctrl + Alt + .
Take a screenshot of the full screen
Ctrl + Switch Window Key
Take a screenshot of the selected window
Ctrl + Alt + Switch Window Key
Take a screenshot of the selected portion of the screen
Ctrl + Shift + Switch Window Key
Take screenshot of an entire web page
This is a multistep process that uses Chrome Developer tools.
Open the Chrome Developer Tools:
Ctrl + Shift + I
Open the Chrome Developer Tools command panel:
Ctrl + Shift + P
In the command panel type screenshot.
Click Capture full size screenshot.
In a couple seconds the full size screenshot will be downloaded as a PNG to your workstation’s Downloads folder.
Enable caps lock
Alt + Search Key (Caps Lock)
Disable caps lock by typing the key sequence again.
Maximize window
Alt + =
Dock window to the left half of the screen
Alt + [
Dock window to the right half of the screen
Alt + ]
Open the Chrome OS developer shell
Ctrl + Alt + T
Trackpad Shortcuts
Right click
Two finger tap anywhere on the trackpad.
Scroll between open Chrome tabs
Three finger left or right swipe on the trackpad.
Open new tab in background
Three finger tap the link.
View all open windows
Three finger swipe up on the trackpad.
