How to: Use tabs to navigate online

Did you ever follow a link on a Web page only to lose your way back to the original page you were reading? By using browser tabs, you can navigate to new pages while leaving the original source page intact.

1. Open the browser you use. For a new tab on Internet Explorer or Firefox, go to the menu bar, click File then select New Tab; for Chrome, right click on New Tab or click the wrench icon on the right. For all three browsers, you alternately can select the partially hidden new tab behind the main tab.

2. There is also a keyboard shortcut for creating a new tab that works with all three browsers mentioned above: From any window you are in, simply hit the Ctrl and T buttons. Mac users should select the Command and T buttons.

3. Generating a tab page directly from a link can be useful, especially on a Web search where you want to continue checking the original search page. Right click on any link on the page and select "Open in new tab" (or "Open Link in New Tab"). It is now easy to toggle between the original page and linked tabs.