Link Hints Tutorial
You don’t seem to have installed Link Hints yet.
You can still go through the tutorial, but you’ll get more out of it by installing Link Hints first.
Thank you for using Link Hints!
Go through this short tutorial to learn how to use Link Hints.
It’s recommended to use a bigger screen for the tutorial.
The basics
AltJ is the main keyboard shortcut. Use it to click things.
Try it! Press the shortcut, and then type the letter (hint) that appears on the “Next step” button.
Press Escape to cancel.
ℹ️ Having trouble?
If your keyboard layout does not have the J character, you need to flip an option.
Click the Link Hints toolbar button and then “Options.” Check “I use multiple keyboard layouts.”
Alternatively, you can change the keyboard shortcuts to ones that fit your keyboard better.
Good to know
The Link Hints toolbar button looks like this:
The toolbar button provides some handy info and a way to open the Options page.
On some pages, the toolbar button is faded:
This means that Link Hints cannot be used on the page.
Browser extensions are not allowed to run on some pages, such as Chrome’s and Firefox’s extension stores, the New Tab page and internal settings pages.
Got itOpening links in tabs
AltK lets you open a link in a new tab.
AltL also switches to the new tab.
Try the shortcuts on these links to get a feel for it:
ContinueFilter by text
The default hint characters are: fjdkslaurieowhgmvcn. Type other characters to filter by text.
Try it! Open the below sections by typing part of their text instead of the letters in the yellow boxes (hints).
1984
1984 is a novel by George Orwell.
2001
2001: A Space Odessey is a film by Stanley Kubrick.
This is especially useful for tiny pagination links:
If there’s no unique match, press Enter to activate the green hint, or type some hint characters at the end.
AlrightFilter by text – letters
Hints are displayed uppercase because it looks nicer, but they are all lowercase: fjdkslaurieowhgmvcn
Filtering by text is case insensitive. This means that you can hold Shift while typing to filter by letters.
ℹ️ Tip!
Change the hint characters to uppercase if you prefer to primarily filter by text.
You can also disable auto-activation of unique matches, requiring Enter to be pressed.
Click many things
AltShiftJ lets you click many things in one go.
Check these boxes. Press Escape when done.
AltShiftK lets you open multiple links.
Keep goingSelecting text
AltShiftL lets you select elements. This is useful for copying text and using the context menu.
When text is selected, you can use the standard keyboard shortcuts for adjusting the selection, such as ShiftArrowRight. And of course CtrlC to copy.
Link Hints adds two extra shortcuts:
- AltShiftArrowUp swaps which end of a text selection to work on. This lets you extend the selection not only to the right, but also to the left. Try selecting ArrowUp on this line, and then going in both directions!
- ShiftEscape unselects. This lets you get rid of text selection, unfocus text fields and cancel hinting.
Finally, you can hold Alt while activating a hint (typing the last character) to copy its text or link address!
Almost thereTips & Tricks
F6 can be pressed once or twice to bring back focus to the web page area of the browser. Due to browser extension limitations, Link Hint’s shortcuts only work when the page has focus.
Hold Alt while activating a hint (typing the last character) to force links to open in a new tab.
Too many hints near each other? Press Tab and ShiftTab to rotate which hint is on top.
Do the hints cover too much of a group of small links? Press CtrlP to peek through them.
Finally, CtrlR refreshes the hints. Useful if the page changes while you use hints.
Here are the tiny pagination links again, for trying out rotation and peeking:
FinishThe End
Well done! 🎉
Recap:
- AltJClick links, buttons, etc.
- AltKOpen link in new tab.
- AltLOpen link in new tab and switch to it.
- AltShiftJClick many things.
- AltShiftKOpen many links.
- AltShiftLSelect element.
Check out the Options page to see all shortcuts, or if you feel like tweaking something.
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