In OS X Terminal.app, if you open new windows, you can easily switch between them with Cmd-1, Cmd-2, Cmd-3, etc.
You can also cycle between tabs, using Cmd-Shift-{ and Cmd-Shift-}. (or Cmd-Shift-Left and Cmd-Shift-Right)
But is there a way to jump straight to a particular tab, like you can with windows? e.g. Cmd-Shift-3 to jump to the third tab? (That's not it, of course.)
I'm pretty sure it's impossible out of the box, but what if I'm willing to write some AppleScript to make this work?
410 Answers
Ditch Terminal and use iTerm. It lets you do this and is, to me anyway, a bit more useful.
8The key combination is: Shift-Cmd-Left or Right
7It can be done from System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > App Shortcuts > click + > select Terminal.app and add the option title as it appears in the Terminal menu, which can be:
- Select Next Tab (on Mavericks and earlier)
- Show Next Tab (on Yosemite, El Capitan, Sierra...)
Note: As you probably realize, you can do this with absolutely any [Cocoa] OSX app that has a menu with options, even if originally the app defined no shortcut for the option.
This kind of shortcuts are not equivalent to using native app shortcuts. What OSX is in fact doing is triggering the provided menu option via the label - you'll notice that while you press the keys the corresponding menu item will flash in the menu bar.
After years of resisting the idea of using a third-party terminal i finally switched to iTerm2 primarily because of properly working window split which in the ootb Terminal.app is not very useful. Also the shortcuts are fully configurable, making it possible to achieve anything you want, including switching to a specific tab with ⌘+[tab number] to jump to the Nth tab.
2I've been using Spark for years. It lets you overwrite shortcuts of any application, such as Terminal and Safari. I use it to make both programs switch tabs with command+n where n is the tab number, from 1 to 9.
After you download and copy Spark.app to /Applications, start it, click All Applications' Hotkeys to expand the menu on the left, and click on the plus sign to add new application.
Add Terminal (from /Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app). Next thing is to create the shortcuts: click File->New HotKey->AppleScript (or just hit command+1). Click on the shortcut area and hit command+1, name it tab1 and use this code:
tell front window of application "Terminal" to set selected tab to tab 1Repeat it for command+2 to command+9. If you want the ability to vertically maximize the terminal, create a new shortcut like command+shift+m, name it whatever you want and use this code:
tell application "Finder" set _b to bounds of window of desktop
end tell
tell application "Terminal" tell front window set {_x, _y, _w, _h} to (get bounds) set _vz to item 4 of _b set bounds to {_x, 10, _w, _vz} end tell
end tellSame thing for Safari on tab shortcuts, but the code is a bit different:
tell front window of application "Safari" to set current tab to tab 1Honestly, I can't use either Terminal or Safari without this.
1In macOS High Sierra (10.13) you can switch to a specific tab using the shortcut keys ⌘1 – ⌘9.
To enable/disable these shortcut keys, go to Settings > General and toggle Use ⌘-1 through ⌘-9 to switch tabs.
Lesser known multi-application keyboard shortcuts
Bring the previous tab to the front
Shift-Command-[
Bring the next tab to the front
Shift-Command-]
Origin and scope
If I recall correctly, those were the shortcuts when Safari gained tabs.
Those original shortcuts are not in how-to HT201236 (Mac keyboard shortcuts - Apple Support) but they are in Safari 9 (El Capitan): Safari keyboard and other shortcuts and:
- both shortcuts are still good with other applications – such as Terminal – in release candidate 16A319 of Mac OS X 10.12 (macOS Sierra).
I arrived here wanting an answer on how to change the shortcut for ANY application. @ccpizza's answer put me in the right direction.
Here's how I did it:
- Open "System Preferences" (From Apple menu top left corner of screen)
- Open "Keyboard"
- Select "App Shortcuts" on the left
- Press the
+sign - In the popup, choose "All applications"
- Enter "Show Next Tab" (without parentheses) and your desired shortcut
- Enter "Show Previous Tab" and your desired shortcut
You can do this for any menu item (top bar). OSx does a text search, so you just have to match it... And be lucky enough that all apps use the same naming :)
2Tab Switching in Terminal is the only way that I know. I haven't tested it with Snow Leopard so YMMV.
Or you can use Screen and switch "tabs" with Ctrl-A,n and Ctrl-A,p or Ctrl-A, 0-9 to switch directly to one.
1Copied from How can I change the keyboard shortcut for switching tabs in Mac Terminal?
1: Install SIMBL (plugin enabler):
2: Install the TerminalTabSwitching.bundle
git clone
cp -r terminaltabswitching/TerminalTabSwitching.bundle "/Library/Application Support/SIMBL/Plugins"3: Restart the Terminal app, and enjoy Cmd+[0-9] tab-switching.
FYI: It you received something like plugin is not verified in terminal version # (a number) when you opened your terminal again, maybe the following information would help.
(1) Open
/Library/Application\ Support/SIMBL/Plugins/Terminal/using your favorite text editor under sudo.
(2) Search For <key>MaxBundleVersion</key>.
(3) Change <string>280</string> at next line to your terminal version number or higher like <string>300</string>. Save.
(4) Quit terminal and reopen it. Hopefully that prompt would disappear and you can use Cmd+[0:9] for tab switching.
Control+Tab works fine as for now
