Edge Adds Command Palette for Controlling the Browser

A mistaken press of CTRL+q when browsing recently alerted me to a very helpful change in Microsoft Edge. This brings up a feature billed as Command Palette, which allows you to enter a wide range of browser commands into an edit box.

According to details on the web page for the feature, this is an experimental feature you may need to enable. I didn’t specifically enable this feature but don’t know if I had previously done something that would have set experimental features on, assuming such is even possible on a global basis. It is also possible the feature is now on by default.

In general experimental flags have one of three states. They can be set to enabled, disabled or default. Changing a setting requires you restart the browser.

Keep in mind, as a warning on the flags page states:

EXPERIMENTAL FEATURES AHEAD! By enabling these features, you could lose browser data or compromise your security or privacy. Enabled features apply to all users of this browser. If you are an enterprise admin you should not be using these flags in production.

If you do have to turn this on:

1. Enter edge://flags into the browser address bar.
2. You have a few options for finding the feature flag.
   1. Use a screen reader’s find function to find palette and change the combo box to enabled.
   2. Use a screen reader’s navigate by heading feature to find the command palette and again change the combo box to enabled.
   3. Enter palette into the web box on the flags web page end search. Again change the combo box to enabled.
3. Restart the browser.

From this point, using the feature is fairly straight forward. Press CTRL+q and focus will move to an edit box. Start entering a command and press down arrow to move through options. For example, if I enter f, options include Find on Page, Focus Location Bar, Focus Toolbar and a range of recent history and other browser commands.

If you are using a screen reader you may need to press enter once or take other actions to ensure focus is in the edit box. This will depend on screen reader settings for handling automatic switching from a web page reading mode to an interaction mode. In my case, I change the JAWS setting for Forms mode to manual, meaning I need to press enter once on the edit box for the Command Palette. If you do not change this setting, JAWS Forms Mode comes on automatically after pressing CTRL+q.

Pressing escape or moving focus away from the browser window will dismiss the Command Palette. With the Command Palette active, other browser shortcuts do not function until you either dismiss the Command Palette with Escape or use a command.

I’m a big fan of these sorts of commanding experiences. It allows me to focus on what I’m wanting to do in an application, not the memorization of how to navigate to different features. There’s a role for both ways of interaction so it is nice to have this as an option in Edge.