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Example

Two hyperlinks with specified accesskeys:

<a href="http://www.w3schools.com/html5" accesskey="h">HTML5</a><br>
<a href="http://www.w3schools.com/css3" accesskey="c">CSS3</a>
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Definition and Usage

 

The accesskey attribute specifies a shortcut key to activate/focus an element.

Note: The way of accessing the shortcut key is varying in different browsers:

Browser Windows Linux Mac
Internet Explorer [Alt] + accesskey N/A
Chrome [Alt] + accesskey [Alt] + accesskey [Control] [Alt] + accesskey
Firefox [Alt] [Shift] + accesskey [Alt] [Shift] + accesskey [Control] [Alt] + accesskey
Safari [Alt] + accesskey N/A [Control] [Alt] + accesskey
Opera Opera 15 or newer: [Alt] + accesskey
Opera 12.1 or older: [Shift] [Esc] + accesskey

However, in most browsers the shortcut can be set to another combination of keys.

Tip: The behavior if more than one element has the same access key differs:

Browser Support

 
Element
<table> Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes

Differences Between HTML 4.01 and HTML5

 

All layout attributes are removed in HTML5.

Differences Between HTML 4.01 and HTML5

 

All layout attributes are removed in HTML5.

Attribute Values

 
Value Description
character Specifies the shortcut key to activate/focus the element

Related Pages

 

HTML Tutorial: HTML Attributes

HTML DOM reference: accessKey Property