How to Open Developer Tools in Different Browsers

Developer tools or shortened DevTools are set of tools used for debugging web pages which is important tool for web developers and also general users who wants to inspect a page, make changes to the site on the front-end or analyse network usage by the webpage.

It is a all-in-one tool for a person who wants to learn what happening behind the scenes of a website. If you are new to it you may want to learn about, I wrote a post about using Chrome Developer Tools but if you need a more brief information about it see this
https://developers.google.com/chrome-developer-tools/

Chrome and Safari's developer tools are very much the same. But Mozilla Firefox has it's own unique developer tool set but using it is almost same as using any other developer tool.

Google Chrome

Google Chrome in my opinion is the best browser for web debugging using DevTools. DevTools are frequently updated and are simple to use.

Starting DevTools on Chrome

Starting DevTools on any webpage is very easy. There are three ways to open the console :

1. Select the Chrome Menu  > Tools > Developer Tools

2. Right click on a blank area of the page and from the list of options click on "Inspect Element" at the bottom. To inspect a particular element right click on the element and then select the inspect element option.

3. Another way to open the console is keyboard shortcut. Press Ctrl+Shift+I (Cmd+Shift+I on Mac) and the developer tools will appear.


Starting JavaScript Console in DevTools

JavaScript Console is used to run JavaScript codes on a page. It's often used to test scripts on a website to check if the code works well or not. But you can use it as a calculator or just try out JavaScript functions using it.
To directly open the JavaScript Console select the Chrome Menu  > Tools > JavaScript console or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Shift+J (Cmd+Shift+J on Mac).

When the Developer Tool is opened select the "Console" tab on top to switch to JavaScript console.

Mozilla Firefox

If you are using Firefox make sure you have the latest version, as older versions don't include developer tools or if they do, they are old. Developer tools of new Firefox is way better than the older version and got some extra tools too.

Starting Developer Tools on Firefox

You can it by various ways. The most common way is to open it using Inspect Element option. Right click on a blank area on the web page and from the list options select "Inspect Element", the Firefox Developers tools will open.

Or if you can open it by going to the Tools menu > Web Developer > Inspector, this will open the developer tool in page inspector mode.

Opening JavaScript Console

Accessing JavaScript console in Firefox is similar to opening the page inspector. Open the Developer tools by right clicking on a blank area and then selecting the Inspect Element option. Now just switch to the "Console" tag on top of the dev. tools.

Or you can also open it through the tools menu. Click on Tools > Web Developer > Web Console or use the keyboard shortcut CTRL+SHIFT+K.



Apple Safari

Accessing developer tools on Safari is similar to as in Chrome. Some keyboards shortcuts might be different. Simply right click anywhere on the page and press Inspect element.

If you have any question ask it in the comments.