Just switch to the next tab, don't close all 25!!
April 18, 2010 4:56 PM Subscribe
Is there a way to disable Firefox keyboard shortcuts? Ctrl+Q specifically...
So I use a tiny little Acer netbook which I've thrown Ubuntu on. All's well and dandy, 'cept that I'm a clumsy bastard, and this keyboard is a bit small. Not normally a problem, but I occasionally hit up instead of down when scrolling, or Q instead of Tab while holding Ctrl to switch tabs. Oh yes, and Ctrl+Q is apparently the shortcut for quit.
Try as I might, I have found no way to disable this one shortcut. As far as I can tell, Firefox does not provide any native ability to mess with keyboard shortcuts at all, and the keyconfig extension (which seems a bit fuckin' dodgy from the get-go, what with not being available from an official repository) only seems to let you add functions and shortcuts.
I just want to be rid of Ctrl+Q - I want to keep everything else as-is. Can this even be done?
So I use a tiny little Acer netbook which I've thrown Ubuntu on. All's well and dandy, 'cept that I'm a clumsy bastard, and this keyboard is a bit small. Not normally a problem, but I occasionally hit up instead of down when scrolling, or Q instead of Tab while holding Ctrl to switch tabs. Oh yes, and Ctrl+Q is apparently the shortcut for quit.
Try as I might, I have found no way to disable this one shortcut. As far as I can tell, Firefox does not provide any native ability to mess with keyboard shortcuts at all, and the keyconfig extension (which seems a bit fuckin' dodgy from the get-go, what with not being available from an official repository) only seems to let you add functions and shortcuts.
I just want to be rid of Ctrl+Q - I want to keep everything else as-is. Can this even be done?
Response by poster: theichibun: from the website - "AutoHotkey is a free, open-source utility for Windows."
...from the question: "So I use a tiny little Acer netbook which I've thrown Ubuntu on..."
posted by Dysk at 5:27 PM on April 18, 2010
...from the question: "So I use a tiny little Acer netbook which I've thrown Ubuntu on..."
posted by Dysk at 5:27 PM on April 18, 2010
Would going into Tools - Options - Tabs in Firefox and checking the "Confirm before closing multiple tabs" box suffice as a workaround? It wouldn't disable the Ctrl-Q functionality, but it would give you a chance to say "Crap, no!".
posted by donnagirl at 5:35 PM on April 18, 2010
posted by donnagirl at 5:35 PM on April 18, 2010
If you set it to "Warn me when closing multiple tabs", as long as you have more than one tab open it will ask you to confirm before quitting. Would that be close enough to disabling Ctrl-Q?
posted by Lexica at 5:36 PM on April 18, 2010
posted by Lexica at 5:36 PM on April 18, 2010
Response by poster: You make good points, except that I wish to retain Alt+F4 (or mouse-based closure) without that annoying damn box. Okay, you've identified a valid work-around, but really, it oughtn't be too much to ask to change one damn keyboard shortcut...
posted by Dysk at 5:39 PM on April 18, 2010
posted by Dysk at 5:39 PM on April 18, 2010
Best answer: You could also map Ctrl-Q to an innocuous global desktop shortcut like 'Raise Window' or 'Switch to workspace 1' or the like. In GNOME that's under Desktop - Preferences - Keyboard Shortcuts, I don't know about KDE. That has the downside of making it unavailable to all apps though.
posted by Rhomboid at 6:00 PM on April 18, 2010
posted by Rhomboid at 6:00 PM on April 18, 2010
Response by poster: Rhomboid, I do apologise - when I said I was a Ubuntu user I was lying through my teeth. I'm an Xubuntu user, I just forget so often since I tend to use much of the GNOME app suite, and Xubuntu doesn't do any real re-branding relative to Ubuntu (certainly none that survived more than 10 minutes post-install). As such, I'm not using GNOME (or KDE for that matter).
I'll have a look-see if I can do this in XFCE, but I'm not entirely convinced that it'll capture the input in such a way that Firefox doesn't also do so...
posted by Dysk at 6:05 PM on April 18, 2010
I'll have a look-see if I can do this in XFCE, but I'm not entirely convinced that it'll capture the input in such a way that Firefox doesn't also do so...
posted by Dysk at 6:05 PM on April 18, 2010
Response by poster: Rhomboid, I do apologise again. In XFCE it's in the Keyboard panel, but setting Ctrl+Q as a global shortcut does indeed prevent it from being picked up by Firefox. It's a workaround, but I don't use that shortcut for anything at all, really, so it'll do nicely.
posted by Dysk at 6:08 PM on April 18, 2010
posted by Dysk at 6:08 PM on April 18, 2010
And I apologize for recommending something that just couldn't work. Auto Hotkey is just so amazingly useful that I just assumed it would play nice with various flavors of Linux.
posted by theichibun at 6:10 PM on April 18, 2010
posted by theichibun at 6:10 PM on April 18, 2010
Response by poster: theichibun, no need to apologise - it's there for posterity now (which may well help a Windows user with a similar problem in future?) along with the clarification that it's a Windows app. Sorry if my terseness came across as uncordial - that was not my intent.
posted by Dysk at 11:58 PM on April 18, 2010
posted by Dysk at 11:58 PM on April 18, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by theichibun at 5:06 PM on April 18, 2010