Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with firefox and keyboard

I realize that there are no shortcuts in life, but...

kjackelen05 — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 13:52:37 -0800

When I use Grooveshark, I can no longer use Firefox's standard keyboard shortcuts. How can I fix this? Greasemonkey, maybe? I'm a habitual ctrl-tabber to switch tabs, ctrl-t to get a new tab, ctrl-shift-t to open a recently closed tab, etc. But when the active tab is Grooveshark, these commands don't work. This is especially frustrating when I'm trying to ctrl-tab my through a bunch of tabs, and I get stuck in Grooveshark.

I feel like this is something that might be solvable with Greasemonkey, but I don't know where to start. Does anyone know how to fix this?

Help me, Metafilter? Or, hel me etafilter?mp

minus zero — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 05:32:10 -0800

My laptop keyboard cursor randomly backtracks one space as I type. This only seems to happen in Firefox. Has anyone else had this problem, and how do I fix it? I'm running an acer aspire 2000 cl32 laptop, and the latest version of Firefox, although this problem began before my latest update. It doesn't happen in other text applications like Word and Notebook (which is where I'm typing now).

It's not due to the edge of my hands pressing down on the touchpad. It's also not due to any keys sticking, as far as I can tell. The problem seems to go away if I restart Firefox, but there are only so many times I can do that before it gets annoying.

Is there anything else that I'm not thinking of? Googling comes up with other users with the same problem, but no solutions.

Hep me metafilterl (ees?)

How to prevent Flash from stealing keyboard focus in Forefox

stovenator — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 21:53:33 -0800

How can I prevent flash from stealing my keyboard focus in Firefox on Win XP? I constantly use ctrl-tab and other keyboard shortcuts to flip between tabs in Firefox, and invariably some stupid flash application will steal keyboard focus, and I must use the mouse to click somewhere to regain it. Is there an add-on or other trick I can use to never let flash take certain key combinations, and only send them to Firefox? Does Greasemonkey allow this?

Macbook keyboard functionality problems

birdlady — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 15:04:39 -0800

Macbook keyboard issues: I clicked on a google search result and was sneakily redirected to one of those malware scan sites, now macbook keyboard is doing funny things. The arrows do not work and the apostrophe and forward slash keys bring up the "find" window at the bottom of the screen (firefox). How do cancel out whichever setting was changed and get my key functionality back? I love my mac, but I am not so mac savvy so I have no idea what happened. If it helps, it is a macbook running os x 10.4.10.

Firefox keyboard navigation

KRS — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 14:21:19 -0800

Keyboard navigation often doesn't work in Firefox. When I open a new window or tab in Firefox (2.0.0.3), about half of the time I can use the keyboard navigation keys (Home, End, Page Up, Page Down, up, down, left and right arrows), but half the time they don't work.

Sometimes I can activate them by clicking in the text area, but sometimes the only way to move around is to use the mouse roller or click in the scrolling area at the right.

Is there a setting that makes the keys always work without clicking, or one that activates them when they don't work at all?

Is there a keyboard shortcut for Google Toolbar in FF 2.0?

tickingclock — Sat, 11 Nov 2006 03:32:24 -0800

Is there a keyboard shortcut that moves the keyboard cursor to the Google Toolbar in Firefox 2.0? I've been an avid user of the Google Toolbar for a long time. Recently, I upgraded to Firefox 2.0 -- and to my surprise, alt + S no longer moves my cursor to the Google Toolbar, but instead, opens the "History" menu bar.

Because I am both a creature of habit and incurably lazy, I would love to be able to use some sort of a keyboard shortcut to search using the Google Toolbar. This page suggests that alt + S is the only way to do so at the moment.

Is there a way for me to associate some keyboard shortcut with the toolbar? Alternatively, is there a way so disable to shortcut that opens the history menu? Thanks in advance!

Firefox Keyboard Shortcuts For Navigating Between Tabs (OS X)

jack_mo — Wed, 14 Dec 2005 07:03:04 -0800

The keyboard shortcuts for moving between open tabs in Firefox 1.5 on OS 10.4.3 don't work - any ideas on how to fix this, possibly using the Keyconfig extension? On the relevant Firefox help page, the keyboard shortcuts for 'Next Tab' are listed as Command+Tab and Command+Page Down. The former won't work as that combination is reserved for the OS X Application Switcher, and disabling that would appear to involve replacing the Dock entirely with an app like Dragthing, or using a haxie, neither of which I want to do (though Liteswitch X overrides this somehow), the latter combination just doesn't do anything.

I've tried installing the Keyconfig extension, but 'Next Tab' doesn't appear in its list of keyboard shortcuts. There is, however, an option in Keyconfig to 'Add a new key', which is a bit mysterious, and seemingly undocumented: it provides a field asking for 'code', but I can't find anywhere which would tell me what sort of code it's after. The closest I've come is this page, but adding the 'Next Tab' snippet listed there to Keyconfig and assigning a keyboard shortcut has no effect.

Alternatively, does anyone knows how to disable the Application Switcher's use of Command+Tab so I can use that combination in Firefox as intended?

(Also, I'm aware of other extensions like Foxposé and Tab Sidebar which let me navigate around my open tabs in various groovy ways, and the possibility of using one of the mouse gestures extensions, but none of these options let me quickly zip back and forth via the keyboard.)

So, I'm stumped. Any ideas?

I Want My, I Want My, I Want My Cmd-1 ...

WCityMike — Tue, 06 Dec 2005 14:02:31 -0800

How can I configure Firefox so that I can use Cmd-1 through Cmd-9 for bookmarks on my personal toolbar, identical to the behavior Safari uses? I am very desperately looking for a Firefox extension that will allow me to use Command-1 through Command-9 for the first nine bookmarks of my Personal Toolbar Folder, much as Safari allows me to do. Please, someone tell me the ability to do this is out there.

Yes, I am able to assign normal vanilla bookmarks through the keyconfig extension to the Command keys (if somewhat awkwardly), but I apparently cannot assign JavaScript bookmarklets using the same method, and that is greatly problematic for me.

I have a JavaScript bookmarklet I love that interacts with Cocoalicious to allow me to post to del.icio.us websites I enjoy and want to post to my "linklog" -- but I am also very very keyboard-centric, and hate having to mouse over to the bookmarklet in Firefox. (I know that there is a delicious extension that has a posting interface for Firefox, which is actually really pretty decent -- but the extension's keyboard support for posting appears to be broken on Mac OS X.)

Alternatively – in the event that no one can give me an answer to this, in case said extension just doesn’t exist – I seem to remember there being a way by which people could set up a sort of “developer pledge” or “developer bounty” thing on some website somewhere, where you could say, “I would be willing to pay $10 for a resolution to this problem,” and Joe Schmoe would chip in another $10, and Jane Schmoe another $20, and by the time you know it, Alfred J. Developer has a $200 incentive to develop said Firefox extension, in which case it might then get developed pretty darn quicker. Can anyone tell me what I'm thinking of?

Er, to press my luck, also alternatively, anyone know a way by which I could see if the whole language keyconfig uses to determine what to do upon keypresses is JavaScript in and of itself? Perhaps that’s why it won’t respond to JavaScript bookmarklets within the “Open Location” language.

(To pre-empt the “just go back to Safari” responses: I used to be a Safari die-hard, but only when it was coupled with the added functionality Saft gave it. I found the need to revert my system back to 10.3 when I noticed that 10.4 was bogging down my older system just too darn much; the only thing I really have missed from 10.4 has been the greater interconnectedness between the CLI and the GUI, and the ability to iSync my address book with my Motorola v330. Saft has marched onwards towards Panther, and I figure that Firefox will be extensible and upgradeable on 10.3 for far longer than Safari will, so I am trying to get myself to stay with Firefox.)

Keyboard shorcut for toggling checkbox (firefox)

acridrabbit — Thu, 17 Feb 2005 06:43:04 -0800

Is there a keyboard shortcut in Firefox that checks or unchecks (toggles) a checkbox? If there's no built-in shortcut, can I easily program one? Is there a shortcut in IE for this? I have Googled in vain.