Goldsmith 1, Firefox 0
I'm a big fan of my MacBook and of Firefox. I'm not, however, a fan of the fact that the OS X version of Firefox comes with a default setting that prevents me from tabbing between links on web pages. For one reason or another, the Mac default is set to only allow tabbing between fields. Bogus and stupid.
I've made several half-hearted attempts to find a way to find and fix what should really be a tab-between-links setting, but until today I'd been unable to find a good start to finish explanation of the process (it isn't a setting you can toggle in the UI--you have to set it using configuration parameters). So in case any of you are having the same problem, here's the solution:
Open a new Firefox window (or tab) and enter the following into the the navigation field: about:config
You should now see a long and intimidating list of...well...stuff. Right click (or hold down "ctrl" and click) anywhere on that page. Now select: New --> Integer
When the little window pops up, enter: accessibility.tabfocus
When the next window pops up, enter: 7
That's it! You can just close that window and enjoy mouse-free browsing.
I've made several half-hearted attempts to find a way to find and fix what should really be a tab-between-links setting, but until today I'd been unable to find a good start to finish explanation of the process (it isn't a setting you can toggle in the UI--you have to set it using configuration parameters). So in case any of you are having the same problem, here's the solution:
Open a new Firefox window (or tab) and enter the following into the the navigation field: about:config
You should now see a long and intimidating list of...well...stuff. Right click (or hold down "ctrl" and click) anywhere on that page. Now select: New --> Integer
When the little window pops up, enter: accessibility.tabfocus
When the next window pops up, enter: 7
That's it! You can just close that window and enjoy mouse-free browsing.
posted by B S Goldsmith at 7/21/2007 02:17:00 PM
5 Comments:
Sam said he didn't understand what tabbing between links meant, so let me clarify a bit:
You know when you're filling out a form and you come to a drop down menu with a list of states? The default Firefox setting on a Mac will skip that drop down menu and go on to the next text field, where as the PC version will let you tab onto it and make a selection using the keyboard. This adjustment will fix that.
Also, now you'll be able to jump from link to link using the tab key. Say you just Googled tub girl but you don't want to have to use your mouse to click on the link. Now you can just hit the tab button until you highlight the link you want to select, and then you can just hit the enter key. Cool, eh? It's like all the tub girl and non of the clicking!
Oddly enough, I haven't had an issue with that since before Firefox 2.0. Do you have the most recent Firefox?
Yup. Still the default OS X setting.
Crazy. Are you on an Intel Mac or a PowerPC?
Intel. And when I run Firefox in Windows on it I don't have the same problem.
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