Firefox Browser Keyboard Shortcuts

[Melchior Dow]

Theseshortcuts work in the main browser window to open the specified tool. The same shortcuts will work to close tools hosted in the Toolbox, if the tool is active. For tools like the Browser Console that open in a new window, you have to close the window to close the tool.

By default, on some Macs, the function key is remapped to use a special feature: for example, to change the screen brightness or the volume. See this guide to using these keys as standard function keys. To use a remapped key as a standard function key, hold the Function key down as well (so to open the Profiler, use Shift + Function + F5).

It's good to have those built-in shortcuts, but it's stupid you can't modify them. When I use this website I can't input the division sign by pressing / on the keypad because it's the shortcut for Quick Find. I guess this is because the place to input is not a normal text box like in WolframAlpha , but part of the whole webpage(?). Add the function to customise shortcuts is much easier than let Firefox recognise and deal with this situation, I think. In fact, most software supports customising shortcuts, so I'm surprised to find there's no way for Firefox to do that.

I also think that it is not conviniant to not have possobility to change shortcuts. It is already second falt from firefox I incounter in this month. First one was BIG focus border around address bar. And now this one.

I have the same issue. The downloads shortcut used to be Ctrl + J and now someone decided to map that to something else that is hardly ever used. I would like to change it back to Ctrl + J and then the lesser used one can be something else.

Note: Some keyboard shortcuts perform different functions based on cursor location (focus). For example, if you press Home on Windows while viewing a web page, Mozilla will move to the top of the web page. However, if you press Home on Windows while the cursor is in a text field, the cursor will go to the beginning of the text field.

This article lists keyboard shortcuts in Mozilla Firefox. The shortcuts only work if they are not used by the desktop environment or window manager. If you have enabled Emacs-style text editing shortcuts in GNOME, they will also work in Firefox. When an Emacs text editing shortcut conflicts with the default shortcuts (as occurs with Ctrl+K), the Emacs shortcut will take precedence if focus is inside a text box (which would include the address bar and search bar). In such cases you should use the alternate keyboard shortcut if one is listed below.

Many websites, especially everything involving rich text editing (this site is guilty as well), steal keyboard shortcuts normally used to control Firefox and make them do something else instead. It is totally infuriating when I press something like Cmd-number, Cmd-L, Cmd-T, or Cmd-K and it doesn't do what I want it to. Can I make it stop?

I took inspiration from this script and this script to combine them into a Userscript that sucessfully intercepts the keyboard shortcuts Ctrl+T and Ctrl+S. I tested in in Firefox 17 ESR and Firefox 25.

Extensive research shows that as of current version of Firefox (3.6.x) this is impossible - all key binding conflicts are resolved with priorities: System > Website > Firefox - a rather stupid order that is. None of addons I've tried seems to be able to fix it.

Since the issues seems to be JavaScript keyboard events stealing keypresses, would it not be possible to build a JavaScript script (to be used via Greasemonkey) that unbinds these all keyboard events, thus returning the proper usage of each shortcut to the browser?

The problem is that any page can run Javascript that sets up an event handler to grab keypress events, and Firefox's javascript controls aren't sufficiently fine-grained to stop it without breaking other javascript features.

The only way to prevent this is to disable Javascript (Tools -> Options, [Content] tab, uncheck the Enable JavaScript). Or you can disable Javascript on a per-site basis with an extension like NoScript.

After much testings on various browsers, it is easier to intercept the keys when they are down (not pressed) because some of this "App integrated keys" are difficult to intercept with the "keypress" event.

I came up with this script that is sort of cross browser compatible (I didn't test for Microsoft's IE). Notice that the browsers return different codes for some keys. In my case I wanted to prevent Ctrl+P.

The preference defaults to 0 (the unspecified value for this and other permissions, the actual default is set somewhere in code and allows shortcut stealing), 1 (allow shortcut stealing), or 2 (disallow). 3 (prompt) isn't a valid value for this site permission.

It is likely that third party plugins are taking the focus from the main browser window. In that case the keyboard input (except interrupts) will get intercepted by the plugin. If you don't like this you can always remove the offending plugin(s) [I would assume it is likely flash].

The following message was submitted to firefox-andr...@mozilla.com some days ago, although I forgot to explicitly mention that I was speaking about Android Firefox -org.mozilla.firefox- in the first place. For this reason I am resubmitting the message, corrected and restructured, as it is here:

I've been testing Android Firefox 121.1.0 lately, and I have to agree that it has improved a lot from what it was long ago. This, along with the now respectable amount of extensions Firefox has, makes it a more or less useable browser. However, before I pinpoint a few things which certainly need to improve or must change, bear in mind that Android is an operating system which, although it is primarily used in smartphones and tablets, it is also used in devices WITHOUT TOUCH SCREEN or without making use of touchscreens; do you understand? Examples of this are running Firefox in an Android TV box device (tested it in one) or in an Orange Pi 5, using an external keyboard with trackpad or a classic keyboard and mouse as input devices. This doesn't excludes using a keyboard and mouse in a smartphone or tablet, something which for testing purposes is also valid.

Having said the above:

Being able to switch the tab view between list and grid arrangements is nice, BUT the browser does not feature a list of small tabs on top from which I can select with a click or tap, so it's A LOT harder to switch between tabs when you are using a mousepad or a mouse, as having to hold down the mouse button over the address bar while doing ample movements sideways is awkward. So, an option to have actual tabs on top of each opened page is REALLY welcome (besides the usual Ctrl + Tab and Ctrl + Shift + Tab shortcuts to go forward and backward among the tabs which must be implemented, of course).

Last but not least, animations. Animations slow down the browser and hamper the user's experience. I know that Android OSes come with stupid animations enabled by default, but they can be disabled using Developer Options. In your browser there is no freaking choice, something which SUCKS BIG TIME. Do you get it? I hope so.

Wellp, not true. I later discovered that only certain lame arse developed Android devices work this way. My smartphone works correctly with mouse input, for example. The problem is with devices which map the pressing of the secondary mouse button to the back function. This is a very serious issue, because as far as I know there's no way to reconfigure or fix this easily; the behaviour is in the Android kernel, so it requires recompiling and swapping the Android kernel (!!!). For empowered users or even developers running rooted devices this is a serious challenge (devs should be able to do it, but as an empowered user and I would require dev assistance to fix such a thing); for the average Joe, it's science fiction.

How incredibly wrong this is I can't help to say. I reported the issue on the Chrome/Chromium development forum too, as it is impossible to use Chromium browsers with a mouse in right-click to back flawed Android devices.

And concerning the behaviour of Android Firefox when opening a new tab, it's disgusting; really disgusting. If I tell the browser to open a new tab, just open a new tab. Don't wait for the user to make a stupid search on the bar: OPEN A BLANK NEW TAB!!!

The bookmarks manager is also terrible, awfully terrible. Makes me wonder if there are any actual developers behind this proyect; it may be being developed by a handful of trained monkeys smashing keyboards or something like this LMAO. Just joking, of course.

I am alarmed that this is an issue in present day, especially on THE browser that is most renowned for user control. Until the developers catch up with reality, though, I'd at least be pleased if there were an extension I could add on that forces this behavior. Thank you for keeping this issue alive, as it damned well ought to be!

P.S.: Power consumption of Firefox is very high since a bunch of versions ago, an absolutely critical issue for mobile users (for me it is unusable as it is now; I am posting this using Kiwi Browser).

Ancient Firefox user who went Chrome for a long time and have returned as of yesterday. Happy to be back, but routinely frustrated that textbox shortcuts like ctrl-b and ctrl-i on certain (but not all!) websites, per Firefox programming, triggers the bookmark sidebar / page info (respectively). In decades of computer use, these shortcuts have always always always meant applying bold and italic to highlighted text, making Firefox's functionality completely counterintuitive. I can honestly say I have never once used these shortcuts to intentionally pull up bookmarks or page info.

Having had a look around online it seems that the only ways to turn off these Firefox functions are either writing some javascript personally, or installing an extension which is not supported by Mozilla. As neither of these are especially palatable choices, and the existing regime is in defiance of 40ish years of keyboard convention, I'd like to propose the simplest of solutions: an option in Firefox's settings to turn off keyboard shortcuts.

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