Why can't I page down on the Preferences page in Firefox?
When I open Preferences in Firefox, I see some, but not all preferences. I must scroll down... but that's impossible to do with the keyboard, as far as I can tell. This becomes a serious accessibility usability issue for many people. I believe the problem is caused by an inappropriate 'focus' and 'tab order.' When the page loads, the cursor should be focused somewhere that makes the Page Up, Page Down, and Up/Down arrow keys function normally, to scroll the Preferences page up and down.
Chosen solution
Hi mooncaine, I'm a support volunteer, and I work with the Firefox we have today. You are requesting some kind of change to Firefox. Maybe the change is to not focus the search box when the page loads. Whatever it is, we can't do that for you here.
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I am on Windows at the moment, so let me know if this is the same on Mac:
When you open the Preferences/Options page, the cursor is placed in the search box at the top of the page. To exit the search box so that an element in the body of the page has focus, you need to press Tab once.
Thanks for the tip! Tabbing once works... but a better solution would be for Firefox to behave differently. The Page Up and Page down keys should always do that: page up, or page down. It shouldn't matter where the cursor is on the Preferences page.
I think it's a standard behavior for form fields. Perhaps there should be an option to automatically exit a one-line form field when certain navigation keys are pressed. (In a multi-line form field, the key are more obviously useful.)
You can submit suggestions for feature changes through a formal bug report or through the feedback page or on social channels:
- Feedback: https://qsurvey.mozilla.com/s3/FirefoxInput/
- Bug: https://developer.mozilla.org/docs/Mozilla/QA/Bug_writing_guidelines (feature enhancement requests don't exactly fit the mold, but you can still follow the standard format)
- Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/firefox
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Firefox
I agree that the tab order and fields behave like a standard form, but the Preferences page isn't a form. This is an accessibility issue that blocks access to people who can't easily move a cursor and rely on keyboards and other controllers. At best, you could consider this a design oversight, or a design bug.
I'm not making a feature request. I'm requesting that the behavior the app should fulfill user expectations that a screen of Settings can be scrolled in the usual manner, without resorting to different controls than those that are normally used to scroll.
Chosen Solution
Hi mooncaine, I'm a support volunteer, and I work with the Firefox we have today. You are requesting some kind of change to Firefox. Maybe the change is to not focus the search box when the page loads. Whatever it is, we can't do that for you here.