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on some of the web pages the links are highlighted in red how can I fix this?

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  • 11 have this problem
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  • Last reply by prs2011

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On some of the web pages the click-able links are highlighted in red. They seem to work okay, but are very annoying and cannot read them. It is not on all pages just some. Is it the pages that I am viewing? But, it has happened on a couple of unrelated sites as well.

On some of the web pages the click-able links are highlighted in red. They seem to work okay, but are very annoying and cannot read them. It is not on all pages just some. Is it the pages that I am viewing? But, it has happened on a couple of unrelated sites as well.

Chosen solution

Typically link text is

  • blue for unvisited links
  • magenta (or red) for visited links

You can set your default colors in Tools > Options > Content > Colors but typically one would also allow pages to choose their own color.

If you want to override link color on some pages you use a style like:

Read this answer in context 👍 2

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Chosen Solution

Typically link text is

  • blue for unvisited links
  • magenta (or red) for visited links

You can set your default colors in Tools > Options > Content > Colors but typically one would also allow pages to choose their own color.

If you want to override link color on some pages you use a style like:

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I guess the problem isn't the color of the text. It is the area behind it. Now it is doing it on other web pages as well. and the text within the are is another color and is very hard to see. It just started doing it a few days ago after there was an update. This is an example, but there is a block behind it that is red. Just like you would select it to copy and paste,(and it would highlight as blue) but it is red and all of the links on the page are this way (all at once). I tried to copy it here but it wouldn't copy the same way that it is on the page. 01. Introduction

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If the background of links is red then that is probably caused by an extension like SEO or SearchStatus that has the option set to highlight noFollow links.
You can check the options of such an extension.
You can click the icon on the Status bar to open the SearchStatus options and un-tick "Highlight NoFollow Links"

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The problem on links and background color was addressed in my first suggestion, but it requires you to read and to modify a style to be able to override the styles colors on specific sites.

I've not seen anything yet where you can't copy and paste a url from the location bar to provide an example, but I don't need an example, more important was how widespread is your problem, whether it was just a few sites or practically all sites.

Since your problem appears to be wide-spread and not with just a few sites, make sure that don't have a theme installed, use "Ctrl+Shift+A" then choose "Appearances" on the left and make sure that the "Default" theme is enabled, if the "Enable'" button appears on then enable it and the others then may become disabled. If anything else shows a "Disable" button then disable it (and it may be the cause of your problems, investigate).

Also a lot of things will not work if you have changed your basic style.

Use Tools > Options > General > Colors -- You should have ...
  • Text: (Black), Background (White), Unvisited Links (Blue), Use system colors (unchecked), Visited Links (Red|Magenta|Maroon - to stand out from blue), Underline links (checked), and for "Allow pages to choose their own colors, instead of my selections above" (checked).

Here is a page about colors that has most of everything I've mentioned and more on it

I would suggest installing the following as found in the above article for handling problem pages temporarily as you encounter them, you will have to read the pages linked to understand how to install a bookmarklet, for instance.

  • A quick way to view a page with bad color choices is to remove all styling, which you can do with View > page styles > no styles, and return to normal with Basic style. That includes formatting as well as colors, and is a quick way of making a page readable.
  • A quicker way to get an equivalent of 'No Styles' is the "Read Easily" extension which can be toggled on/off with a toolbar button, context menu item or a hotkey (CTRL+SHIFT+Z) to disable/enable styles on web pages.
  • On the "Custom Toolbar Buttons Maker" page select "Toggle Page Colors", install, move custom button to toolbar. Toggles preferences, removes some but not all images (loses the entire MozillaZine banner exactly same as the preference). Another button that can be included is "Page Fonts", which toggles page fonts between your colors and the web page's colors. Another button that may be needed to read some pages is "Toggle Styles" to toggle CSS styling off or back on.
  • For those who want a bit more active involvement, I would suggest also looking at the Bookmarklets section of the MozillaZine article, and of course the original reply using the "Stylish" extensions where styles can be chosen and modified to fit your own usage.

Modified by David McRitchie

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Thank You !! Thank You!! Thank You!!

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Thank You! I must of just not understood your first response, sorry about that (kinda a newbie).... Thanks Again!

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Do you have an extension that can mark noFollow links with a reddish background?

Start Firefox in Diagnose Firefox issues using Troubleshoot Mode to check if one of the extensions is causing the problem (switch to the DEFAULT theme: Firefox (Tools) > Add-ons > Appearance/Themes).

Modified by cor-el

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It was that the no-follow links were highlighted. I followed your instructions from your first post........All is good! Thank You! You have been extremely helpful.

Modified by prs2011