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Control-N / Control-P keyboard navigation of location bar results list?

  • 3 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 56 views
  • Last reply by rosston

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Do folks know of a Firefox setting I've overlooked, or an Extension, that would enable the desired behaviour?

-- User context

The Firefox location bar has focus, and the results list is showing, and I press Control-N or Control-P

-- Expected behaviour

The next or previous item in the results list is selected, without changing the cursor position within the location bar.

-- Actual behaviour

The results list selection is unchanged, and the cursor position within the location bar goes to the end (Control-N) or beginning (Control-P) of the line.

-- Background

On MacOS, Control-N and Control-P are Emacs-inspired text-navigation keyboard shortcuts for moving the cursor to the next and previous lines (https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201236).

This concept is also extended to navigating lists, in most Apple-developed MacOS applications, and many third-party applications which follow MacOS interaction conventions.

It's true that, when there's a single line of text, as in the location bar, or, for example, in a single line of text in TextEdit.app, the cursor just moves to the beginning or end of the line. However, since the results list is effectively sharing focus, I think it makes more sense to navigate that list (like the up / down arrow keys do). It's still possible to go the the beginning or end of the location bar line of text with Fn–Left/Right Arrow or Control-A/E.

Chrome and Safari both support navigating the results list with both arrow keys and Control-N Control-P.

I don't see any current bindings for these keys on https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/keyboard-shortcuts-perform-firefox-tasks-quickly?redirectlocale=en-US&redirectslug=Keyboard+shortcuts.

Thanks

Do folks know of a Firefox setting I've overlooked, or an Extension, that would enable the desired behaviour? -- User context The Firefox location bar has focus, and the results list is showing, and I press Control-N or Control-P -- Expected behaviour The next or previous item in the results list is selected, without changing the cursor position within the location bar. -- Actual behaviour The results list selection is unchanged, and the cursor position within the location bar goes to the end (Control-N) or beginning (Control-P) of the line. -- Background On MacOS, Control-N and Control-P are Emacs-inspired text-navigation keyboard shortcuts for moving the cursor to the next and previous lines (https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201236). This concept is also extended to navigating lists, in most Apple-developed MacOS applications, and many third-party applications which follow MacOS interaction conventions. It's true that, when there's a single line of text, as in the location bar, or, for example, in a single line of text in TextEdit.app, the cursor just moves to the beginning or end of the line. However, since the results list is effectively sharing focus, I think it makes more sense to navigate that list (like the up / down arrow keys do). It's still possible to go the the beginning or end of the location bar line of text with Fn–Left/Right Arrow or Control-A/E. Chrome and Safari both support navigating the results list with both arrow keys and Control-N Control-P. I don't see any current bindings for these keys on https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/keyboard-shortcuts-perform-firefox-tasks-quickly?redirectlocale=en-US&redirectslug=Keyboard+shortcuts. Thanks

Modified by reentim

Chosen solution

Hi, No sorry keyboard short cuts are baked in . https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/keyboard-shortcuts-perform-firefox-tasks-quickly At this time due to security there is only this 1 that seems to have a lot of functions and of course none you want. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/shortkeys/

You can find several that will work on websites but not within the browser itself.

Please let us know if this solved your issue or if need further assistance.

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All Replies (3)

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Chosen Solution

Hi, No sorry keyboard short cuts are baked in . https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/keyboard-shortcuts-perform-firefox-tasks-quickly At this time due to security there is only this 1 that seems to have a lot of functions and of course none you want. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/shortkeys/

You can find several that will work on websites but not within the browser itself.

Please let us know if this solved your issue or if need further assistance.

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Ah that's too bad. This is the main thing stopping me from making Firefox my default browser. Bug filed here: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1466436

Thanks anyway

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A fix for this has landed in Firefox 64 (currently accessible via Developer Edition) by way of this bug: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1389221