How do I stop firefox from automatically placing the cursor in a textbox?
How do I stop Firefox from automatically placing the cursor in a text box? On certain pages such as Google.com the cursor will be moved to the search text box automatically after a couple seconds from the page loading. So I'll be typing in the address bar or something and then half of what I am typing in the address bar becomes cut off and starts being entered in the Google.com text box for search. The same happens on Facebook.com and the cursor is automatically moved to the Status Update text box. I assume this is a built in "feature" of the web page, but it's damn annoying. Especially when I start typing in my status update box on Facebook before the page completely loads and then halfway through typing (once the page is done loading) my cursor is moved to the starting position of the text area and my text is cut off.
Just the be clear the actual mouse pointer isn't being moved, just the prompt for entering text.
How can this be stopped?
This happened
Every time Firefox opened
== Started since I can remember
All Replies (5)
Gotta agree. I'm having the same issue with Firefox, and it's quickly becoming annoying. I have my homepage set to yahoo, and every time I open the browser with the intention of typing in a different url or using the search bar on the upper right corner, the cursor jumps mid-stream into the text field on yahoo. I'm sure there's a simple fix to all this, but I'm too much of a noob to find it. If anyone could help out, I'd appreciate it.
I have the same problem. Can someone please point us in the right direction?
You can press ESC to stop the page from loading if you intend to go to another site.
Such a focus change (set) is done via JavaScript on a web site, so blocking that script would also work.
This problem has grown worse over the last couple of years. I use Firefox on Mac and Windows. I consider this problem to be a bug. Here's why: Event Driven interfaces, e.g., OSX and Windows, are never supposed to change typing-cursor focus WHILE SOMEONE'S TYPING!!!
Firefox allows websites to change focus WHILE USERS TYPE!
Hey, sorry for the caps, but I haven't used those for awhile and that's kind of fun. But really, more and more websites steal typing-cursor focus WHILE USERS TYPE.
Efff them, but really, Eff Firefox for allowing this.
It's almost like a symptom of our hyper scattered age where our attention jumps here and there.
But really... I love Firefox, some of my best friends are Firefox, they're good people, don't get me wrong, but damn it, WHEN SOMEONE IS TYPING THE UNASSAILABLE RULE OF EVENT DRIVEN DESIGN IS NOTHING ELSE SHOULD CHANGE FOCUS WHILE SOMEONE IS TYPING!!!!
FIX THIS PLEASE.
Oh, I just ran out of capital letters. :) :) :)
Don't start typing until the page is finished loading completely. Or, block JavaScript from the domain that is causing the focus to be shifted.