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Make tab key move cursor from address bar to search bar

  • 3 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 19 views
  • Last reply by GKW

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Until very recently (last couple of days), whenever my cursor was in the address bar, eg after pressing Ctrl+T to open a new tab, I could press the TAB key on my keyboard to move straight into the search bar. So if I wanted to Google "apricot" I would do Ctrl+T, TAB, apricot, enter.

Suddenly, the TAB key has started behaving differently. It now puts a black box around the 'downloads' icon on the first press, then around my favourites on the second press, and only on the third press does it move to the search bar: see video here https://youtu.be/d5yryfr4jLQ

Can anyone help me go back to the good old days?

Until very recently (last couple of days), whenever my cursor was in the address bar, eg after pressing Ctrl+T to open a new tab, I could press the TAB key on my keyboard to move straight into the search bar. So if I wanted to Google "apricot" I would do Ctrl+T, TAB, apricot, enter. Suddenly, the TAB key has started behaving differently. It now puts a black box around the 'downloads' icon on the first press, then around my favourites on the second press, and only on the third press does it move to the search bar: see video here https://youtu.be/d5yryfr4jLQ Can anyone help me go back to the good old days?

Chosen solution

Yes, it is possible:

(1) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter/Return. Click the button promising to be careful or accepting the risk.

(2) In the search box above the list, type or paste TOOLB and pause while the list is filtered

(3) Double-click the browser.toolbars.keyboard_navigation preference to switch the value from true to false

That should cause the tab key to ignore buttons and go to the next text field.

Success?

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All Replies (3)

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Chosen Solution

Yes, it is possible:

(1) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter/Return. Click the button promising to be careful or accepting the risk.

(2) In the search box above the list, type or paste TOOLB and pause while the list is filtered

(3) Double-click the browser.toolbars.keyboard_navigation preference to switch the value from true to false

That should cause the tab key to ignore buttons and go to the next text field.

Success?

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By the way, unless you've changed some settings, typing apricot in the address bar and pressing Enter will also work.

There is a difference if you are searching for a "word" with a dot in it, such as amazon.com -- the address bar will treat it as an address rather than a search.

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Thank you so much! It worked perfectly. Really appreciate it.