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Hotkeys not working on Firefox.

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I use a public computer often, and I would like to use certain customizations while remaining anonymous. Rather than going through and clicking a bunch of checkboxes, I decided to have a hot key combination to enter in order to obtain my desired options. For example, I want to allow new windows to open normally, I want to choose where files are saved, and I want to turn off Firefox's recommendations. The underlined hotkeys are, respectively, ALT+W, ALT+A, and ALT+R ALT+F. So rather than a bunch of scrolling and clicking, I could just type ALT+WARF, and get the options I want quickly.

However, pressing the hotkeys while in the settings does not seem to do anything. In particular, pressing ALT+WARF only succeeds in pressing the ALT+F, which opens the File menu. Pressing these keys without an ALT key sends them automatically to the search bar -- which is also not what I want. Pressing ALT+SHIFT focuses in on the checkbox -- but does not press it. For example, ALT+SHIFT+W focuses on the checkbox, but I still have to click SPACE after it to press it.

Is this a bug? If not, how can I make the underlined keys press the respective checkboxes?

I use a public computer often, and I would like to use certain customizations while remaining anonymous. Rather than going through and clicking a bunch of checkboxes, I decided to have a hot key combination to enter in order to obtain my desired options. For example, I want to allow new windows to open normally, I want to choose where files are saved, and I want to turn off Firefox's recommendations. The underlined hotkeys are, respectively, ALT+W, ALT+A, and ALT+R ALT+F. So rather than a bunch of scrolling and clicking, I could just type ALT+WARF, and get the options I want quickly. However, pressing the hotkeys while in the settings does not seem to do anything. In particular, pressing ALT+WARF only succeeds in pressing the ALT+F, which opens the File menu. Pressing these keys without an ALT key sends them automatically to the search bar -- which is also not what I want. Pressing ALT+SHIFT focuses in on the checkbox -- but does not press it. For example, ALT+SHIFT+W focuses on the checkbox, but I still have to click SPACE after it to press it. Is this a bug? If not, how can I make the underlined keys press the respective checkboxes?

All Replies (1)

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There is no bug here. Alt activates the main menu using the accelerator keys, as it does in any application. The Settings page has some special logic to allow Alt+Shift to search on it, and it works similarly to accelerator keys, namely:

  • if there is only a single match, then it activates it at once
  • if there are multiple matches, then it selects the next one (first, second, etc.), but does not activate it

So in short, it does not activate them because there is a key collision.