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#1 2009-10-19 11:02 pm
How do I stop FireFox from doing this?
This is an ongoing annoyance, and I can't figure out how to make it stop:
I open a new window in FireFox.
I immediately click in the address bar, delete my start page's URL, and begin typing the address to which I want to go.
When I'm only a few characters into typing that URL, FireFox automatically relocates my cursor to Google's text-search field in the middle of the start page!
This is extremely irritating, and not at all helpful. I've looked everywhere in FireFox's preferences, and even in my Google settings, but can find no way of preventing this from happening.
Thank you for your assistance in this matter!
"It's better to be a pirate than to join the Navy."
--Steve Jobs
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#2 2009-10-19 11:15 pm
Re: How do I stop FireFox from doing this?
Change your homepage, preferably something that doesn't have a user entry. Most browsers have this behavior, that the cursor automatically moves to any user entry areas. The page finishes loading as you're typing, so it drops to the text entry box in complete ignorance of what you wanted to do.
I'd recommend Apple.com, but it's a pain to load sometimes. Another option is to tell Firefox to open on a blank page.
There's what you love to do, and then there's what you get paid to do. Those two things are often different.
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#3 2009-10-19 11:22 pm
- sturner
- Royal High Poobah
- Moderator
- From: Carrollton, TX USA
- Registered: 2000-01-31
- Posts: 13779
Re: How do I stop FireFox from doing this?
I use excite.com
I'm not dead yet.
There are 3 types of people, those who can count and those who can't.
"There are few things graven in stone, excepting your date of death."
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#4 2009-10-20 12:26 am
Re: How do I stop FireFox from doing this?
Thanks guys. How annoying! Considering how the people who design these things spend fortunes on usability studies and like to blather endlessly about their terrific user-interface designs, you'd think they'd be smart enough to design a user interface that's actually, you know, usable.
"It's better to be a pirate than to join the Navy."
--Steve Jobs
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#6 2009-10-20 9:27 am
- dv
- Negusa Negest
- Moderator
- From: Minneapolis, MN
- Registered: 1999-08-30
- Posts: 18092
Re: How do I stop FireFox from doing this?
Just press the Escape key before you start typing the URL you want to go to. This will stop the page loading.
Or Command-Period (which, since the '.' is right next to the 'L' key, is actually pretty convenient. Since Command-L gets you to the adress bar and lets you just start typing your URL.)
"Now commences the process of cutting off the head, which generally takes from an hour to an hour and a half by an expert workman with a sharp blade." -Reuben Delano, Wanderings and Adventures
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#7 2009-10-20 2:47 pm
Re: How do I stop FireFox from doing this?
Thanks again for these additional replies!
Sturner, regarding Excite.com: By Jove, the cursor does not automatically jump into Excite's text-search field! How wonderful! I've registered and taken the time to customize my Excite, but I'm not sure if I'm ready to make it my start page. Interesting to get re-acquainted with Excite, though. They kinda dropped off the radar screen many years ago, in my mind.
"It's better to be a pirate than to join the Navy."
--Steve Jobs
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#8 2009-10-20 4:56 pm
- Pariah
- James Carville Fan..
- From: Belly Of The Beast, Oklahoma!
- Registered: 2001-05-24
- Posts: 18402
Re: How do I stop FireFox from doing this?
Wow, Excite.com still exists...Hadent heard a thing about them in years, thought they had gone the way of Geo Cities.
"and it's not surprising that they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."
Barack Obama
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#9 2009-10-20 5:58 pm
Re: How do I stop FireFox from doing this?
Bren wrote:
By Jove, the cursor does not automatically jump into Excite's text-search field!
Yeah, that cursor activity happens when the designer assigns a tab stop to that field. It's annoying, especially on pages that only have the one field.
Last edited by Jokotai (2009-10-20 5:58 pm)
There's what you love to do, and then there's what you get paid to do. Those two things are often different.
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#10 2009-10-20 6:51 pm
- wellfleation
- High on Life
- From: Metheun, Mass.
- Registered: 2001-11-13
- Posts: 8678
Re: How do I stop FireFox from doing this?
FF never remembers my passwords and Safari no longer streams a certain site that requires a password! Its a no win situation here.
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#11 2009-10-21 1:28 am
- dv
- Negusa Negest
- Moderator
- From: Minneapolis, MN
- Registered: 1999-08-30
- Posts: 18092
Re: How do I stop FireFox from doing this?
wellfleation wrote:
FF never remembers my passwords and Safari no longer streams a certain site that requires a password! Its a no win situation here.
You can't remember your passwords? 
I spend too much time on too many different computers: relying on a browser to remember that stuff for me would be impossible.
Also, random five year olds would have root access.
"Now commences the process of cutting off the head, which generally takes from an hour to an hour and a half by an expert workman with a sharp blade." -Reuben Delano, Wanderings and Adventures
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#12 2009-10-21 3:05 am
- SomeOneOrOther
- 3-yr-old switcher
- From: Ottawa, Ontario
- Registered: 2004-01-05
- Posts: 521
Re: How do I stop FireFox from doing this?
wellfleation wrote:
FF never remembers my passwords and Safari no longer streams a certain site that requires a password! Its a no win situation here.
Tried flushing out your passwords in Firefox, and have Firefox re-attempt to remember them? That's worked for me in the past. I use Firefox as my main browser, and I really depend on it for remembering passwords, such as the one for this forum.
If we're talking online banking, understandably, that's another thing.
MacBook, 13", early 2008.
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#13 2009-10-21 3:15 am
- SomeOneOrOther
- 3-yr-old switcher
- From: Ottawa, Ontario
- Registered: 2004-01-05
- Posts: 521
Re: How do I stop FireFox from doing this?
Pariah wrote:
Wow, Excite.com still exists...Hadent heard a thing about them in years, thought they had gone the way of Geo Cities.
If you want 1996 all over again...http://www.hotbot.com/
MacBook, 13", early 2008.
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#14 2009-10-21 7:10 am
- wellfleation
- High on Life
- From: Metheun, Mass.
- Registered: 2001-11-13
- Posts: 8678
Re: How do I stop FireFox from doing this?
SomeOneOrOther wrote:
wellfleation wrote:
FF never remembers my passwords and Safari no longer streams a certain site that requires a password! Its a no win situation here.
Tried flushing out your passwords in Firefox, and have Firefox re-attempt to remember them? That's worked for me in the past. I use Firefox as my main browser, and I really depend on it for remembering passwords, such as the one for this forum.
Thanks, that seemed to have worked. Weird, because that was the 1st thing I thought of and tried 1st and it would not work at that time.
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#15 2009-10-21 9:18 am
- dv
- Negusa Negest
- Moderator
- From: Minneapolis, MN
- Registered: 1999-08-30
- Posts: 18092
Re: How do I stop FireFox from doing this?
Firefox prefs get goofy sometimes. I have to delete a profile about once a week.
Camino seems to work better in that aspect.
"Now commences the process of cutting off the head, which generally takes from an hour to an hour and a half by an expert workman with a sharp blade." -Reuben Delano, Wanderings and Adventures
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#16 2009-10-22 9:44 am
- Funkey Monkey
- Il Maestro spettacolare
- From: On the podium.
- Registered: 2003-01-27
- Posts: 1467
- Website
Re: How do I stop FireFox from doing this?
Pariah wrote:
Wow, Excite.com still exists...Hadent heard a thing about them in years, thought they had gone the way of Geo Cities.
Yowsa! It hurts my eyes!!!! 
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