Slash Dot Dash: Firefox on Mac OS X tab problem

Firefox on Mac OS X tab problem

ben@slashdotdash.net (Ben) — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 22:33:00 +0100

An unexpected behaviour of Firefox on OS X is that when tabbing through web pages, especially forms, certain elements are skipped. This is quite annoying when form filling since you cannot tab to the “submit” button (or use the “I’m Feeling Lucky” button on Google without resorting to the mouse).

Correcting this is in fact very simple!

Tabbing problems in Firefox in Mac OS X

The solution I found to the problem was somewhat unexpected. How to address this is that the end user have to turn on Full keyboard access > All controls in System Preferences for it to work as expected. Like this:

1. Open System Preferences

2. Go to Keyboard & Mouse

3. Select All controls for Full keyboard access

Alternatively you can add / change the accessibility.tabfocus Firefox option via about:config to one of the following:

3 to be able to tab to form controls or 7 to be able to tab to everything

"Firefox on Mac OS X tab problem" by Jamie

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 19:27:18 +0100

Thank you so much. I was getting so annoyed. Funny thing is that Firefox, Safari were the browsers that had the problem and Opera and Camino actually had the working tabs.

"Firefox on Mac OS X tab problem" by John Barker

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 07:24:36 +0100

Keyboard & Mouse -> Select All controls for Full keyboard access ... Works like a charm now! Thanks for the tip!

"Firefox on Mac OS X tab problem" by Steve

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 19:41:37 +0000

FWIW, the “about:config” tabfocus setting doesn’t appear to exist anymore…

Steve

"Firefox on Mac OS X tab problem" by Metaltoad

Thu, 17 Jan 2008 19:42:42 +0000

Awesome, dude! This was driving me crazy!

"Firefox on Mac OS X tab problem" by Ben

Thu, 06 Sep 2007 20:30:43 +0100

Thanks Thomaz, I’ve corrected it now.

"Firefox on Mac OS X tab problem" by Thomaz

Thu, 06 Sep 2007 01:01:05 +0100

Actually, it isn’t about:blank, but about:config. :)

"Firefox on Mac OS X tab problem" by Yayo

Wed, 05 Sep 2007 23:48:37 +0100

THAT’S it!? I’ve been dealing with that stupid issue for years now… thanks!