Firefox address bar tweak
Posted by Matt Thommes on 08/16/07 in Freeware, Software, Tips
While browsing the web - it’s a luxury that we don’t have to manually type in a URL, because our favorite sites are already saved as bookmarks. But sometimes it’s necessary to go in and manually edit a URL in the address bar.
Have you ever began typing in the URL bar in Firefox, switched applications, and came back to Firefox to resume typing? Did you notice the entire URL was then highlighted again?
If you begin typing right away, it will erase the entire URL, and you’ll be typing into a blank box. This is obviously not what you want. Ideally, you’d like to continue typing from where you left off.
By default, it seems Firefox automatically highlights the entire URL, when you switch focus back to it from another application.
You can change this setting, but it’s not directly available in the Preferences menu. You have to use about:config.
In the address bar, type about:config, then hit Enter.
You’ll see a giant list of items, under the headings: Preference Name, Status, Type, Value. You’re only concerned with one of these items: browser.urlbar.clickSelectsAll.
To find this item fast, go to the Filter field, and type urlbar. This will narrow down your choices. You should see browser.urlbar.clickSelectsAll:
Notice it is currently set to true. We’ll change this to false. Right-click on that line, and select Toggle:
It should change the value to False.
That’s it! You’re done! You may have to restart Firefox for the change to take effect.
Now when you begin typing a URL, switch applications, switch back to Firefox, and resume typing, you’ll be in the right spot!
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Andy Atkinson | Aug 16, 2007 | Reply
The “Alt-D” keyboard shortcut works for Firefox on Windows (and OS X, Linux I think) and in Internet Explorer, so for me its second nature to press Alt-D then key around to edit URLs.
Vilh. | Aug 21, 2007 | Reply
Use right arrow when you returt til Firefox and continue the url.
Edward Turtle | Jan 24, 2008 | Reply
On Ubuntu Linux as default Firefox comes with a non-automatic highlighting address bar and I find it annoying, I prefer it as it is. But thanks for telling me about it, it’s cool to know.
Andy | Sep 10, 2008 | Reply
This is an excellent tip. This has ALWAYS annoyed me and I just assumed there was no way to customize this type of behavior. Now, can anyone tell me why in FF 3 they appear to have damaged the Alt+D functionality? Most of the time these days, hitting Alt+D gives me a windows bong and does nothing.