Comments on: Make Backspace Key Work Correctly in Firefox on Linux

By: Norman

Norman — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 00:13:22 +0000

Again like Neil, I know where John and Jason are coming from. I was typing (like Jason) and my mouse was set to automatically change focus. After the tiniest of knocks the mouse changed focus to a command prompt window whilst I was typing ‘format d: *.* /y’ …… BAM just like that my whole life disappeared before my eyes. Thats why I’ve switched to Ubuntu, at least now I have to put in password before these accidents can happen!

By: Neil Stoker

Neil Stoker — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 09:56:43 +0000

I know where John and Jason are coming from, as that has on occasion happened (but only where I’m not paying attention and have switched focus out from one of the form’s input fields, as it won’t happen when within an input field) but it’s definitely a risk worth taking for the convenience.

Nowadays there are plenty of sites set up so that going forwards again in your browser history still retains the entered text (so you don’t end up pulling your hair out!)

The fact it’s a one-handed / single-button shortcut is excellent. And frankly, using four different configurations of computers as I do fairly regularly, I need all the conformity of UI that I can get!

By: Andragon

Andragon — Fri, 22 May 2009 18:58:01 +0000

Yes it is indeed a stupid idea to do this, but I guess for people just surfing this can be nice.

So simply set this value to 1 instead of 0 and that backspace is disabled for going back

By: Jason

Jason — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 19:25:04 +0000

john, I couldn’t agree with you more. While I like consistency across apps & across platforms, what a stupid key for a web browser. I just lost an email I had been typing for 20 minutes because my mouse cursor is set to automatically change focus; I accidentally moved the mouse so that the focus was changed from the form textbox to the browser, and then I pressed backspace to continue typing… BAM! Another one bites the dust.

One possible work around that wouldn’t require changing the hotkey: all browsers ought detect the focus transistion from form entry to browser, & then pop-up a confirmation dialog box if the user presses backspace.

By: Justin Reiners

Justin Reiners — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 05:26:52 +0000

Thank you so much for your input, the backspace key not working has been driving me crazy since I let MS in the dust! you rock!

By: john

john — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 00:26:21 +0000

Making backspace go back a page is the most retarded thing I’ve ever heard of. None of you have ever accidentally been typing a large form and hit backspace, and gone back a page then lost everything in the form?

By: name

name — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 23:22:23 +0000

Right alt then arrow keys work for me. Firefox 3 on Kubuntu Hardy.

By: Sarev

Sarev — Tue, 13 May 2008 15:51:40 +0000

Thanks, mate. Nice tip. Why on earth did the FF people decide that alt+left arrow is a good key combination for going back in the history? It doesn’t even work with right alt so you need to use two hands or have a big stretch!

By: Mariano

Mariano — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 01:39:40 +0000

Thank you very much!! I was going crazy without the back key working properly.
PS: I use Kubuntu 7.10

By: Mr. Synner

Mr. Synner — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 03:48:03 +0000

I’m using firefox 2.0.0.4 that came with my new install of Slack 12.0. I had to restart the browser for the new settings to take effect. Thanks for posting the tip!