Firefox Quick Find as it should (and used to) be
For some strange reason, in Firefox 2 the find Next and Previous buttons have been removed from the Quick Find bar (which is activated by /, ' or just start typing) and reserved for the Find Bar only (Ctrl + F). I find this behavior annoying but lucky me and us all dbcooper dropped this tip in a comment to a previous post to restore the buttons.
Open userChrome.css and add this line:
#FindToolbar > * {display: -moz-box; }
That's it. Happy finding!
Comments
fred_be9300
I agree… that one is a step back in Fx 2.0. I suggest them to reverse that.
Henry
Does it matter where in the userchrome.css file the line is added?
Henry
O.K., I guess it doesn’t matter. I did not even have a userchrome.css file, so I used the example file, saved it as userchrome.css, added the line at the end, and it works. Related question: is there a way to modify the length of time the quick search bar stays there without your taking further action?
mikekaz
Yes! Thank you, thank you, thank you! I echo everyone’s sentiments that this was a step backwards.
Jasper
Bonzer. Just upgraded today, and very quickly found this as a bad stumpling block to my efficiency.
Me
This isn’t working. I created the file userChrome.css in notepad and stuck it in every chrome folder i have and I still don’t have a “fixed” quick find…HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Me
Got it. Don’t stick it in the “C” Drive “programs” folder. Go to “C” “documents and settings” “your user name”.
Just in case anyone else is as dense as I am. :)
Vilhelm Olsen
Instead of Next and Previous buttons you can use function key F3 (next) and shift + F3 (previous).
Stork.
it doesn’t fix the quickfind search bar. it only adds the buttons to the actual find bar (when you press ctrl+F). is there any way to make the / button pull up the Find toolbar instead of the quickfind toolbar?
Cath
Does anyone know how to prevent the Quick Find toolbar from popping up when typing an apostrophe? It is very annoying when trying to type an email as i cannot use contractions!
Rich CAugust 3rd, 2009 at 10:14 pm
I too am now denied apostrophes since a recent <>. No ideas on this in two years?
funiishu
One Add-on solves all the annoyance:
Find Toolbar Tweaks
Current features:
1. Move the close button position. You have 4 options; right-side end, left-side end, middle, and hide button.
2. Close Find Toolbar by double click
3. Hide “Match case” check box
4. When wrapped, change the color of input box
5. Add a context menu for settings and close toolbar
6. Hide button labels
7. Add a Clear button to clear input box
8. Show buttons on Quick Find Bar
9. Close Toolbar by page click
10. “Previous Word” button for FAYT users
Patricia Ann Cupra
This should definitely be default in FF2. I was mystified about how to use Quick Find to find the next instance of a word on the page until I read about this fix.
Makes me wonder what other gems are ‘hidden’ by default in FF2…
mozilla links - Your source for Firefox, Thunderbird, Camino, SeaMonkey news, tips and more. » Search the current page from the toolbar
[...] and previous/next navigation was removed from the Quick Find bar in Firefox 2, but I find this quick hack a better alternative and I won’t miss the history and single term search functionalty. [...]
Fx Tweak: Quick Find Bar « Firefox Extension Guru’s Blog
[...] Source: Mozilla Links [...]
whatever
how do we get rid of this extremely annoying and stupid feature in the new version of firefox?? i can’t stand it and i don’t care if it’s slightly useful in the way you describe because it’s extremely annoying the other 99% of the time when i actually want to type a “/” or “‘”.
Torben
Thanks for the tip! This quick find thing has driven me crazy since it was introduced. Why the Mozilla folks think it’s a good idea to cripple the quick find, I don’t know.
For the fellow who suggests using Ctrl-F, well yes, of course you could do that. You’ve entirely missed the point. Ctrl-F works properly. However, there is *no* *reason* at all for the quick find not to include those buttons. None. If I have “Search when I start typing” enabled, I should get the same thing as when I press Ctrl-F. Doing otherwise is just raising the WTF factor and actually makes the search-on-typing feature *slower*, because then I have to realize that alt-n is not going to advance to the next hit until I’ve gone and pressed Ctrl-F anyway.
Anyway, my $0.02 CDN.
Torben
Hi Karen,
According to Google, one answer is here:
http://ffextensionguru.wordpress.com/2007/01/10/fx-tweak-quick-find-bar/
Good luck,
Torben
Torben
Hi again Karen,
That link I just sent just lets you disable the apostrophe and slash search hotkeys, for the record. Googling for ‘firefox turn off quick find’ brings in a truckload of hits, though.
Torben
Kryssindor
Ok, this is the second forum I (accch! I just tried to type a contraction of “I have” and the Quick Find came up because of the apostrophe!!!)…so, anyway this is the second forum I have been on about this problem of typing an apostrophe in a text field and quick find comes up.
I have version 2.0.0.6. on Mac OS X. I do not know how to create a chrome file whatsit or what to do with it if I could…I have installed an add on for the toolbar and it does not work. I never had the apostrophe issue occur before updating to 2.0.0.6.
I JUST want to type in contractions! I’m (argh, now it works?) tired of writing like a prim and proper English teacher in my writing…and it is just too weird that it happens randomly, though it seems to always pop up in google search bar.
I’ve (ok, weird…that apostrophe worked too!) gone around and around in circles and there is still no clarification:
HOW DO I DISABLE THE “‘” QUICK FIND FUNCTION???
I’m not a programmer…just a lowly computer user that likes to type conversationally! Help?
Tom
OK, how do I turn OFF “quick find” in Firefox 2.0?? It’s driving me batty. Specifically when I try to type a posting in Google Notes and type a ‘, the darned quick find becomes active.
Torben posted a link he says tells how to turn it off, but all I find under that link is a bunch of posts from people just as frustrated as I am with it! — Cheers, Tom
Jim
The Help folder of Firefox tells you how to turn it off, but I’ll tell you anyway.
1. Go to Tools->Options
2. Go to Advanced
3. Stay on the General tab
4. Click on the checked “Search For Text While I’m Typing” box.
Hope that helps!
Jim
abacusSeptember 27th, 2008 at 11:19 pm
Than you Jim. I hope this works. I use Google Reader, and they have short cut keys like ga (meaning go to all items(rss). every time I press “g” the quick find thingy comes up. I did n’t even know what the hell it was until i did some snooping. very annoying.
Torben
Tom: In a later post on this thread I noted that the link I posted actually addresses a different issue.
As Jim said, it’s all in the Help anyway.
Torben
Frank
Take that stupid useless no good God forsaken quick find thing off please.
anon
bizarrely, this fixed it for me:
tools -> options -> advanced -> general -> check the box next to “search for text when i start typing”
J
None of the aforementioned “fixes” work! Im doing exactly as they say, and I still get the damned “Quick Search” field when I type a slash, apostrophe or the f key. Im having to cut and paste my fs!! I am *thisclose* to going back to IE!
kryssindor
This is laughable. I can’t believe people are still posting about this yet FF does absolutely nothing about it. For the record, I have turned off my quick find option in preferences, but it still will “Find” stuff when I try to type contractions, notoriously when I’m in the google search text box and occasionally in text fields such as this one. Obviously it’s working now, but it sometimes won’t and I’ll have to go back to writing like a podunk.
The other strange thing is that when it occurs when I’m in a google search text field, I’ll try three or four times to type with an apostrophe because all of a sudden it lets do it.
MOZILLA/FF: WAKE THE HELL UP!!! NO ONE LIKES YOUR “FIND” “Quick key” It’s LAME and USELESS! What? You think everyone on the internet is 1) illiterate and doesn’t know what contractions are or 2) so stiffly and properly articulate that they refuse to use them?? NO! We are a world of contractions! You’ve bungled it! AAAAAGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!! * runs off screaming, flailing arms *
Sunny
This is the most outrageously annoying feature I’ve encountered on computers since 1981. HOW THE DEVIL DO I GET RID OF IT FOREVER AND EVER, AMEN??? Every time I want to add a forward slash, the danged thing pops up. I hit escape, it disappears, and the instant I try to enter a forward slash, there it is again. I truly despise it. HELP! HOW DO I KILL IT?
Thanks.
Percy Cabello
Sunny and Krissindor, you have to focus on a text box for a slash or apostrophe to appear, otherwise it will prompt QuickFind since there’s no purpose for entering any of these characters while not on a text box or textarea.
If QuickFind appears even when on a text box then you should contact Firefox support (knowledge base, forums and now even live chat). It could be a conflict with an extension: http://support.mozilla.com
kryssindor
Percy,
Thank you for your comment. I am confused just a bit by your terminology. “Focus” on a text box? Do you mean have the cursor IN the text box? Or, do you mean stare at the text box and use the power of my mind to will the frickin’ apostrophe button to work in a sentence rather than bring up Quickfind? Because that’s about what it’s coming to.
:) Ok, ok…My apologies. You are trying to help and I’m being flippant. But to make it perfectly clear, I DO have my cursor in a text field, such as this one (or for instance on MySpace or Google search) and the apostrophe will NOT work 99% of the time. There is that 1% miracle occurance when it does and it’s totally random. And, again, I DO have the “find text” option OFF in my preferences.
So, I will take your advice and contact Mozilla support and perhaps rather than re-explain the problem, I’ll simply direct them to this thread. I don’t think the point could be made any clearer.
Majken "Lucy" Connor
Hi everyone,
I saw the link to this post in feedback on support.mozilla.com, thanks for letting us know this exists, and of course we’re sorry this issue is still occurring.
A few things to start with: there have been several different causes for this issue and *most* of them have been fixed. This has been a very tricky issue to diagnose though, as the devs aren’t hitting it, and no one who does see this issue has yet been able to provide the clue needed to track this down.
It seems that the only reports left of this issue are from Mac users, or at least the majority anyway. What we need to diagnose this issue are people to get together who are seeing this issue to compare when it’s happening, and what sort of systems it’s happening on. Are you all using the same version of OSX? Do you all have the same extensions, or have some 3rd party software in common?
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=320465 is a tracking bug for all bugs filed to do with the quickfind bar coming up when it’s unwanted. If you look at the depends on section, any numbers that don’t have a line through them are still open. Note, it looks like a lot, but we make a practice of not resolving bugs fixed if the original reporter doesn’t come back and tell us it works for them. It looks like some of those bugs should be fixed, and some of them are duplicates of each other.
If you want to help, you could try to find a bug that looks like it’s *exactly* what’s happening to you, including your operating system and when it’s happening, and see if you can come up with any new information to add.
Please feel free to use a forum thread at http://support.mozilla.com/forum to coordinate with other users who are having this problem until you can find something in common. In fact that would be the preferable first step.
Next step would be to back up your profile and install a Firefox 3 beta from http://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/Firefox_3_for_developers . Let us know if the problem still happens to you using those builds. If not, that will be a clue as well.
David EgolfApril 23rd, 2008 at 5:26 pm
Actually, a good first step would be for ff developers to REMOVE this “feature” until it actually works. ff has not been good with “focus” for several releases. And no, it is not just Mac users. I have had the notorious / and ‘ problem on my HP pavilion laptop running XP for years. NEVER has the Tools/Options/Advanced button turned off the “feature”.
I did find a “secret” command which disables it, but it came back after the next major update and I lost the command. ARGH!
Given that -F does the job, this running battle strikes me as similar to the religious wars between vi and EMACS users. (vi is an ancient unix editor with “modes” where clear keystrokes were sometimes commands based on which mode you were in. Emacs, on the other hand used the ESC, CTRL, and ALT keys to send commands to the editor.) I have always been an adherent to Emacs and the idea of a keystroke operating differently based on “focus” is not really all that appealing even if it did work.
I also have problems using copy and paste with firefox and I am suspicious that this is due to the same problem with focus.
My only add-ons are TabMixPlus and Firebug.
Steve Kenyon
Firefox just updated itself, OK, next the browser rebooted, OK, then I installed Google toolbar, the box came up for page rank, enable/disable, I make a selection, the “finish” button pops up at the bottom of the box, I select it and the damn thing wont close the box, and it reappears every time i open firefox, There is no way to contact Google, can you HELP?
Thanks,
Steve
Vuorovaikutus » Arkisto » [Ratkaisu] Ala etsiä tekstistä heti kirjoitettaessa ja Edellinen- ja Seuraava-napit
[...] avaama työkalupalkki on typistetty pelkästään hakusanakentäksi. Koska haluan, että pikahakutoiminnon työkalupalkki sisältää samat valitsimet kuin normaali hakutoiminto (jonka voi avata esimerkiksi Control + F -pikanäppäimellä), olen lisännyt selaimen [...]
userchrome.css tweaks « Help 4 Dummies
[...] quick find always has buttons */ #FindToolbar > * {display: -moz-box; [...]
Martin
This works great….the only thing that has annoyed me about ff2 is now out of the way! Just remember to use the folder in documents and settings and NOT in program files (just so you dont make the same mistakes as I did)
I added the line at the very end of the examplefile and renamed it….thats it!
Hans
Does not work for me on Firefox 3. I just updated, it worked before and does not now. The userChrome.css is intact.
Johan
Had exactly the same problem as you Hans. Found this in another blog comment. Works in FF3 for me.
“Firefox 3 needs
/* Add Next/Previous Buttons to Quick Find Bar */
.findbar-container>* {display: -moz-box !important;}
instead.”
Hans
Thanks a lot Johan! Just rephrasing this, hoping to get Google to notice it, because for me it just produced a lot of bad hits.
Firefox 3 quick find can be repaired with
/* Add Next/Previous Buttons to Quick Find Bar */
.findbar-container>* {display: -moz-box !important;}
in the userChrome.css . This repairs quick find in Firefox 3.
ChuckAugust 27th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
Thankyouthankyouthankyou! I’ve researched The Google seemingly for hours to find this answer and was becoming convinced it was an FF3 oversight that couldn’t be rectified. Great job and much appreciated!
Jordan
Just wanted to add my endorsement of this solution for firefox 3.1 beta 2; once I untangled a minor permissions issue (under linux, the chrome.css file is read-only), adding the lines mentioned above restored my beloved buttons. Many thanks!
By the way, is it possible that whoever runs this site could put this info up at the top of the page? I passed over this site three times, thinking it only applied to firefox 2 (How could I have passed over it? I’m using 3.1, and at that point, my quick find buttons weren’t working correctly!)
Philip
Anon’s solution dated 12/19/2007 worked for me. (Tools–Options–General–check “Search for text…”)
daniellet
every time i open firefox, 4 pages open – welcome to firefox, mozilla start page, google toolbar, & personas. it is not saving anything i do – the persona, bookmarks, etc. tried a couple of fixes but nothing is working & this is so frustrating. can anyone help?!?!
Phantom
Since a certain update in Firefox, whenever you type a ‘ or a / in certain text fields, a box will come up at the bottom, called quick find. You can press Esc to exit it, but if you press ‘ or / again, it will pop up again. I think it has the same function as Ctrl+F, without the next or previous buttons, so there is no need for this feature, especially since it only destroys your ability to use contractions. So after a few months of pain (for me at least), someone came up with a fix to disable this. Here’s what you do:
1. Type about:config in the address bar, and press enter.
2. Right click “Preference Name†and select New, then Boolean.
3. Type in “searchkeys.disable.allâ€. Press Okay.
4.Select “Trueâ€. Now you’re done!
The “Quick Find†feature should now be disabled
PatNovember 3rd, 2009 at 3:41 pm
the above “fix” doesnt solve the issue.
myself and seemingly most others do not want an add-on or some option to disable this ” feature ” ..we just want to know how to delete it, remove it, get rid of it entirely
adding the searchkeys.disable.all and setting to true works in -some- areas.. google search and the firefox address bar, for example, but it does not stay disabled while typing in various forums.. the quick fix of resizing the firefox window is a decent work-around.. but why is there a need for a workaround… of a feature?
as of firefox 3.5.4 this is still a problem.. with no way to remove it
in summation, please don’t tell me to add some string to disable this, please don’t tell me to check/uncheck some search box.. just tell me how to delete it.
Mike
The use of the ‘ key to open a “quick find” tab is silly. In Gmail every time I go to type a possessive I get “quick find” and not an apostrophe.
Please, please, please change this feature.
DMH
I too am super frustrated that this is happening. I’m not a developer and I’m not going to go in and do some of these developer type fixes on my system. I tried the non developer suggestions and they don’t work. I’m using WinXP on a Lenovo laptop and ready to go back to IE (although I hate to do it). I can’t type 1/2 the time with this stupid issue of the apostrophe and I’m frustrated beyond belief. I know it was mentioned earlier that this is primarily a Mac issue, but it’s not the case with me. Anyone know how to go back to the last version in FireFox? I’d rather do that than use IE, however I can’t take another day of this.
Chandy
YES! That’s exactly what I was looking for. Why on earth did they remove this??? And how do we get them to put it back so that everyone can enjoy the benefits? It’s not as if they needed to save space there.
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