Option to disable Firefox's shortcut keys

[DigiFluid]

Howdy,

Ancient Firefox user who went Chrome for a long time and have returned as of yesterday. Happy to be back, but routinely frustrated that textbox shortcuts like ctrl-b and ctrl-i on certain (but not all!) websites, per Firefox programming, triggers the bookmark sidebar / page info (respectively). In decades of computer use, these shortcuts have always always always meant applying bold and italic to highlighted text, making Firefox's functionality completely counterintuitive. I can honestly say I have never once used these shortcuts to intentionally pull up bookmarks or page info.

Having had a look around online it seems that the only ways to turn off these Firefox functions are either writing some javascript personally, or installing an extension which is not supported by Mozilla. As neither of these are especially palatable choices, and the existing regime is in defiance of 40ish years of keyboard convention, I'd like to propose the simplest of solutions: an option in Firefox's settings to turn off keyboard shortcuts.

That way, folks have the choice. If, like me, you find the defiance of keyboard convention frustrating, you'll have an option to turn it off. Or alternatively, if you like Firefox's keyboard functions as-is, you don't have to do anything at all, and things stay the same. Everybody wins.

[Jon]

Thanks for submitting an idea to the Mozilla Connect community! Your idea is now open to votes (aka kudos) and comments.

[Luca_Pavan]

If you don't mind about shortcut keys at all you can disable them from your Windows settings, then I'm not sure how to do it from Firefox itself, but looks like someone else wanted to do this > https://support.mozilla.org/fy-NL/questions/1302854

[Anonymous]

Customizing shortcut keys is already a feature that many people want.

[jscher2000]

Up-to-date sites should know how to prevent Firefox from receiving Ctrl+b and Ctrl+i. Sites that have not been updated for a long time might have older code that doesn't do it effectively.

I don't have a site to test on at the moment, but you could test whether adding its host name to one of the following preferences is useful:

Here's how you can check on that:

(A) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter/Return. Click the button accepting the risk.

More info on about:config: Configuration Editor for Firefox. Please keep in mind that changes made through this back door aren't fully supported and aren't guaranteed to continue working in the future.

(B) In the search box in the page, type or paste keypress.hack and pause while the list is filtered

Firefox should display four preferences.

The two preferences that end in addl are intended for user-added domains. Your list should follow the same style as the built-in lists.

[MWT]

I've just returned to my 2012-era Macbook Air, which can no longer be updated with the latest of anything, only to find that the Delete button has now been tied to "go back to previous browser page." Surely this is a terrible idea? Does no one ever have to fill out a form on web browser and make a mistake?

[thatnerd]

Running into this problem with command-comma. It:

* Opens settings in FireFox

* Is frequently used for subscript in text editors

I'd love to be able to disable this hotkey in firefox.

[username_012345]

i agree this option would be great tpo have. no idea how to vote sorry im not trying tolook that up too.

[Jon]

@username_012345 thanks for the feedback! A thumbs up on the main post equals a vote:

Hope this helps 😃

[frayoshi]

Coming here to add my vote. W is next to V on Dvorak keyboards, and I've just closed a bank form I was compiling. Pissed off enough to spend time searching for a solution, or a feedback to the devs.