Hi Henri, what shortcuts aren't working?

Certainly when you are in an editing control some keys may have a different effect, such as the Home key (at least on Windows) or Select All (Command+A).

Sites also can attach event handlers to their forms which intercept default keyboard shortcuts and modify how they work. If the problems are only on one or a few sites, perhaps that is what's happening.

Thanks for a prompt feedback. Some shortcuts are working : Cmd+A to select all for instance, Cmd+R to reload ...

My HTML page has some accesskeys to position the cussor in specific fields. These do not work while the focus is on any one field. I need to "unfocus" by clicking anaywhere on the page, and then the accesskeys work again.

Is there a keyboard activated way to perform this "unfocus" action?

Thanks Henri

An accesskey on another field should still work while you're in a text input. Can you provide a link to a page where this isn't working? (I have Windows, in case this is a Mac-specific issue.)

It's difficult to get out of a form field with just a single keypress or key combination. If you focus Firefox's search bar (command+k) and then press Tab, usually the focus will move the the document body, but it's not convenient.

These are the predefined keyboard shortcuts for accesskeys:

• Mac: Ctrl+Alt+AccessKey (Alt = Option)
• Linux: Shift+Alt+AccessKey
• Windows: Shift+Alt+AccessKey

This can be changed on your personal Firefox, but for others visiting your page, I think you have to assume they are using the defaults:

(1) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter/Return. Click the button promising to be careful.

(2) In the search box above the list, type or paste ui.key and pause while the list is filtered

(3) Double-click the ui.key.contentAccess preference and enter the desired value:

• 2 = Ctrl alone
• 3 = Shift+Ctrl
• 5 = Shift+Alt (default on Windows & Linux)
• 6 = Ctrl+Alt (default on Mac)

These seems like bad choices: 1 = Shift alone, 4 = Alt alone, 8 = Command alone.

Prior to Firefox 14, it was Ctrl alone on Mac. After the change, I found one user report that if the cursor is in a textarea control, Ctrl+Alt doesn't work (accessKey after update 14.01 on MAC OS X do not work - near the end of the thread).

Maybe you are running into the same thing, but why aren't there more reports of this? Could there be a complicating factor?

Your suggestion seems to solve my problem!! (ui.key.contentAccess set to 2) I am checking the behaviour on other browsers. Different browser, different settings!! I will also try the "4" (Alt) setting, although it is not recommended. ALt would be more in line with Windows and other browsers!!

Thanks Henri

Would you know why the 4 setting (Alt alone) is considered as a bad choice? This would be more in accordance with what happens on a Windows PC!!

Thanks Henri

Hi Henri, Alt alone might be fine on Mac. On Windows, it activates the menu bar (Alt+f = File, etc.), so it's not a good choice on Windows.