Can't edit URL in new and awful jumbo address bar
It's impossible to edit a URL in the new and terrible address bar. This is a problem, and just one tiny example among many, when a website shows a non English page because I am in some other country. I used to be able to change .../de/etc. to /en-us/etc. and get the correct page. Now I have to click dots, select to copy, paste into notepad, make the change and paste-and-go.
Can this completely idiotic behavior be changed? Who is this aimed at, anyway? Address bars have worked the same for decades at this point - and whilest enhancing it is fine, disabling something as basic to ALL Windows or Mac as editing is insane.
All Replies (4)
There shouldn't be a problem to click in the location bar and edit the URL and press the Enter key to open the modified link.
What happens if you click the location bar or press F6 to set focus to the location bar ? Don't you get a cursor ?
You may have to click a second time because the first click will highlight the URL.
You can try to open a new window to see if that makes a difference.
No cursor on clicking into the location bar on click, F6 does get me in but any modification triggers some sort of auto complete or search, i.e. basically very difficult-to-impossible to edit e.g. to change part of the URL path.
It's a hard needle to thread to provide nifty stuff for some people like suggestions, history, etc. (and yes, some of these can be turned off in Options/Settings, but even then it's not allowing editing without using F6.
If this is supposed to be helpful for non-tech-savvy users, how does the ancient art of F-keys meet that goal?
I love the FF has always been far and away both easy OOB for the "typical" user with more ways to tweak and customize than any other browser by leaps and bounds for those who like to ninja their browser.
This address bar, let's call it Quantum of Annoyance bar, needs more work. I can't see a way to both allow a click-into-bar and understand keystrokes as edits, vs do they want a suggestion.
Is there a guide somewhere to all the about:config entries for this with explanations of what changes between True/False, etc.?
Thanks - and bear in mind - I am still fanatically pro FF/Mozilla (MDN is by itself pure gold).
You can possibly set browser.urlbar.autoFill = false on the about:config page to disable this feature from interfering.
Nope that doesn't fix it. Reverting answer from "Solved". The URL bar is STATIC and can't be edited, clicking the URL does nothing. And when testing a website via localhost not being able to change it destroys debugging - as in change one digit to another to test redirection behavior.
Simple as this, as it's always been for all browsers, if you click into that URL bar, it means the user wants to edit, so disable suggestions and JUST LET US DAMN CHANGE IT.