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Pressing Esc at the address bar no longer returns focus to the page

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Until 57.0, pressing Esc when focused on the address bar or search bar returned focus to the page. This was an appreciated shortcut, and the lack of this in Chrome was an irritant when I needed to use it. It is unclear why this feature was removed, or if this is simply a bug, but it would be nice to have it back, even if just as a non-default setting in about:config.

Until 57.0, pressing Esc when focused on the address bar or search bar returned focus to the page. This was an appreciated shortcut, and the lack of this in Chrome was an irritant when I needed to use it. It is unclear why this feature was removed, or if this is simply a bug, but it would be nice to have it back, even if just as a non-default setting in about:config.

All Replies (3)

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Hi bmclarnon:

  1. Wow! Didn't know this about FF56 and older versions! #til
  2. "Until 57.0, pressing Esc when focused on the address bar or search bar returned focus to the page. " <---- you mean to the html portion of the current web page?
  3. I wish I knew of a keyboard shortcut for this but you got me stumped!

Cheers!

...Roland

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Hi Roland,

Yes, the previous behaviour was to defocus the address bar, which meant that keyboard navigation of the web page returned. This was useful when using plugins like VimFX (XUL-only, sadly) and Vimium that enable keyboard-only browsing.

I mainly noticed it due to the fact that opening a new tab automatically focuses the address bar, despite me generally wanting to select one of my Top Sites. Incidentally, a similar toggle for this behaviour would also be appreciated. =)


Thanks, Barry

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This is still an issue as of Firefox 58.0.1