ClickSelectsAll, how to disable?
This 'feature' annoys me so much. One, because its has no benefit and two, after FF75 it's not possible to disable it.
I like to discuss why someone thinks one click select all is useful. It's more common to edit your url/search input instead of type a complete new one. Selecting a part of your input or just input the cursor at a specific location gets really disturb by this 'feature'. In 30 years i use computers, this behavior have never been useful and when needed to select all, the click-swipe-release action is even as easy. Beside this, the decades old CTRL-A function is even as fast and useful.
More and more of this behavior is pushed at users on the web and i really don't see why. Can someone tell me why this behavior is invented? And how to disable it in newer FF versions?
All Replies (8)
That is not normal for Firefox.
Start Firefox in Safe Mode {web link}
A small dialog should appear. Click Start In Safe Mode (not Refresh). Is the problem still there?
Hi Fred,
Thank you for fast replying. I think i did not inform sufficient enough whats the problem about.
In about:config: browser.urlbar.clickSelectsAll no longer has effect in ff versions 75+. Users are now forced to deal with One-Click-Select-All behavior. I think it's a really stupid feature and like to discus why this should be banned all over the world.
Is this issue on an development list?
That I don't know.
You can wait a short time after the first click and then click a second time (i.e. do not double-click as that selects a word) to have the cursor visible at this position.
A single click selects all without primary selection, a double click selects a word, and a triple click selects all with primary selection.
Please, i known how to work around on this. But this is not my question. Such an common task has to work floor-less without waiting!. My main question therefore is why this behavior is invented? Do developers at ff really think this is an upgrade in experiences? And if the do, i can tell i hate it and it obstruct my workflow. Therefore it's a good practice to make such 'features' optional. But even this has been removed. And now I'm still working on ff72 because the lack of awareness on this type of user experiences changes
Please inform the developers to make this optional again.
This was done to make the behavior the same on all platforms and to make testing the code easier (proper testing requires to test each of the possible states). This click behavior in the location bar is now the same on all platforms (Windows, Mac, Linux).
- 1621570 - browser.urlbar.clickSelectsAll=false has no effect since 75b1
Se also comment 32:
- 333714 - browser.urlbar.clickSelectsAll should default to true on all platforms [75]
(please do not comment in bug reports
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/page.cgi?id=etiquette.html)
This reasons make me so angry. First of all its not the answer to my question why its invented at the first place (its more common to edit an search input rather than type a new one) ,secondly, this type of first hand user experience needs to work floor-less so testing such an important part cannot been compromise with and thirdly, its not common for users to work on different platforms. And beside that, there are way more non-similarity between platforms than a ClickSelectAll behavior.
Please request to make it optional. I'm sure many poweruser are benefiting this.
I agree on the person above me. At least make it optional.