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#269400 - 11/11/2005 17:53 Macintosh Firefox Questions
tfabris
carpal tunnel

Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31600
Loc: Seattle, WA
How, on the macintosh, do you set it up so Firefox is your default browser for the whole system (instead of Safari)?

On Safari, there is an option, under Preferences/Advanced, for "Press Tab to hightlight each item on a web page". Is there a way to give Firefox this same behavior?
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Tony Fabris

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#269401 - 11/11/2005 18:05 Re: Macintosh Firefox Questions [Re: tfabris]
tfabris
carpal tunnel

Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31600
Loc: Seattle, WA
For the first question, all the google results tell me to:

# Click on the Apple Menu, then select System Preferences.
# Click the Internet icon.

And BZZT I get stopped at the second step, as there is no internet icon.
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Tony Fabris

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#269402 - 11/11/2005 18:10 Re: Macintosh Firefox Questions [Re: tfabris]
tfabris
carpal tunnel

Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31600
Loc: Seattle, WA
Okay, found the answer to the first question. The default web browser setting is actually controlled within Safari's preferences screen. Silly place for it, but OK.

Now on to the second question...
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Tony Fabris

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#269403 - 11/11/2005 18:25 Re: Macintosh Firefox Questions [Re: tfabris]
blitz
addict

Registered: 20/11/2001
Posts: 455
Loc: Texas
Try this.

# Download Safari if you do not already have it.
# In Safari, choose "Preferences" from the menu.
# Click the "General" icon, and choose Mozilla from the default web browser pop-up menu. If you dont see Mozilla in the list, make sure it is in the "Applications" folder.

Edit: You beat me to it


Edited by blitz (11/11/2005 18:26)

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#269404 - 12/11/2005 03:01 Re: Macintosh Firefox Questions [Re: tfabris]
Dylan
addict

Registered: 23/09/2000
Posts: 498
Loc: Virginia, USA
Quote:
On Safari, there is an option, under Preferences/Advanced, for "Press Tab to hightlight each item on a web page". Is there a way to give Firefox this same behavior?


System Prefs, Keyboard & Mouse, Keyboard Shortcuts, choose the All Controls radio button at the bottom

You see? Isn't the mac intuitive?

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#269405 - 12/11/2005 04:03 Re: Macintosh Firefox Questions [Re: tfabris]
hybrid8
carpal tunnel

Registered: 12/11/2001
Posts: 7738
Loc: Toronto, CANADA
It's not so much Safari's prefs having some special proprietary feature as it is other devlopers not having implemented the default browser controls that Apple has changed. There *used* to be an pop-up menu for this in an Internet preference pane. Now a browser is supposed to include its own preference control to allow itself to be made the default.

You might also want to check out RCDefaultApp to allow you to set up all sorts of other defaults which are either difficult or impossible to configure any other way. Default handlers for any URL, filetype, file extension, etc..

Bruno
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Bruno
Twisted Melon : Fine Mac OS Software

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#269406 - 12/11/2005 18:32 Re: Macintosh Firefox Questions [Re: Dylan]
tfabris
carpal tunnel

Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31600
Loc: Seattle, WA
Quote:
System Prefs, Keyboard & Mouse, Keyboard Shortcuts, choose the All Controls radio button at the bottom

Yes, this is already set. That works for all system dialog boxes. It does not work for forms and links within a web page. The option I described above (in the initial thread post) for Safari counts for forms and links within a web page.

To get the mac to behave like windows in this respect, I need to set both: The system prefs option, and the Safari option. There's just no corresponding option for Firefox.

Here is an example of the situation I'm talking about:

Let's say I have a login form on a web page that contains Username, password, and a "remember me" checkbox, then a submit button

My standard finger muscle-memory is to type the username, press TAB, type the password, press TAB, press the spacebar to check the "Remember me" checkbox, press TAB, and press space to activate the SUBMIT button.

On the macintosh, I have to use the mouse to hit the "remember me" checkbox because TAB doesn't go to it, unless I set that option in Safari. Now I want to do the same in Firefox.
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Tony Fabris

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#269407 - 12/11/2005 18:32 Re: Macintosh Firefox Questions [Re: hybrid8]
tfabris
carpal tunnel

Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31600
Loc: Seattle, WA
Quote:
You might also want to check out RCDefaultApp to allow you to set up all sorts of other defaults which are either difficult or impossible to configure any other way.

I shall look this up, thank you.
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Tony Fabris

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#269408 - 12/11/2005 19:36 Re: Macintosh Firefox Questions [Re: tfabris]
Dylan
addict

Registered: 23/09/2000
Posts: 498
Loc: Virginia, USA
Quote:
Quote:
System Prefs, Keyboard & Mouse, Keyboard Shortcuts, choose the All Controls radio button at the bottom

Yes, this is already set. That works for all system dialog boxes. It does not work for forms and links within a web page. The option I described above (in the initial thread post) for Safari counts for forms and links within a web page.


I'm using Firefox 1.5 RC2 and it works like you want it to. It's behavior is changed by that System Pref (though you have to quit and restart). In general, FF 1.5 is a much better behaved OS X app then 1.0.

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#269409 - 12/11/2005 20:44 Re: Macintosh Firefox Questions [Re: Dylan]
tfabris
carpal tunnel

Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31600
Loc: Seattle, WA
Hm. I'll have to check out 1.5, then. Does it do a better job of popup blocking? The 1.0.7 version fails to block far too many popups for my tastes.
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Tony Fabris

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#269410 - 12/11/2005 21:24 Re: Macintosh Firefox Questions [Re: tfabris]
Dylan
addict

Registered: 23/09/2000
Posts: 498
Loc: Virginia, USA
Quote:
Hm. I'll have to check out 1.5, then. Does it do a better job of popup blocking? The 1.0.7 version fails to block far too many popups for my tastes.


Yes. Demonoid, for example, has popups on 1.0.7 but not 1.5.

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#269411 - 12/11/2005 21:33 Re: Macintosh Firefox Questions [Re: Dylan]
tfabris
carpal tunnel

Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31600
Loc: Seattle, WA
Yup, I'm liking 1.5, and yes, it behaves the way I expect. Thanks for the tip.
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Tony Fabris

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#269412 - 13/11/2005 01:32 Re: Macintosh Firefox Questions [Re: tfabris]
matthew_k
pooh-bah

Registered: 12/02/2002
Posts: 2298
Loc: Berkeley, California
accessibility.tabfocus = 7. I don't have any idea why it isn't the default.

Matthew

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