I can't type my name in Firefox

[€uroMeinke]

So, thought I'd try Firfox again and this tabbed browser thing - and it's okay so far. But there's one thing that is driving me crazy. I can't seem to type in characters like the Euro symbol or letters with umlauts using the usual keystrokes.

To you more versed users, is there an option for me to switch on or off to make that happen?

If I have to use cut and past to do this, my Firefox trial will be over despite the alleged benefits of Tabbed Browsing.

[Not Afraid]

So, thought I'd try Firfox again and this tabbed browser thing

Maybe you should use FIREfox and not Firfox. ;)

[Ghoulish Delight]

Yeah, I ran into that too attempting to type your name. Sadly, your only option is character map/cut and paste.

[€uroMeinke]

Yeah, I ran into that too attempting to type your name. Sadly, your only option is character map/cut and paste.

Sigh - well, someone let me know when 2.0 is released

[Alex]

It is a defect introduced with Firefox 1.5.1 and only impacts vBulletin sites (here's the official defect report (https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=257478)).

The problem is that vBulletin uses accesskeys for certain navigational functions (search accesskey in the source code for this page and you'll see it). Essentially accesskeys provide keyboard shortcuts for certain links on a page. So if you click Alt-1 on this page you'll load the LoT front page.

Notice the construction of how to use the accesskey. ALT and then a number. The Firefox defect is getting confused because when you try and type the € symbol hitting ALT- and then the first number of that code triggers the accesskey. The proposed fix is to make it so that number pad keys don't trigger accesskeys but that still won't help certain people.

This doesn't affect IE since IE doesn't support accesskeys.

Anyway, that is a long winded explanation just so you know why accesskeys are working if you want them in the future.

To solve this problem until a nicer solution is found you can use the advance browser settings to change the accesskey from ALT to META (you almost certainly don't have a META key, which means that accesskeys won't work for you but there won't be any conflict with the already assigned CTRL, SHIFT, etc. funcationality.

In your Firefox browser type the following into the address line:

about:config

This will bring up a whole list of very specific advanced options settings. Don't change anything unless you know what you're doing. Near the top of the body of the page, above all the options you'll see a line that says Filter:. Type this into that box:

ui.key.generalAccessKey

This will filter the settings options down to just the one you want. The value will be set to 18. Double click on the option and a dialog box will open for inputting a new value. Change 18 to 224 and submit.

The option will now be bold and will stay that way since it is no longer set to the build default (this will make it easier to find in the future if you want to change it back).

The change is already in effect and there is no save or anything. Just close the browser, reopen, come to LoT and your ALT-whatever should be working.

Again, if you were using accesskey navigation (ALT-5 takes you to the FAQ, did you know?) that will no longer work.

Presumably all of this will be fixed in a future incremental release and you can keep an eye on the official bug if you want.

[€uroMeinke]

Hmmmm - well that allows me to type € into my google tool bar - but it won't type directly into the quick reply box....

[mousepod]

No need for a fancy workaround. Just get a mac!
€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€UUUUUUUUUUURRRRRRRRRRRRROO OOOOOOOO!!!!

[Alex]

I tested with several different ALT- codes but not that one specifically.

┼Õ¡«Ä

And now your character:

€uroMeinke

Worked fine. Can you confirm you are using Firefox 1.5.0.1 (from the Help --> About menu option)?

[Alex]

The reason it works on a Mac is because Firefox, in it's Mac version attached accesskeys to CTRL rather than ALT.

[€uroMeinke]

1.5.0.1

And Yeah Mac's were best in keying funky characters

Perhaps I need to explain my new problem better - as I key into the reply window, if I go to type the euro symbol - it types it into my google tool bar search box.

[Alex]

Ah, funky. I don't have Google Toolbar on this computer. Let me look into it a bit more. At what point in the process does the cursor move into the Google toolbar? When you hit ALT or when you type one of the numbers? If so, which number?

While I do, try one other thing. Rather than 224, change the value to 0.

[€uroMeinke]

Happens when I hit the number (0 or 1 specifically - though I haven't tried any other digits yet)

[Alex]

Can you try other digits for me?

[€uroMeinke]

Yeah they all jump up to the google tool bar

[Alex]

Ok, poking around this is now a feature of Google Toolbar for Firefox. It uses pressing ALT (in combination with almost any other key) to grab focus for its search box.

I'm trying to find a way to disable that. I had never run into this because I use Firefox's native multi-engine search box, which includes Google.

[mousepod]

Hey Alex - what about using one of the google toolbar replacements, like googlebar? Would that work in the same way?

[Alex]

I know Googlebar has (or had when I used it long ago) the ability to define keyboard shortcuts which would presumably allow avoiding this conflict.