Clicking on Firefox address bar doesn't select all text

[Ivy]

Package: Firefox

Summary: When the user wishes to browse to a new website, they click the address bar.
They don't want to have to hit Ctrl+A, or drag across the text in the address bar, in order to replace the current URL with the one they wish to visit.

Solution: Make it so when you click the address bar, all the text is selected, ready for replacing.
This is easy to achieve in about:config
browser.urlbar.clickSelectsAll set to True

[Rflint (rflint)]

WFM Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8) Gecko/20051111 Firefox/1.5

Single-click selects all and subsequent clicks place the cursor at the click location in the build specified above.

[Lukas Sabota (punkrockguy318)]

Ryan Flint, you are right. The Linux GTK2 version does not exhibit this behavior.

[Adam Guthrie (ispiked)]

This is done by default on Linux, and there is a pref. to control this called browser.urlbar.clickSelectsAll.

[Lukas Sabota (punkrockguy318)]

(In reply to comment #3)
> This is done by default on Linux, and there is a pref. to control this called
> browser.urlbar.clickSelectsAll.
>

Confirmed: This is not the default behavior in Linux. I just downloaded the stock Linux 686 tarbell and created a new profile, the default behavior is single-click to insert carret.

GTK version 2.8.9

[Lukas Sabota (punkrockguy318)]

Close this bug, the single-click behavior should stay consistant with GTK by default.

[Ivy (blazemore-deactivatedaccount)]

Package: Firefox

Summary: When the user wishes to browse to a new website, they click the address bar.
They don't want to have to hit Ctrl+A, or drag across the text in the address bar, in order to replace the current URL with the one they wish to visit.

Solution: Make it so when you click the address bar, all the text is selected, ready for replacing.
This is easy to achieve in about:config
browser.urlbar.clickSelectsAll set to True

[David Siegel (djsiegel-deactivatedaccount)]

This is not obviously the right change to make. This is not how other text fields behave throughout the system.

[Georg H. (spam-adresse-gmx-deactivatedaccount)]

But the adress bar is not any text field somewhere in the system. It would make browsing simpler and quicker.

[Ivy (blazemore-deactivatedaccount)]

Precisely. It's about usability. Nobody expects the Firefox address bar to be the same as any other text field. They want it to be easier to browse the Internet. This change is the first thing I do on a new installation.

[oLdsk3wL (helmut)]

This was one of the first things I noticed when I switched to Ubuntu and it annoys me ever since. Consistent behavior is very important, however, I disagree that the FF address bar should behave like a simple text fields because it isn't a simple text field. It is also the default behavior for most (important) browsers if I recall correctly, so changing it, is being consistent. And, it is the easiest fix ever!

[Ivy (blazemore-deactivatedaccount)]

It' the default behaviour in WIndows. Migrating users will expect it.

2009/6/19 oLdsk3wL <email address hidden>:
> This was one of the first things I noticed when I switched to Ubuntu and
> it annoys me ever since. Consistent behavior is very important, however,
> I disagree that the FF address bar should behave like a simple text
> fields because it isn't a simple text field. It is also the default
> behavior for most (important) browsers if I recall correctly, so
> changing it, is being consistent. And, it is the easiest fix ever!
>
> --
> Clicking on Firefox address bar doesn't select all text
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/387822
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>
> Status in One Hundred Paper Cuts: New
>
> Bug description:
> Package: Firefox
>
> Summary: When the user wishes to browse to a new website, they click the address bar.
> They don't want to have to hit Ctrl+A, or drag across the text in the address bar, in order to replace the current URL with the one they wish to visit.
>
> Solution: Make it so when you click the address bar, all the text is selected, ready for replacing.
> This is easy to achieve in about:config
> browser.urlbar.clickSelectsAll set to True
>

--
Please avoid sending me Word or PowerPoint attachments.
See http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html

[Paul Hoell (hoellp)]

Yes, and everyone using Linux for some time would go mad if you change it now. The actual behaviour is much more intuitive and I go crazy everytime I sit at a windowsbox and have to copy/delete part of a URL.
In Linux every browser I know (Konqueror, Rekonq, Arora, Firefox, Epiphany, and the ones I tested but forgot) has the behaviour critizised here.
PLEASE leave that be and learn to do a d-click or press F6 or Ctrl+L which all select the whole line.

[Tralalalala (tralalalala)]

Well said, Paul Hoell. I completely agree. Do members of Launchpad only think about Windows users? I read about making Linux like Windows everywhere. Change this behavior to Windows behavior and change that to behave like it does in Windows. Do members of Launchpad only think about Windows users? How about those who already use Linux? Why do we have to learn something new? Why do we have to learn the Windows way of doing things? Those Windows users are the ones making a switch and those are the ones who have to learn something new. They have to learn our way of doing thing, not the other way around.

[Micah Gersten (micahg)]

As per upstream, we want to be consistent on Linux with the GTK behavior. There are numerous ways to select the entire address bar including a setting in Firefox that makes it the default. We will not change the default behavior in the app for Ubuntu users as a whole. The goal is not to make Ubuntu into Windows on Linux, but rather into a highly functional alternative.
Thank you and please feel free to report any other issues or suggestions you may have.

[Wouter Stomp (wouterstomp-deactivatedaccount)]

The functionality of the address bar for most people is only to go to a completely different website, not to edit or copy parts of url's. This isn't about making Ubuntu into Windows, but about making firefox easier to use.

[Micah Gersten (micahg)]

In the Firefox Browsing Basics training manual it explains how to
accomplish this:
http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Browsing+basics#Navigating_to_another_page

It's the tip listed under this section.

We're not going to make Firefox inconsistent with the rest of Linux
Browsers.

Also, you're making a big assumption there about what people do with
their browser. If you want to have a discussion, please start one on
http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com and see the type of feedback you get. This
is not the place to discuss this.

Wouter Stomp wrote:
> The functionality of the address bar for most people is only to go to a
> completely different website, not to edit or copy parts of url's. This
> isn't about making Ubuntu into Windows, but about making firefox easier
> to use.
>
>

[Vish (vish)]

Status invalid: As the change has been rejected in firefox