Bill Spikowski wrote:
mozilla-lists.mbou...@spamgourmet.com wrote:
Bill Spikowski wrote:
Does anyone else have the problem where they're typing something into a
web form in SM and suddenly the "find box" pops open and the cursor is
entering my text there, instead of in the web form?
This has been happening quite a lot and I kept assuming I was hitting
some odd key combination that replicated 'control F' -- but today I've
been paying attention and it's been happening randomly, even when I'm
sure I'm not hitting any odd key combination, or any specific key.
If this is happening only to me, I'd better investigate my keyboard!
A couple of thoughts...
1. Is this a general problem, or does it only happen one or a few
particular sites? It may be that the page is still loading when you
start typing, and when it finishes loading, it runs some Javascript
which affects the keyboard focus, so you're no longer typing in the
text box.
For me, it's a general problem, on multiple computers, different OSs,
and various websites, but only when I'm using the SM browser. It might
not happen for a few days, then five times in one day. It's not
something that occurs only when a page has been freshly loaded.
2. Are you using a laptop with a touchpad? It's possible that your
wrist taps the touchpad, causing a mouse click outside of the box
you're filling in, thus removing keyboard focus from it. If possible,
try disabling the tap-to-click feature or adjusting its sensitivity
(in Windows, there's probably an option somewhere under Control Panel
> Mouse, though the exact place varies with manufacturer and Windows
version).
It does happen on my laptop, in which case I always assume I brushed the
touchpad! When it happens on desktop machines, first I assumed that the
mouse must have moved slightly as I was typing -- but I've eliminated
that possibility, so it's something else
OK. Sounds like you've ruled out both those possibilities.
In both cases, having positioned the keyboard focus outside of the
text box, continuing to type activates the "find as you type" feature
(as others have mentioned). It can be disabled at Edit > Preferences >
Advanced > Find As You Type, but you'll probably find that the
keyboard focus still keeps leaving the text box, and just doesn't
activate the find box having done so.
I'm not sure what you mean. If I'm in the middle of typing in a text
box, how could the keyboard focus be somewhere else? (other than
possibilities you mention above).
I was just clarifying how the things I was suggesting could cause the
symptoms you describe. Several other things might cause it (faulty
keyboard or mouse, device driver, malware...) but I'd expect them to
affect other applications as well, and not affect every system you use.
Another thought is a misbehaving extension in SeaMonkey.
- Disable all extensions (under Tools > Add-ons manager), and check if
the problem occurs.
- If it doesn't it's caused by one of those extensions, so now to figure
out which... Start enabling them one at a time, seeing if the problem
occurs each time before enabling the next. When it starts happening
again, the last extension you enabled is the suspect.
Unless you can find a page which reliably reproduces the problem, it
might be quite time consuming to track down - it sounds like you'd have
to try a configuration for several days to be sure whether the problem
is fixed or just not happening today!
There are some other troubleshooting suggestions at:
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Standard_diagnostic_-_Firefox
Although aimed at Firefox, most of these apply to SeaMonkey as well.
Are you saying that would be the
symptom of another problem, if Find As You Type has been disabled?
Disabling Find As You Type might give more information as to what's
going on.
- If there's a bug in that feature, disabling it might fix the problem.
- If there nothing wrong with that feature, but something else (e.g.
things I've mentioned above) is causing the keyboard focus to leave the
text box, that problem would still happen, but when it does text would
just stop going into the text box without activating the find box.
- If an extension is causing the problem, either of the above could
happen, depending exactly how the extension is causing it.
If the focus somehow moves outside the text box, but not to the find
box, what would happen? Does that mean my typing would suddenly have no
effect until I put the cursor back in the a box and continued typing?
I'll watch for that behavior.
Yes. If Find As You Type is disabled, and focus is outside of form
controls, most typing would stop having any effect until the cursor is
back in the text box. Some keystrokes might have other effects (e.g.
space might scroll the window down a page) depending on other shortcuts
/ settings, but the main points are that text would stop going into the
text box, but the find box would not be activated.
Even with "find automatically when typing..." disabled, "/" and "'"
(single quote) will still activate find as you type features - it's just
that you have to hit one of those specific keys to activate it, not just
any key.
I've disabled Edit > Preferences > Advanced > Find As You Type. So far,
I don't seem to have lost any functionality, and the find box hasn't
suddenly opened, nor has the focus jumped out of a box, but it's only
been one day.
If you don't miss Find As You Type, and disabling it fixes things,
that's good for you. But maybe not so good for others if there is a bug
(whether in SeaMonkey or an extension) and they'd like to use Find As
You Type. Please do let us know how you get on.
If you have the time to try tracking it down to an extension (or
eliminate extensions as a possible cause) that would be great.
Thanks for the observations, I'd love to get this minor annoyance sorted
out.
No problem. Hopefully some of them help ;o) These minor annoyances can
become big annoyances when they keep happening!
Mark.
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