In theory, the Quick Find bar should not activate when pressing the apostrophe (‘) and slash (/) keys when you are in a text-box. However, many users have reported that the Quick Find bar does activate when pressing the apostrophe (‘) and slash (/) keys even if they are in a text-box. There is an extension called SearchHotKeys that will disable the apostrophe (‘) and slash (/) keys from invoking the quick find bar. You can still invoke via CTRL+F. This should work for Firefox 2 and 3*. Follow these steps below:
- Go to http://www.nic-nac-project.org/~kaosmos/index-en.html#searchkeys
- Right-click and select ‘Save Link As…’ on the link for your version of Firefox (1.5/2.0/3.0)
- Make a note where you are saving the extension (hint: save to desktop)
- Open the add-ons manager via Tools, Add-ons
- Locate the file you downloaded in Step 3 and drag into the Add-ons Manager window to install
- Restart Firefox
- Open a new tab and in the address bar type about:config
- Click I’ll Be Careful, I Promise on the ‘This Gun Is Loaded’ or ‘Void Your Warranty’ or any other warning
- In the Filter field type searchkeys.disable.all
- Double-click on entry to switch value to True
*Note with Firefox 3 you may not need to do steps 7-10 as it seems to automatically disable by default.
Update: 02/21/09 new link
[...] Disable Apostrophe Invoking QuickFind Bar [...]
Pingback by Screenshot Extension for Firefox | PC Tips - Cool Websites — Friday, September 5, 2008 @ 1:05 PM
This would be fine if I didn’t have any use for the QuickFind bar, but I do. How do I make it work on web pages but not inside rich text inputs?
Comment by Argh — Friday, October 24, 2008 @ 9:07 AM
[...] to add: I found a fix to the apostrophe opening the quickfind box here. Now I just need to get the arrow keys [...]
Pingback by W00t - first post! | The ramblings of an island-dwelling buffoon — Friday, November 7, 2008 @ 4:54 PM
[...] You can find the fix here, but I’ll give the summary. You got to install an Add-On (which is really just a cheat so you don’t have to do a bunch of hand coding yourself). If you’re lucky, that’s it. If you’re unlucky like me, then you also got to change a setting in the deep level config file. Plus make sure you undo a “fix” from another message board that, in fact, does the exact opposite of what you want to do (the correct setting is to uncheck the Search-For-Text box in the Tools>Options>Advanced>General settings). 1 hour and a few choice words later, I can now blog again. [...]
Pingback by Disabling Quick Find in Firefox « Desert of the Mind — Wednesday, January 14, 2009 @ 5:20 PM
Praise be! I was going to lose my mind if this didn’t fix it.. Thank you!
Comment by monkeybrain — Monday, February 2, 2009 @ 2:47 AM
It looks like they moved their site from a .DE to a .ORG – the extension is now at:
http://www.nic-nac-project.org/~kaosmos/index-en.html#searchkeys
Comment by Pat Gunn — Friday, February 20, 2009 @ 11:37 AM
Thank you so much! I was going nuts, particularly since I use Yahoo mail and I couldn’t use the ‘ without activating quick search.
Comment by Katherine — Wednesday, May 6, 2009 @ 9:08 AM
Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That was driving me nuts but this worked like a charm!!!
Comment by Matt Martin — Sunday, May 31, 2009 @ 9:36 AM
Just want to write to say thank you. Like everyone else who posted here, I was slowly being driven nuts but how formal my emails were sounding. Simple fix and worked flawlessly so far.
Thanks,
Comment by Lange Fischer — Tuesday, October 20, 2009 @ 6:38 PM
Sadly, even with this plug in, and the searchkeys.disable.all set to true, I still have this issue.
Comment by Guy — Thursday, October 22, 2009 @ 6:56 AM
Oh thank you so much! This has help greatly; indeed it has!
Comment by Midnight — Tuesday, October 27, 2009 @ 8:51 AM
I love you! Thank you so much. I too was going nuts and thinking about *sob* giving up Firefox before I found your solution!
Comment by Cascade Lily — Friday, November 13, 2009 @ 3:02 AM