Get miffed then get even
May 18th, 2007(Hello, long time no blog etc)
Something in Firefox has been bugging me and it’s finally bugged me just that one more time I needed to go and find out how to fix it. So I give you: How to fix Firefox so that the Backspace key doesn’t make you go back a page.
“But that’s a handy feature”, you say. Not it isn’t! It’s annoying when you’ve just filled out all the fields in a new database table in phpMyAdmin then accidentally press backspace in the wrong place and lose everything. This “feature” was only added in to make Firefox act like Internet Exploder and I’d rather it didn’t aim to act like software so bad it could only have been created when the devil himself farted.
The solution? Well those smart Mozilla people have, of course, made the backspace key action user configurable. You can pretty much configure what toast topping Firefox has for breakfast. So, to fix it, head to about:config and then find browser.backspace_action and change it’s value to 2 (or any other number above 1) and your backspace key will now do what it’s supposed to when it’s not in a text field: bugger all. That’s what it defaults to under Linux now anyway. Much better.
So, is there another keyboard shortcut to go back a page? But of course! Simply press [Alt] and [Left Arrow] to go back. This is even better because the Alt and arrow keys are at the bottom of the keyboard so when you’re slumped back in the chair you don’t have to lean all that way over to press backspace. Everyone’s a winner!
