Hotkeys? Yes, please!

[fxpm-nicole]

Hello Connect Community!
This is Nicole from the Fx Essentials Product Management Team. I am in the process of exploring some potential changes around hotkeys/keyboard shortcuts, as this is something that is being asked for quite a bit in the Connect Community.

I have a few questions I'd like to put out there for everyone.
1. What are your top five most used hotkeys/keyboard shortcuts?
2. What shortcuts do you wish Firefox offered?
3. Is there a non-Firefox browser you prefer because of how they 'do' hotkeys/shortcuts?

As always, thank you in advance for contributing to this discussion! Looking forward to hearing all of your answers!

Thanks!
Nicole

[Rebel_Bell]

I personally don't really want to have fixed added shortcuts but the ability to edit shortcuts. That way, one I would never use becomes useful or alternatively I can swap around a shortcut that I rarely use with one that makes more sense in terms of what key it is.

Regarding "is there another browser?" I use Chrome as an alternative, but not because of hotkey. The reason is that I've found Firefox to have become increasingly unstable in the latest Ubuntu, freezing at random times on random sites with no apparent pattern and on different machines. However, I much prefer Firefox as a long term user for their bookmarks management and layout, but to be honest I'd leave it behind due to it's unreliability if I could make Chrome match that. It's turning out to be far more reliable. Apologies for going off topic, but you did ask that question and I'm glad someone is at last looking at hotkeys as a user edit choice.

[fxpm-nicole]

Thanks for your input! I am hearing from a LOT of users that custom hotkeys is the way to go. It's pretty high on the list of ways to approach this!

[Rebel_Bell]

As I'm watching these answers unfold, I think they can easily be categorised as follows:

1) A request for the ability for a user to remap the keys used

2) Those requesting particular current hotkeys for certain functions to be changed to more standard or alternative keystrokes

3) Those asking for functions not currently implemented on a variety of hotkeys

It seems that implementing (1) also then solves (2) without you necessarily changing any current hotkeys. The advantage of leaving the current hotkeys as they are are that there will be lots of Firefox only users who use them as is or prefer them and you'll just get a different lot of users complaining- plus you won't need to remap your own software! And the "we're happy" users won't be replying to this thread as it's not something they are bothered about, but they will complain when their favourite hotkeys change or stop working.

Regarding (3), implementing (1) as a priority then leaves you able to look at the requested functions rather than the particular chosen keys and then implementing them on what free keys there are. People can then remap to their preferred combinations, based on an assumption that I'm making that people are possibly asking for the same function but giving different hotkeys depending on where they are coming from.

Finally, for those who might complain along the lines of "I've got 500 machines to change..." or so people can backup or pass over the user selected keystrokes to other users, make sure they can be saved/reloaded in a file which carries through on with any Firefox updates. This might be specially of use to game players who might want to have different optimised keystrokes for different games or want to pass around a custom keyboard layout to fellow players.

Finally, in the words of the great and late Stan Lee- 'Nuff said!

[alefith]

purr-fect.

Seems the best way to do things to me too. adding functions to specific hotkeys can then be done via extension.

I don't even think integrating a script interpreter launcher as an option for hotkey is necessary.

[johnerino]

Hello,

I am glad that this is still being discussed and I second this. I also would like the feature of customizable hotkeys. I prefer Firefox, but since I am more familiar with the chromium browsers, I find it to be difficult to switch to Firefox because of muscle memory. Being able to remap the keys to a my preference and then export this configuration to my other devices would make me very happy.

[jgr]

Great points. Especially thanks for the reminder that those shortcut settings will need to be ready for export/import.

In most cases I need your point 1 (and this since years, by the way). Remapping shortcuts, for me it's a must, because of

• some shortcuts being overlapping with web applications (typically ctrl-i and ctrl-b for italic and bold), and
• others overlapping with my system-wide settings (shortcuts for switching between virtual desktops f.e.).
• Last not least I very often switch between several operating systems (thanks to virtuality), and each os comes with own shortcuts, some of them overlapping with Firefox' defaults as well…

[rezaamiriarch]

thank you
It was useful information
New magazine

[irrationality]

I commonly use the following hotkeys:

• ⌘W to close a tab
• ⌘N to open a new window
• ⌘T to open a new tab
• ⌘⇧T to re-open a recently closed tab
• Mistakenly use ⌘⇧W to try to re-open a recently closed window
• ⌘⌥I to open developer tools/inspector
• ⌘P to open print dialogue
• ⌘C, ⌘V, ⌘X for copy/paste/cut
  

My problem with hotkeys is that I accidentally "bump" the shortcut to navigate to a blank tab and lose work. On the keyboard that I use (Kinesis Advantage2), this is a simple finger slip that's very easy to make. I used to override this keyboard shortcut with an extension (Shortkeys), but now that does not work.

Other users have different motivations for customization, detailed in the Customizable hotkeys topic.

[fxpm-nicole]

Yeah, that is a very cool looking keyboard and I can see how it might be easy to bump hotkeys while using it! You mention others and their motivation for customization, but you didn't mention anything about you? Would customizable hotkeys be something you'd use? Thank you!

[shodanx]

Hello !

I have rough note I have been keeping to document all my frustration related to setting keybinds in a game.

I presume most of these would apply to a firefox keybind editor windows

Please forgive its rough state

Also remember that mouse and joysticks are used to control applications

I would also like to trigger custom scripts such as bookmarklets with keybind

Now the list

Always allow to rebind a key even if already set
always allow unbind all keys
allow to change HOLD vs TOGGLE
ability to bind different keys for hold or toggle of an action
always have action to raise/lower image brightness

if key already bind, option to go to conflicting binding
if key already bin, allow to override
always allow to set a key to multiple actions
always allow one action to have many keys
always allow actions to bound to keyboard / mouse and/or controller

in game non-mandatory keybinding review and tutorial and setting wizard for all actions

in game tool tip shows keys currently bound for the needed tutorial action

button to CLEAR ALL BINDING

DO NOT prevent player from rebinding a key to a key that is already use. Either allow one key to be bound to multiple actions, or unbind the key from the other action. And don't swap the keybinding of the two actions

UNRELATED
always allow console easily
always allow to change the RENDER resolution

------
delete all the keybind
not too easy to accidentaly reset default keybind
not too easy to not save your keybind changes
can you unbind a key
what happens when you try to bind an already bound key
how hard is it to find keybind duplicates, is it even alloweed
can you bind a second key
can you bind mouse or joystick to anything
is the keybind layout confusing
can you easily change between toggle and hold style of keybind
can you have more than one bind per action
how annoying is it to set a keybind

explanation of keybinding when you mouseover

helicopter/on foot/vehicule conflict should not be stupid

Show keybind keyboard layout on screen

[fxpm-nicole]

These are great notes, thank you so much! It's interesting that you mentioned gaming - that's one of the things I'm currently studying as far as how they handle hotkeys/customization. Do you do a lot of gaming with keyboards? Or are you mostly controllers and joysticks?

[shodan]

I play a lot of co-op gaming with friends and every time we try a new game, keybinding are almost always an issue. We talk about it while we do it and these are the observation we came up with. Games are very inconsistent in they keybinding schemes. For me I always put moving forward on the right mouse button and many games just don't expect that.

I largely do keyboard and mouse, except racing with a steering wheel and flight based with a HOTAS (joystick and throttle)

One game of particular note is Elite Dangerous, we call it "Elite Dangerous Keybinding simulator" while having very thorough controls, is extremely tedious to do and is the source of many elements on the list.

Ah that reminds me I need to add "keybinding dialog needs a search engine that filter outs actions"

One game that surprised us recently is Dying Light 2 that had a very nicely crafted system and introduced a surprising innovation. Almost every action, can be set to press, hold, toggle for the key trigger. That was great, often the developper decides the key mode and it cannot be changed. Plus this also allow to stack multiple actions on a single button. Like R for reload but long-press R for changing ammo type.

[chimrichalds]

1. The shortcut I most frequently attempt to use is New Private Window, but since Firefox uses a different shortcut than Chrome (which I have to use for work), what I actually use most frequently is apparently "Reopen last closed window" (a shortcut I have never and will never intentionally use.) This happens constantly and is an enormous dissatisfier.
2. More than anything else, Firefox should have built-in functionality to modify or disable all hotkeys/keyboard shortcuts. Shortcuts should have their own heading in Settings, and not require any kind of  extension. I am not aware of any shortcuts that I would want added.
3. Brave, Vivaldi, and Opera all have this functionality as previously described. Overall I prefer Firefox but if I switch away from it as my primary browser this lack of functionality will be why.

[shodanx]

I agree ctrl+shift+t should not be reopen last closed tab

It should be ctrl+shift+w, as in reverse of close tab which is ctrl+w

This would free ctrl+shift+t to open new private tab

I would also make HOLD+ctrl+shift+t to a new tab selector, that lets you choose, normal tab, private tab, new firefox instance(+profile switcher) and new selected multi account container (+vpn switcher)

[shodanx]

There are two conversations to be had here.

What should be the default keybinds

And

How to make a keybind editor

[fxpm-nicole]

Thank you for your response! Just our of curiosity, are there any other hotkeys that are different between Firefox and Chrome that are a big pain in the butt like the one you just described? Another thing you brought up - settings. Anything we end up doing with hotkeys should definitely be more prominent - I agree, it's hard to find them as is. We will be working very closely with the settings team to ensure we can make hotkeys more accessible in whatever form they land.

[slipsec]

ctrl + shift + a   : to search tabs.  I don't much mind re-learning new private browser, it's simple enough but the shortcut to search tabs is the most clunky bit of my FF migration.  Ctrl+L to focus, then %, then space.  It's not even a hotkey, it's a sequence.

[alefith]

about the hotkeys I use the most, from the top of my head:
 - F5

 - previous/next page

- Ctrl+tab

- ctrl +N /ctrl + W

- pgup/pgdn, ctrl+pgup/ctrl+pgdwn

- tab and shift tab for forms.

- ctrl + f

Someone probably gave you this, but, just in case, you should check this thread:

https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/ideas/customizable-hotkeys/idi-p/4979

[fxpm-nicole]

Yes! I am very aware of that post! 🙂
My main purpose for starting this discussion was to double check a few things I had a hunch on. I'm a research nerd at heart, I want to cover all my bases before I commit to a solution! 🙂

[arun]

One thing that I miss from Safari is the ability to click on the close button on a browser tab along with the "option" key. When I do that on Safari, all other tabs besides the tab that I clicked on will be closed. I would love to see that ability on Firefox.

[fxpm-nicole]

Noted! Thank you for the suggestion! It's on my list!

[wutongtaiwan]

I want to customize keyboard shortcut functionality. The user sets a key combination to perform some operations. If the key combination is repeated, a prompt will pop up.

[ClaireStarsword]

I believe the most important thing would be giving an option for users to edit hotkeys as they want, feels like a basic feature that is missing to be honest, as the default hotkeys might conflict with other sites or apps, or the user simply has different preferences or needs depending on their keyboard and/or disability. Besides, it's apparently a feature that has been requested for years: https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/ideas/customizable-hotkeys/idi-p/4979

[cutecoder]

I REALLY wish you could move around on webpages with hjkl, that would be a HUGE life improvement.

[jvalcher]

Check out the Vimium extension.

[jvalcher]

The main reason I use Chrome instead of Firefox is because of its ability to change key bindings, in my case via the Keyboard Shortcuts extension which provides access to all available shortcuts for the browser and my extensions.

The most common shortcuts I personally use in Chrome are:

• Open new tab to right
• Close current tab
• Navigate to next/previous tab
• Move current tab's position right/left
• Refresh/Hard refresh page
• Previous/next page history
• Jump to navigation bar for google searches and URL entry (Alt + d)
• Tab
• Find

[dannycolin]

Firefox has a similar feature to customize extension shortcuts (See: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/manage-extension-shortcuts-firefox). The only missing piece is to customize the browser ones (e.g. Ctrl+t to open new tab)

.

[shodan]

This issue is a major accessibility concern that will have positive "curb cut" effect on all users not just impaired persons

As such it should be possible to get a accessibility grant for this

However if you want to remap firefox keybindings today

You can use the Microsoft powertoys

https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys

The "Keyboard manager component"

Here for example I remap reopen previous tab from CTRL+SHIFT+T to CTRL+SHIFT+W

[leotaku]

Some really great suggestions have already been made here! I particularly agree with the following:

• I don't really care about "better" default shortcuts, what I really want is an easy way to configure my own
• The fact that shortcuts are currently not configurable is a major accessibility issue

I would also like to add that it should be possible to configure shortcuts WITHOUT any prefixes. Way too many applications only allow users to configure hotkeys that are prefixed with `Ctrl`, `Alt`, etc. These can be hard to perform for people with limited hand mobility. We should instead also be able to configure shortcuts like `x` to close a tab.

[Rebel_Bell]

This is a great point about being able to use single keys. One of the reasons some shortcuts work well is because I can use one hand for shortcuts whilst not removing my other from the mouse. The converse of this is also true, especially those that use three keys. which slow me down and are more prone to errors Given that in most cases I personally only actually use a few shortcuts, I can easily assign them to one hand use or obvious keys. Tied to this is also using consistent keys for certain actions, something that is a pain across different software where they choose different keys.

[nobelphoenix]

I'd like to get a custom hotkey option like everyone else in this thread but if we can't get that, at least please use a unified set of hotkeys with other major browsers, after using opera or chrome for a long period of time pressing CTRL+SHIFT+N to open a new private window in firefox and just failing to do so is really annoying. All the chromium based browsers use that same hotkey (vivaldi, brave, etc.) so it's really confusing why firefox decided to single itself out of it.

Hotkeys are there to be used subconsciously, I don't deliberately press each individual key hundreds of times throughout the day. After pressing CTRL+SHIFT+N whenever I need to open a private page in other browsers continuously, I've reinforced that circuitry so much so that I just can't alter it when I'm using firefox. I also tend to use private windows whenever I sidetrack from my work to search a relevant stuff, to watch a tutorial, etc. If I don't want to add onto the pile of innumerable open tabs as I'm working on a project, I simply open a private tab, check something and won't muddle my history or google/yt algorithm with something minor.

To answer your question directly so that you'd get some more relevant data:

1. Right now I'm using brave CTRL+T (open a new tab and jump into it), CTRL+W (close the current tab), CTRL+TAB (move to the tab on the right), CTRL+SHIFT+TAB (move to the tab on the left), CTRL+SHIFT+N (open a new private window).

2. CTRL+SHIFT+N (open a new private window)

3. I'd prefer any other browser to firefox just because they all use the same hotkey for opening a new private  window. I'm currently using Brave due to non-hotkey related reasons.

[Jon]

This is great feedback, thank you!

[shodanx]

I need a keybind, to center the  current tab in the tab bar

[alefith]

if we're on the topic of suggestions, it could be a good idea to have a way of saving, sharing and even switching, hotkeys scheme. I was thinking about a file for that purpose, but it can be something else.

On top of that, it would be great to be able to share the hotkeys from device to device (like the passwords), in case of new firefox installation.

The hotkeys schemes could be shared along themes, making it a full user experience sharing.

[lc0]

Great idea

[alefith]

is it a place to suggest new function to associate with hotkeys too?

I'd love to have a hotkey to regex search, or to open the image hovered in a new tab. But it's probably not the topic here, right?

[Synchro]

I use the following ones (at least I recalled them quick):

• Ctrl+T
• Ctrl+Shift+T
• Ctrl+Tab
• Ctrl+F
• Ctrl+[+] and Ctrl+[-]

I also use Page Up, Page Down, Home, End, ↓, ↑ for navigation in page when there is a lot to read.

I am not sure I need any new hotkeys, but who knows, maybe I just can't imagine now how I would use them. I believe I miss more mouse gestures that uset to be in old Opera 12.

[lostmsu]

- Ctrl+T and Ctrl+W to open and close Tabs

- Ctrl+H for History

- Ctrl+F for Find

- Ctrl+ __D__ to Duplicate current tab (IT ACTUALLY DOES NOT WORK - it is a muscle memory from the time FF had customizable shortcuts. Now I get the "Add bookmark" window, get annoyed, remove the bookmark that I don't need, and then use the mouse to click the Duplicate tab menu that I actually need) - please see the thread

- Ctrl+Tab/Ctrl+Shift+Tab to swtich between tabs

- Ctrl+[+]/[-]

- F12 - for I am a dev

- F5 - for I am but a man

[okay_okay]

Thanks for starting this conversation. Not sure if this has already been said but when moving over from a different browser it would be nice to have option of using same hotkeys from previous browser that we're familiar with.