1981821 - The location of the Text Cursor Indicator is not correctly positioned in blank text boxes of PDF Forms

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 1981794

(Core :: Disability Access APIs, defect)

Description

[Daniel Bodea [:danibodea]]

Note

• When the Text Cursor Indicator is enabled in Windows and UIA is enabled in Firefox and the user focuses certain blank text boxes inside PDF Forms, the TCI is not displayed in the same position as the actual text cursor.
• This is a more unpleasant situation than the one inside the browser's text boxes (bug 1981794) because a lot of these text boxes show the TCI well outside of the text box UI or rather away from the actual text cursor.
• Another issue can be observed in PDF Forms when the user has typed inside the box and isnavigating between characters; the TCI might be displayed away from the actual text cursor. (This also occurs with UIA disabled)
• An important mention is that when the user starts typing, the TCI is correctly positioned (in some cases, an improvement compared to UIA disabled).
• This is still not a severe issue, but quite unpleasant and confusing, as the TCI is sometimes far away from the actual text cursor. Medium Severity (S3).

Found in

• Nightly v143.0a1

Affected versions

• Nightly v143.0a1

Tested platforms

• Affected platforms: Windows 10, Windows 11
• Unaffected platforms: Mac, Linux

Steps to reproduce

1. Enable Text Cursor Indicator in Windows
2. Enable UIA in Firefox (default in Nightly 143)
3. Load PDF Forms:
   https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f1040.pdf
   http://foersom.com/net/HowTo/data/OoPdfFormExample.pdf
4. Focus blank text boxes

Expected result

• The Text Cursor Indicator is displayed in the same position as the actual Text Cursor

Actual result

• The Text Cursor Indicator is displayed in a different position than the actual Text Cursor.
• The Text Cursor Indicator is displayed quite chaotically between text boxes; sometimes to the right, other times to the left of the actual text cursor.

Regression range

• This is not a regression, but an issue since the implementation of the UI Automation feature, as the TCI was not displayed in blank text boxes before.

Additional notes

• In some cases, the issue can also be observed when typing or when using arrows to navigate between written characters.

Comment 1

[Morgan Reschenberg [:morgan]]

This appears fixed in 2025-09-04's nightly, same as bug 1981794.
FWIW the text cursor can behave in ways a user might interpret as "wrong" based on form styling. In a few of the IRS form fields, the text cursor automatically moves to the centre of the field when focused because some inputs have centre-aligned text, while the majority are left-aligned. The text cursor follows text alignment rules.