350145 - pushing tab key advances cursor past drop down menus in forms

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 437296

(Firefox :: Keyboard Navigation, defect)

Description

[crazyninjamaster]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X Mach-O; en-US; rv:1.8.0.6) Gecko/20060728 Firefox/1.5.0.6
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X Mach-O; en-US; rv:1.8.0.6) Gecko/20060728 Firefox/1.5.0.6

In every website that is visited with a form to fill out (e.g. filling out name and address in boxes) that has a drop down menu for anything the cursor skips past the drop down menu and places it in the next box that you are able to type in or click on. In the 1.0 versions it would highlight the drop down menu and then you could use the arrows to go up and down or just type the letters and it would take you through the options in the drop down menu box. Now you must click on the box and select.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1.Go to any website that has a form to fill out that has a drop down menu for something like the state you live in.
2.When filling out the form, press the tab key to advance to the next box


Actual Results:  
The cursor will skip all drop down boxes and advance to the next box that is available to be typed in or clicked on. You are required to click on the box with the mouse in order to highlight it.

Expected Results:  
The cursor should have advanced to the drop down box and highlighted it. It should then be possible to scroll through the options with the arrow keys or by pushing letters or numbers on the keyboard without having to click on the box.

It worked fine in 1.0 versions and when I have used it on Windows computers.

Comment 1

[Jean-Michel Reghem]

WFM with Firefox 2.0b2 ... (2006082403) on windows XP SP2
WFM with Firefox 1.5.0.6 on windows XP SP2
WFM Firefox 1.5.0.1 on Mac OS X 10.4 (ppc)
WFM Firefox 1.5.0.6 on Mac OS X 10.4 (ppc)

Could you send a link where you got the error?

Comment 2

[crazyninjamaster]

you can go here.
http://www.worklifereward.com/secure/enroll.asp?S=01&choice=Y
and push the tab key on hte keyboard and it will skip all the drop down boxes. membership type, state/province, and country on this form. it happens on every form i have had to fill out though.
this one also...
https://scgi.half.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?RegisterEnterInfo&usage=559&ru=
it skips the state/province box and country or region box.

Comment 3

[Jean-Michel Reghem]

WFM with 1.5.0.6 mac OS X.4 ppc for http://www.worklifereward.com/secure/enroll.asp?S=01&choice=Y

All drop down boxes are not skipped with the tab key ...
What extensions have you?

Comment 4

[crazyninjamaster]

i have now installed the version 2 beta 1. and it still does skips those boxes for me. I have these extensions installed...
DOM Inspector 1.8.1b1
Gmail Notifier 0.5.5.2
Google Toolbar for Firefox 2.1.20060807M
Talkback 2.0b1

Comment 5

[Jean-Michel Reghem]

try to disable Google toolbar, restart and see if it works beter ...
Are you using voiceover or some other accessibility tools?

Comment 6

[crazyninjamaster]

i disabled the google toolbar and tried it and it still skips those boxes. i then enabled it again and it skipped them again. should i try disabling all of the addons? i don't see why it works on other people's and not mine. 

Comment 7

[humongouspersonwithbighair]

i have the same problem.  when i hit tab the cursor skips over drop downs.  i'm using the firefox 2.0 rc2 on my intel macbookpro with osx 10.4.8 

Comment 8

[Jay Williams]

I've had the same problem with FireFox ever since I got my Mac.  I use Adblock with Filterset and FasterFox, and I still can't tab to drop-down menus.  As the original submitter said, you should be able to hit tab in a form and advance to the drop down menu, instead of having to click separately to the menu itself.

Comment 9

[Josh Powell]

Same problem on Macbook Pro (OS X 10.4.8) running Firefox 2.0.0.1.  (When tabbing through any webform, combo boxes are skipped over.  I must select them with the mouse, at which point I can type a few characters to select the option I want.)  

My extensions:
del.icio.us Bookmarks 1.3.73
DOM inspector 1.8.1.1
Google Notebook 1.0.0.11
NoScript 1.1.4.5.061221 (quite the version number)
PwdHash 1.1
Talkback 2.0.0.1

Comment 10

[Donald Bell]

I have had the same problem since Firefox 1.5.x and I am still having it with Firefox 2.0.0.1

My extensions are:
DOM Inspector 1.8.1.1
Google Toolbar for Firefox 2.1.20060807M
Talkback 2.0.0.1

Comment 11

[Rahul Abrol]

this is just the *default* tabfocus behavior; change it to whatever you want in about:config.

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Accessibility.tabfocus

this bug should be closed invalid.

Comment 12

[Donald Bell]

Wow - I now agree this isn't a bug with Firefox, but a poor choice by Apple when they established OS X's default value for the Keyboard navigation settings.  This URL explained it to me.

http://www.xvsxp.com/misc/keyboard.php

I personally found the "Keyboard Navigation" section of the page interesting.  Once I updated my Mac OS X settings by going to System Preferences > Keyboard & Mouse > Keyboard Shortcuts > Enable "All controls"

The expected tabbing behavior began to work on my system.

Comment 13

[Rahul Abrol]

(In reply to comment #11)
> this bug should be closed invalid.

or rather, duplicate of bug 187508.

Comment 14

[Cliff]

Thanks to comment#11 and Comment#12 for helping me find out the problem here. I appreciate the help.

Comment 15

[Alex Faaborg [:faaborg] (Firefox UX)]

Bug 437296 has been filed to change the default behavior.