A small change to improve browsers for keyboard navigation

#1

Post by h43z » Mon, Aug 25, 2025, 1:40 PM UTC

A small change to improve browsers for keyboard navigation
b.43z.one

Re: A small change to improve browsers for keyboard navigation

#2

Post by massimoto » Mon, Aug 25, 2025, 2:01 PM UTC

Control + Enter worked on the first three test elements for me on Chrome + Mac. I got alerts and redirects.

Re: A small change to improve browsers for keyboard navigation

#3

Post by jiehong » Mon, Aug 25, 2025, 2:07 PM UTC

Good idea!

I think browsers should also come with headingMaps [0] and landmarks by default for all websites. With a keyboard shortcut to access them, navigation would be great (assuming websites have a semantic DOM).

[0]: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/headingsmap

Re: A small change to improve browsers for keyboard navigation

#4

Post by dannyfritz07 » Mon, Aug 25, 2025, 2:08 PM UTC

I'm using Firefox and the links were activated when I hit enter in the quick-find prompt. Not sure why the behavior is different than what the author is seeing.

Re: A small change to improve browsers for keyboard navigation

#5

Post by CodeMage » Mon, Aug 25, 2025, 2:12 PM UTC

When you press Enter in the search box, Firefox finds the next occurrence of your search pattern. An easy fix that doesn't require an extension is to press Esc first, which closes the search box, and then you can press Enter.

Re: A small change to improve browsers for keyboard navigation

#6

Post by h43z » Mon, Aug 25, 2025, 2:27 PM UTC

dannyfritz07 wrote: post #4

I'm using Firefox and the links were activated when I hit enter in the quick-find prompt. Not sure why the behavior is different than what the author is seeing.

The links yes, but what about buttons or other html elements?

Re: A small change to improve browsers for keyboard navigation

#7

Post by vunderba » Mon, Aug 25, 2025, 2:28 PM UTC

On a related note, highly recommend the Firefox Vimium extension if you're a "keyboard warrior".

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/vimium-ff

Re: A small change to improve browsers for keyboard navigation

#8

Post by h43z » Mon, Aug 25, 2025, 2:31 PM UTC

CodeMage wrote: post #5

When you press Enter in the search box, Firefox finds the next occurrence of your search pattern. An easy fix that doesn't require an extension is to press Esc first, which closes the search box, and then you can press Enter.

This works on links and buttons in chrome. In firefox just on links. In both it doesn't work for other html elements.

Re: A small change to improve browsers for keyboard navigation

#9

Post by remark5396 » Mon, Aug 25, 2025, 2:32 PM UTC

It may be well-known, but I’m quite happy with Vimium C for keyboard-based browsing. It provides a sufficiently good set of Vim keybindings* and highlights all clickable elements when you press 'f', not just ones.

Firefox: https://addons.mozilla.org/ko/firefox/addon/vimium-c/

Chrome: https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/vimium-c-all-by-key...

* not exactly the same with Vim

Re: A small change to improve browsers for keyboard navigation

#10

Post by h43z » Mon, Aug 25, 2025, 2:35 PM UTC

vunderba wrote: post #7

On a related note, highly recommend the Firefox Vimium extension if you're a "keyboard warrior". https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/vimium-ff

I used to use vimium (and tried similar extensions) but it always scared me how big the codebase was for most of the popular extensions. In the end I came up with a tiny extension for just the things I need https://github.com/h43z/jkscroll