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How do I get through forms without using my mouse?

  • 4 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 14 views
  • Last reply by julieju

julieju
julieju

On a web form (like a survey), I used to be able to tab to the "submit" button, hit enter, and the page would submit. That stopped working sometime in the past 2 months, probably with a Firefox update.

I need to have people do a series of short surveys, one typed answer per page. (They need to be structured that way for some timing that we are doing.) Previously, people could type their answer, tab to "next" and hit return, which would load the next page. That seems to have stopped working, and I can't figure out a way to get to the next page without using the mouse. Going back and forth between typing and clicking is super annoying and will slow people down, making our timing measurements much less accurate. How can I get this functionality back?

On a web form (like a survey), I used to be able to tab to the "submit" button, hit enter, and the page would submit. That stopped working sometime in the past 2 months, probably with a Firefox update. I need to have people do a series of short surveys, one typed answer per page. (They need to be structured that way for some timing that we are doing.) Previously, people could type their answer, tab to "next" and hit return, which would load the next page. That seems to have stopped working, and I can't figure out a way to get to the next page without using the mouse. Going back and forth between typing and clicking is super annoying and will slow people down, making our timing measurements much less accurate. How can I get this functionality back?

Chosen solution

Seems to work for me. I made this quick form with Google Drive: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1b493Op_imKXg8Q_GNMmRquuvCutZzyQ0RuQbgKRPD6A/viewform?usp=send_form Can you give an example of what form isn't working?

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All Replies (4)

tom01
tom01

Chosen Solution

Seems to work for me. I made this quick form with Google Drive: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1b493Op_imKXg8Q_GNMmRquuvCutZzyQ0RuQbgKRPD6A/viewform?usp=send_form Can you give an example of what form isn't working?

the-edmeister
the-edmeister
  • Moderator

julieju,

You posted here using a Mac. Does this problem affect only your computer or Windows PC's, too?

I'm not seeing that on my WinXP PC. I am still able to Tab thru a form and once the "form" is completed the Submit button still had focus and was clickable to submit the form - at least on my online auto insurance website that I used the other day.

cor-el
cor-el
  • Moderator

Both Space and Enter/Return should work to submit the form once if this button has focus.

Can you confirm that the button gets focus and shows a focus ring when you press the Tab key?

Start Firefox in Safe Mode to check if one of the extensions (Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Extensions) or if hardware acceleration is causing the problem.

  • Switch to the DEFAULT theme: Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Appearance
  • Do NOT click the Reset button on the Safe Mode start window

Note that on Mac you may have to check the “Full Keyboard Access” or modify the accessibility.tabfocus pref in order to tab through.

See

Note: In OS X (as of 2005-01), if this preference is not explicitly set, the “Full Keyboard Access” setting in System Preferences will be honored. All builds before that date (e.g., Firefox 1.0.x) will ignore that setting. This pref doesn't exist by default, so if you want to use it instead of the system settings then you need to create a new Integer pref with the name accessibility.tabfocus and set the value to what you want (7 is to tab through all the fields). I assume that this still applies to current Mac OS X versions.

julieju
julieju Question owner

Thanks for the replies. (Sorry about my delay - shouldn't have posted on a Friday afternoon when I wouldn't have child-free time all weekend.)

It looks like the problem is probably within the survey tool I'm using (Qualtrics), rather than a global Firefox problem. (Tom, your survey worked perfectly for me with the enter key.)

This is really helpful, so I will pursue it within Qualtrics specifically. It may be a setting I can change there, or else I will ask their help desk whether something weird is going on. It used to work that I could tab until the "next" button would get focus, then hit enter and it would submit. Now the focus stays on the button but nothing happens. I'll pursue with Qualtrics what changed.

Thanks for these very helpful responses!