Join the AMA (Ask Me Anything) with the Firefox leadership team to celebrate Firefox 20th anniversary and discuss Firefox’s future on Mozilla Connect. Mark your calendar on Thursday, November 14, 18:00 - 20:00 UTC!

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

is it possible for cmd+f ("Find" command) to use already selected text? (OSX)

more options

Subj. Essentially i want to find next occurrence of text on the page. Now i need to do cmd+c (copy), cmd+f (find), cmd+v (paste), cmd+g (find next), while it should be (at least some possibility) to do just cmd+f and cmd+g

Subj. Essentially i want to find next occurrence of text on the page. Now i need to do cmd+c (copy), cmd+f (find), cmd+v (paste), cmd+g (find next), while it should be (at least some possibility) to do just cmd+f and cmd+g

Modified by alexey.orlov

Chosen solution

Hmm, on Windows, it does work that way, so I would expect it to be the same on Mac. Mostly.

If Command+f doesn't do that, could you try Command+e instead? Does that behave as expected?

Read this answer in context 👍 13

All Replies (4)

more options

Chosen Solution

Hmm, on Windows, it does work that way, so I would expect it to be the same on Mac. Mostly.

If Command+f doesn't do that, could you try Command+e instead? Does that behave as expected?

more options

That is how it works on Linux as well. When text is selected and I press Ctrl+F then the selected text is copied to the find field of the Find bar. It doesn't matter whether to bar is already showing or hidden.

Doesn't Command+G bring you to the next occurrence of the text that shows in the Find bar?


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

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

>> on Windows, it does work that way, so I would expect it to be the same on Mac.

yeah, my bad for not specifying that it was osx upfront.

>>If Command+f doesn't do that, could you try Command+e instead? YES! though it doesnt show find bar, otherwise works as advertised. Thanks

more options

The inconsistency is strange, but I don't have a Mac to experiment with so someone else hopefully will look into it.